argoproj/argo-workflows · error

list archived workflows: %w

Error message

list archived workflows: %w

What it means

Inside resolveUID (cmd/argo/commands/archive/util.go), when a name-based lookup issues ListArchivedWorkflows and that RPC fails, the error is wrapped as 'list archived workflows: %w'. This first occurrence (line 44) is the initial page of the paginated name-prefix listing.

Source

Thrown at cmd/argo/commands/archive/util.go:44

		return false
	}
	return uuidRegex.MatchString(s)
}

func resolveUID(ctx context.Context, serviceClient workflowarchivepkg.ArchivedWorkflowServiceClient, identifier string, namespace string, forceUID bool, forceName bool) (string, error) {
	if isUID(identifier, forceUID, forceName) {
		return identifier, nil
	}

	req := &workflowarchivepkg.ListArchivedWorkflowsRequest{
		Namespace:  namespace,
		NamePrefix: identifier,
		NameFilter: "Exact",
	}

	resp, err := serviceClient.ListArchivedWorkflows(ctx, req)
	if err != nil {
		return "", fmt.Errorf("list archived workflows: %w", err)
	}

	matches := resp.Items
	for len(matches) < 2 && resp.Continue != "" {
		req.ListOptions = &metav1.ListOptions{Continue: resp.Continue}
		resp, err = serviceClient.ListArchivedWorkflows(ctx, req)
		if err != nil {
			return "", fmt.Errorf("list archived workflows: %w", err)
		}
		matches = append(matches, resp.Items...)
	}

	if len(matches) == 0 {
		return "", fmt.Errorf("archived workflow '%s' not found", identifier)
	}

	if len(matches) > 1 {
		var msg strings.Builder

View on GitHub (pinned to 35bff19146)

Solutions

1. Inspect the wrapped cause: connection errors point at server address/connectivity; permission errors at RBAC/SSO.
2. Verify `argo archive list` works at all — if it also fails, fix server connectivity or auth first.
3. Check the archive database (Postgres/MySQL) is up and persistence config enables archival.
4. Retry if the cause was transient network failure; the CLI does not retry automatically.

Example fix

// before
argo archive delete my-wf   // wrapped: list archived workflows: rpc error: ...

// after
# fix server address/auth first
export ARGO_SERVER=my-argo.example.com
export ARGO_TOKEN=<token>
argo archive delete my-wf

// pre-flight: server reachable and list works
_, err := archiveClient.ListArchivedWorkflows(ctx, &workflowarchivepkg.ListArchivedWorkflowRequest{
    ListOptions: &metav1.ListOptions{FieldSelector: "metadata.name=__ping__"},
})
if err != nil { return fmt.Errorf("argo server/archive unavailable: %w", err) }

var lastErr error
for i := 0; i < 3; i++ {
    if err := deleteArchived(ctx, identifier); err == nil { return nil }
    else if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "list archived workflows:") { lastErr = err; time.Sleep(time.Duration(1<<i) * time.Second); continue }
    return err
}
return lastErr

When it happens

Trigger: Any archive get/delete/retry/resubmit by workflow name where the argo server's ListArchivedWorkflows call returns an error — server unreachable, RBAC denial on the archive API, archive database down, or malformed ListOptions.

Common situations: argo server down or wrong --port/--argo-server address; SSO/token lacking clusterworkflowtemplate/archive read permissions; MySQL/Postgres backing the archive not accepting connections; network proxy dropping gRPC/WebSocket traffic.

Related errors

• resolve UID: %w
• resolve UID: %w
• resolve UID: %w
• resolve UID: %w
• archived workflow '%s' not found

AI-assisted analysis of argoproj/argo-workflows@35bff19146 (2026-09-03). Data as JSON: /api/errors/56914ce4b19b4f71. Report an issue: GitHub.