argoproj/argo-workflows · error

ArtifactGCStrategy %q not valid

Error message

ArtifactGCStrategy %q not valid

What it means

artGCPodName maps an ArtifactGCStrategy to an abbreviation used in the GC pod name. Only OnWorkflowCompletion and OnWorkflowDeletion are valid; any other strategy value (including Undefined/empty) returns this error at workflow/controller/artifact_gc.go:267.

Source

Thrown at workflow/controller/artifact_gc.go:267

		_, _ = h.Write([]byte(label))
		_, _ = h.Write([]byte(labelValue))
	}

	sortedAnnotations := slices.Sorted(maps.Keys(info.podMetadata.Annotations))
	for _, annotation := range sortedAnnotations {
		annotationValue := info.podMetadata.Annotations[annotation]
		_, _ = h.Write([]byte(annotation))
		_, _ = h.Write([]byte(annotationValue))
	}

	var abbreviatedName string
	switch strategy {
	case wfv1.ArtifactGCOnWorkflowCompletion:
		abbreviatedName = "wfcomp"
	case wfv1.ArtifactGCOnWorkflowDeletion:
		abbreviatedName = "wfdel"
	default:
		return "", fmt.Errorf("ArtifactGCStrategy %q not valid", strategy)
	}

	return fmt.Sprintf("%s-artgc-%s-%v", woc.wf.Name, abbreviatedName, h.Sum32()), nil
}

func (woc *wfOperationCtx) artGCTaskName(podName string, taskIndex int) string {
	return fmt.Sprintf("%s-%d", podName, taskIndex)
}

func (woc *wfOperationCtx) artifactGCPodLabel(podName string) string {
	hashedPod := fnv.New32a()
	_, _ = hashedPod.Write([]byte(podName))
	return fmt.Sprintf("%d", hashedPod.Sum32())
}

func (woc *wfOperationCtx) addTemplateArtifactsToTasks(ctx context.Context, podName string, tasks *[]*wfv1.WorkflowArtifactGCTask, template *wfv1.Template, artifactSearchResults wfv1.ArtifactSearchResults) {
	if len(artifactSearchResults) == 0 {
		return

View on GitHub (pinned to 35bff19146)

Solutions

1. Fix the strategy value in the workflow spec: valid values are OnWorkflowCompletion and OnWorkflowDeletion under spec.artifactGC.strategies.
2. Validate the workflow with argo lint before submitting to catch invalid strategy strings.
3. Set a workflow-level default strategy (spec.artifactGC) so artifact-level lookups never resolve to Undefined.
4. Check that the strategy never falls through to wfv1.ArtifactGCStrategyUndefined in your artifact annotations.

Example fix

// before
artifactGC:
  strategies:
    onCompletion: OnCompletion   # invalid value
// after
artifactGC:
  strategy: OnWorkflowCompletion  # valid: OnWorkflowCompletion | OnWorkflowDeletion

strategy := wfv1.ArtifactGCStrategy("OnWorkflowCompletion") // validate before submit
if strategy != wfv1.ArtifactGCOnWorkflowCompletion && strategy != wfv1.ArtifactGCOnWorkflowDeletion {
    return fmt.Errorf("invalid strategy %q", strategy)
}
// or simply: argo lint workflow.yaml

func validGCStrategy(s wfv1.ArtifactGCStrategy) bool {
    return s == wfv1.ArtifactGCOnWorkflowCompletion || s == wfv1.ArtifactGCOnWorkflowDeletion
}

if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "not valid") { /* fix strategy string in spec and resubmit */ }

When it happens

Trigger: An artifact's getArtifactGCStrategy resolves to a value outside the two valid strategies — e.g. an unset/empty strategy string, a typo'd strategy in YAML, or artifact-level strategies combined with workflow-level spec.artifactGC in a way that yields Undefined.

Common situations: Misspelling the strategy in YAML (e.g. strategy: OnCompletion instead of OnWorkflowCompletion); submitting a workflow where neither workflow-level nor artifact-level strategy is set but GC is somehow invoked; CRD schema changes between Argo versions.

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

• failure to create dynamic client: %w
• executor plugin metadata name is mandatory
• clientSecret empty
• failed to validate workflow template instanceid: %w
• malformed workflow template parameter "%s": valueFrom is nil

AI-assisted analysis of argoproj/argo-workflows@35bff19146 (2026-09-03). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d330ed4b282595f3. Report an issue: GitHub.