argoproj/argo-workflows · error

resolve UID: %w

Error message

resolve UID: %w

What it means

Thrown by `argo archive retry` (retryArchivedWorkflows) when `resolveUID` cannot resolve a CLI argument to a unique archived-workflow UID before building the Workflow for retry. The wrapped cause after the prefix identifies the real failure (list error, not found, or multiple matches).

Source

Thrown at cmd/argo/commands/archive/retry.go:142

func retryArchivedWorkflows(ctx context.Context, archiveServiceClient workflowarchivepkg.ArchivedWorkflowServiceClient, serviceClient workflowpkg.WorkflowServiceClient, retryOpts retryOps, cliSubmitOpts common.CliSubmitOpts, args []string) error {
	selector, err := fields.ParseSelector(retryOpts.nodeFieldSelector)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("unable to parse node field selector '%s': %w", retryOpts.nodeFieldSelector, err)
	}
	var wfs wfv1.Workflows
	if retryOpts.hasSelector() {
		wfs, err = listArchivedWorkflows(ctx, archiveServiceClient, retryOpts.fieldSelector, retryOpts.labelSelector, 0)
		if err != nil {
			return err
		}
	}

	// Add workflows from args - auto-detect UID vs NAME
	for _, identifier := range args {
		var uid string
		uid, err = resolveUID(ctx, archiveServiceClient, identifier, retryOpts.namespace, retryOpts.forceUID, retryOpts.forceName)
		if err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("resolve UID: %w", err)
		}
		wf := wfv1.Workflow{
			ObjectMeta: metav1.ObjectMeta{
				Namespace: retryOpts.namespace,
				UID:       types.UID(uid),
			},
		}
		wfs = append(wfs, wf)
	}

	var lastRetried *wfv1.Workflow
	retriedIdentifiers := make(map[string]bool)
	for _, wf := range wfs {
		// Use UID if available, otherwise use namespace/name for deduplication
		var identifier string
		if wf.UID != "" {
			identifier = "uid:" + string(wf.UID)
		} else {

View on GitHub (pinned to 35bff19146)

Solutions

1. Use the full workflow UID (from `argo archive list`) instead of the name.
2. Set the correct -n namespace for the archived workflow.
3. Resolve ambiguity by picking the exact UID of the run you want to retry.
4. If the cause is a server error, verify argo server connectivity and that the archive database is healthy.

Example fix

// before
argo archive retry nightly-job

// after
argo archive retry e1234567-89ab-cdef-0123-456789abcdef

res, _ := archiveClient.ListArchivedWorkflows(ctx, &workflowarchivepkg.ListArchivedWorkflowRequest{
    ListOptions: &metav1.ListOptions{FieldSelector: "metadata.name=" + identifier},
})
if len(res.Items) != 1 {
    return fmt.Errorf("expected exactly 1 archived workflow for %q, got %d", identifier, len(res.Items))
}
uid := string(res.Items[0].UID)

if err := retryArchivedWorkflows(...); err != nil {
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "resolve UID:") {
        // prompt for/lookup the exact UID and retry once
    }
    return err
}

When it happens

Trigger: `argo archive retry <identifier>` where the identifier matches no archived workflow, matches several, or ListArchivedWorkflows inside resolveUID fails.

Common situations: Retrying by name when the archive holds multiple runs with the same name; wrong namespace; using an ID that is neither a UID nor an exact name without --force-uid/--force-name.

Understand the failure class

Background: 'Could not be found', 'does not exist', 'not found in database': the resource-not-found family when an ID, slug, key, or URI lookup comes back empty — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

• resolve UID: %w
• resolve UID: %w
• resolve UID: %w
• archived workflow '%s' not found
• requires either selector or workflow

AI-assisted analysis of argoproj/argo-workflows@35bff19146 (2026-09-03). Data as JSON: /api/errors/f0cc4f7664a75743. Report an issue: GitHub.