apache/pulsar · error · ParameterException

Must specify type of topic to be created. Possible values: (

Error message

Must specify type of topic to be created. Possible values: (partitioned, non-partitioned)

What it means

Thrown when --enable is set but the --type value is not one of the accepted TopicType names (partitioned, non-partitioned). TopicType.isValidTopicType(type) fails, so the CLI rejects the auto-topic-creation override rather than sending an invalid type to the broker.

Source

Thrown at pulsar-client-tools/src/main/java/org/apache/pulsar/admin/cli/CmdNamespaces.java:657

        @Option(names = { "--type", "-t" }, description = "Type of topic to be auto-created. "
                + "Possible values: (partitioned, non-partitioned). Default value: non-partitioned")
        private String type = "non-partitioned";

        @Option(names = { "--num-partitions", "-n" }, description = "Default number of partitions of topic to "
                + "be auto-created, applicable to partitioned topics only", required = false)
        private Integer defaultNumPartitions = null;

        @Override
        void run() throws PulsarAdminException {
            String namespace = validateNamespace(namespaceName);
            type = type.toLowerCase().trim();

            if (enable == disable) {
                throw new ParameterException("Need to specify either --enable or --disable");
            }
            if (enable) {
                if (!TopicType.isValidTopicType(type)) {
                    throw new ParameterException("Must specify type of topic to be created. "
                            + "Possible values: (partitioned, non-partitioned)");
                }

                if (TopicType.PARTITIONED.toString().equals(type)
                        && (defaultNumPartitions == null || defaultNumPartitions <= 0)) {
                    throw new ParameterException("Must specify num-partitions or num-partitions > 0 "
                            + "for partitioned topic type.");
                }
            }
            getAdmin().namespaces().setAutoTopicCreation(namespace,
                    AutoTopicCreationOverride.builder()
                            .allowAutoTopicCreation(enable)
                            .topicType(type)
                            .defaultNumPartitions(defaultNumPartitions)
                            .build());
        }
    }

View on GitHub (pinned to 820761864e)

Solutions

1. Pass --type partitioned or --type non-partitioned (lowercase) whenever --enable is used
2. Fix spelling/casing of the type value
3. If disabling auto topic creation, --type is not needed; only pass it when enabling
4. Set --default-num-partitions too when type is partitioned (see error 869)

Example fix

// before
pulsar-admin namespaces set-auto-topic-creation t/ns --enable --type Partitioned
// after
pulsar-admin namespaces set-auto-topic-creation t/ns --enable --type partitioned --default-num-partitions 4

if [ "$ENABLE" = true ]; then
  case "$TYPE" in partitioned|non-partitioned) ;; *) echo "--type must be partitioned or non-partitioned"; exit 1;; esac
fi

// Java
boolean isValidTopicType(String t) {
    return "partitioned".equals(t) || "non-partitioned".equals(t);
}

try { ... } catch (ParameterException e) { /* bad topic type: use partitioned|non-partitioned */ }

When it happens

Trigger: Running `set-auto-topic-creation --enable` with --type omitted (null/empty), misspelled ('partitoned'), wrong case ('Partitioned'), or a value like 'schema-ful' that is not a TopicType.

Common situations: Forgetting --type because it feels implied by --enable; using topic-domain names (persistent / non-persistent) instead of TopicType names; case issues from variable interpolation.

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

• Must specify num-partitions or num-partitions > 0 for partit
• Need to provide a persistent topic name
• Need to provide a non-persistent topic name
• Invalid message id (must be in format: ledgerId:entryId) val
• unable to parse namespaces parameter list:

AI-assisted analysis of apache/pulsar@820761864e (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/f4caf523e327551a. Report an issue: GitHub.