apache/beam · error · RuntimeError

Unexpected value for minimum_importance argument: %r

Error message

Unexpected value for minimum_importance argument: %r

What it means

RuntimeError from DataflowApplicationClient.list_messages when minimum_importance is provided but does not match any recognized JobMessageImportance enum value. Only JOB_MESSAGE_WARNING and JOB_MESSAGE_ERROR (and the accepted defaults like JOB_MESSAGE_BASIC/DETAILED handled earlier) are mapped onto the API request. Any other string fails before the API call.

Solutions

Use an exact Dataflow enum string, e.g. 'JOB_MESSAGE_WARNING' or 'JOB_MESSAGE_ERROR'.
Use dataflow.JobMessageImportance enum members from the generated client rather than raw strings.
Print accepted values and compare before calling: check the if/elif mapping in list_messages.

Example fix

// before
client.list_messages(job_id, minimum_importance='warning')
// after
client.list_messages(job_id, minimum_importance='JOB_MESSAGE_WARNING')

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

VALID = {'JOB_MESSAGE_WARNING', 'JOB_MESSAGE_ERROR'}
if minimum_importance not in VALID:
    raise ValueError(f'minimum_importance must be one of {sorted(VALID)}, got {minimum_importance!r}')

Type guard

def is_valid_importance(v) -> bool:
    return isinstance(v, str) and v in {'JOB_MESSAGE_WARNING', 'JOB_MESSAGE_ERROR'}

Try / catch

try:
    msgs, token = client.list_messages(job_id, minimum_importance=level)
except RuntimeError as e:
    if 'minimum_importance' in str(e):
        level = 'JOB_MESSAGE_ERROR'
        msgs, token = client.list_messages(job_id, minimum_importance=level)

Prevention

Copy enum values directly from the generated dataflow client, never by hand.
Write the importance level as a module-level constant.
Add a unit test covering the exact string values.

When it happens

Trigger: Calling list_messages(job_id, minimum_importance=<value>) with a misspelled or non-enum string such as 'WARNING', 'error', or an arbitrary object, where the if/elif chain doesn't match.

Common situations: Typo'd importance level in monitoring scripts; passing a lowercase variant; using an enum constant from a different library.

Understand the failure class

Background: Invalid enum value errors: "Unknown type", "Invalid scope", "must be one of" — when a string is not on the library's allowed list — this error's family across 23 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of apache/beam@12126d8942 (2026-09-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/71bb8623b361ebf9. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at sdks/python/apache_beam/runners/dataflow/internal/apiclient.py:1073

      request.end_time = end_time
    if minimum_importance is not None:
      if minimum_importance == 'JOB_MESSAGE_DEBUG':
        request.minimum_importance = (
            dataflow.JobMessageImportance.JOB_MESSAGE_DEBUG)
      elif minimum_importance == 'JOB_MESSAGE_DETAILED':
        request.minimum_importance = (
            dataflow.JobMessageImportance.JOB_MESSAGE_DETAILED)
      elif minimum_importance == 'JOB_MESSAGE_BASIC':
        request.minimum_importance = (
            dataflow.JobMessageImportance.JOB_MESSAGE_BASIC)
      elif minimum_importance == 'JOB_MESSAGE_WARNING':
        request.minimum_importance = (
            dataflow.JobMessageImportance.JOB_MESSAGE_WARNING)
      elif minimum_importance == 'JOB_MESSAGE_ERROR':
        request.minimum_importance = (
            dataflow.JobMessageImportance.JOB_MESSAGE_ERROR)
      else:
        raise RuntimeError(
            'Unexpected value for minimum_importance argument: %r' %
            minimum_importance)
    response = self._messages_client.list_job_messages(request=request)
    return response.job_messages, response.next_page_token

  def job_id_for_name(self, job_name):
    token = None
    while True:
      request = dataflow.ListJobsRequest(
          project_id=self.google_cloud_options.project,
          location=self.google_cloud_options.region,
          page_token=token)
      response = self._jobs_client.list_jobs(request)
      for job in response:
        if (job.name == job_name and
            job.current_state in [dataflow.JobState.JOB_STATE_RUNNING,
                                  dataflow.JobState.JOB_STATE_DRAINING]):
          return job.id

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