apache/seatunnel · error · IllegalArgumentException

Dry-run is only supported via CLI

Error message

Dry-run is only supported via CLI

What it means

The REST submitJob endpoint explicitly rejects the dryRun parameter because dry-run execution is only implemented in the CLI (client-side local run). Passing ?dryRun=... to the REST API throws IllegalArgumentException before any validation of the rest of the request.

Source

Thrown at seatunnel-engine/seatunnel-engine-server/src/main/java/org/apache/seatunnel/engine/server/rest/service/JobInfoService.java:390

        JsonArray jsonResponse = new JsonArray();
        List<Map> jobList = JsonUtils.toList(requestHandle(requestBody).toString(), Map.class);

        jobList.forEach(
                job -> {
                    handleStopJob(job, getSeaTunnelServer(false), nodeEngine.getNode());
                    jsonResponse.add(
                            new JsonObject()
                                    .add(RestConstant.JOB_ID, (Long) job.get(RestConstant.JOB_ID)));
                });

        return jsonResponse;
    }

    public JsonObject submitJob(Map<String, String> requestParams, byte[] requestBody) {

        if (requestParams.containsKey(RestConstant.DRY_RUN)
                && requestParams.get(RestConstant.DRY_RUN) != null) {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("Dry-run is only supported via CLI");
        }
        if (Boolean.parseBoolean(requestParams.get(RestConstant.IS_START_WITH_SAVE_POINT))
                && requestParams.get(RestConstant.JOB_ID) == null) {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("Please provide jobId when start with save point.");
        }
        validateCheckpointRestoreRequest(requestParams);
        Config config;
        ConfigFormat configFormat = ConfigFormat.fromString(requestParams.get(CONFIG_FORMAT));

        switch (configFormat) {
            case HOCON:
                config = ConfigFactory.parseString(new String(requestBody, StandardCharsets.UTF_8));
                break;
            case SQL:
                config = SqlConfigBuilder.of(new String(requestBody, StandardCharsets.UTF_8));
                break;
            case JSON:
            default:

View on GitHub (pinned to cf67b549a7)

Solutions

1. Remove the dryRun parameter from the REST request
2. Use the CLI for dry runs: sh bin/seatunnel.sh --config <config> -m local -e run --dry-run
3. Implement validation-only checks client-side (config parsing) instead of relying on REST dry-run

Example fix

// before
POST /submit-job?dryRun=true
// after
POST /submit-job   // or use CLI: seatunnel.sh --dry-run

if ('dryRun' in params || 'DRY_RUN' in params) throw new Error('use CLI for dry-run, not REST');

try {
    await post('/submit-job?...', body);
} catch (e) {
    if (String(e).includes('Dry-run is only supported via CLI')) {
        // strip dryRun param or switch to CLI
    }
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling POST /submit-job?dryRun=true (or any non-null dryRun value) on the Zeta REST API.

Common situations: Reusing CLI flags in REST calls; automated tools adding dryRun universally; docs/code examples mixing CLI and REST submission.

Understand the failure class

Background: UnsupportedOperationException and "is not supported" errors: when a library deliberately refuses a call — this error's family across 30 libraries.

Related errors

• Unsupported plugin type: ${pluginType}
• A decoding format must override this method to apply metadat
• Unsupported convert %s to %s
• Unsupported convert ${value.getClass()} to Float, typeDefine
• Unsupported convert ${value.getClass()} to Float

AI-assisted analysis of apache/seatunnel@cf67b549a7 (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/35451df26b346b23. Report an issue: GitHub.