argoproj/argo-workflows · error

couldn't find workflow template %q in namespace %q

Error message

couldn't find workflow template %q in namespace %q

What it means

offlineWorkflowTemplateNamespacedGetter.Get is the in-memory stand-in for the WorkflowTemplate service. When a template referenced during lint/template resolution is not present in the store built from the given paths, Get returns this error naming the missing template and its namespace.

Source

Thrown at pkg/apiclient/offline-client.go:151

func (c *offlineClient) NewInfoServiceClient() (infopkg.InfoServiceClient, error) {
	return nil, ErrNoArgoServer
}

func (c *offlineClient) NewSyncServiceClient(_ context.Context) (syncpkg.SyncServiceClient, error) {
	return nil, ErrNoArgoServer
}

type offlineWorkflowTemplateNamespacedGetter struct {
	namespace         string
	workflowTemplates map[string]*wfv1.WorkflowTemplate
}

func (w offlineWorkflowTemplateNamespacedGetter) Get(_ context.Context, name string) (*wfv1.WorkflowTemplate, error) {
	if v, ok := w.workflowTemplates[name]; ok {
		return v, nil
	}
	return nil, fmt.Errorf("couldn't find workflow template %q in namespace %q", name, w.namespace)
}

type offlineClusterWorkflowTemplateGetter struct {
	clusterWorkflowTemplates map[string]*wfv1.ClusterWorkflowTemplate
}

func (o offlineClusterWorkflowTemplateGetter) Get(_ context.Context, name string) (*wfv1.ClusterWorkflowTemplate, error) {
	if v, ok := o.clusterWorkflowTemplates[name]; ok {
		return v, nil
	}

	return nil, fmt.Errorf("couldn't find cluster workflow template %q", name)
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 35bff19146)

Solutions

1. Pass the file/directory containing the referenced WorkflowTemplate to lint (e.g. `argo lint ./templates ./workflow.yaml`).
2. Fix the templateRef name/namespace typo so it matches the defined template.
3. Verify metadata.namespace on the template matches the namespace the workflow expects.

Example fix

// before
argo lint ./workflow.yaml
// after
argo lint ./manifests/  # includes the referenced WorkflowTemplate

// before linting, collect defined names:
defined := map[string]bool{} // ns/name from parsed WorkflowTemplate docs
// for each templateRef: if !defined[ns+"/"+ref.Name] { fail early }

err := lint(ctx, paths)
if err != nil && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "couldn't find workflow template") {
    // extract name/namespace from err and include that manifest in paths
    return fmt.Errorf("add the referenced template to lint paths: %w", err)
}

When it happens

Trigger: During `argo lint`, a workflow/templateRef points to a WorkflowTemplate name+namespace that was not defined in any of the files passed to the offline client.

Common situations: Linting only the workflow file but not the directory containing the referenced templates; typo in templateRef name; templateRef namespace not matching the template's namespace in the manifests; dependency defined in a file excluded by the path glob.

Related errors

• not supported when you are in offline mode
• duplicate ClusterWorkflowTemplate found: %q
• duplicate WorkflowTemplate found: %q
• couldn't find cluster workflow template %q
• failed to parse YAML from file %s: %w

AI-assisted analysis of argoproj/argo-workflows@35bff19146 (2026-09-03). Data as JSON: /api/errors/269f38c02b40c6b2. Report an issue: GitHub.