resource identifier '%s' is malformed. Should be `kind/name`

Error message

resource identifier '%s' is malformed. Should be `kind/name`, e.g. cronwf/hello-world-cwf

What it means

When submitting from an existing resource (`argo submit --from kind/name`), submitWorkflowFromResource splits the identifier on '/' with SplitN(..., 2) and requires exactly two parts: kind and name. A value without a slash or an empty segment fails with this error before any object is fetched.

Source

Thrown at cmd/argo/commands/submit.go:181

			return errors.New("--dry-run should have an output option")
		}
		if submitOpts.ServerDryRun {
			return errors.New("--dry-run cannot be combined with --server-dry-run")
		}
	}

	if submitOpts.ServerDryRun {
		if cliOpts.Output.String() == "" {
			return errors.New("--server-dry-run should have an output option")
		}
	}
	return nil
}

func submitWorkflowFromResource(ctx context.Context, serviceClient workflowpkg.WorkflowServiceClient, namespace string, resourceIdentifier string, submitOpts *wfv1.SubmitOpts, cliOpts *common.CliSubmitOpts) error {
	parts := strings.SplitN(resourceIdentifier, "/", 2)
	if len(parts) != 2 {
		return fmt.Errorf("resource identifier '%s' is malformed. Should be `kind/name`, e.g. cronwf/hello-world-cwf", resourceIdentifier)
	}
	kind := parts[0]
	name := parts[1]

	tempwf := wfv1.Workflow{}

	if err := validateOptions([]wfv1.Workflow{tempwf}, submitOpts, cliOpts); err != nil {
		return err
	}
	if cliOpts.ScheduledTime != "" {
		_, err := time.Parse(time.RFC3339, cliOpts.ScheduledTime)
		if err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("scheduled-time contains invalid time.RFC3339 format. (e.g.: `2006-01-02T15:04:05-07:00`)")
		}
		submitOpts.Annotations = fmt.Sprintf("%s=%s", wfcommon.AnnotationKeyCronWfScheduledTime, cliOpts.ScheduledTime)
	}

	created, err := serviceClient.SubmitWorkflow(ctx, &workflowpkg.WorkflowSubmitRequest{

View on GitHub (pinned to 35bff19146)

Solutions

Pass the identifier as kind/name, e.g. --from cronwf/hello-world-cwf.
Supported kinds include cronwf, cronworkflow, clusterworkflowtemplate, workflowtemplate, workflow (per the command docs).
Verify the shell variable holding the identifier expands to a non-empty kind and name.

Example fix

// before
argo submit --from cronwf -n argo
// after
argo submit --from cronwf/hello-world-cwf -n argo

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

id="cronwf/hello-world-cwf"
parts := strings.SplitN(id, "/", 2)
if len(parts) != 2 || parts[0] == "" || parts[1] == "" {
    return errors.New("--from must be kind/name, e.g. cronwf/hello-world-cwf")
}

Type guard

func isKindName(s string) bool {
	p := strings.SplitN(s, "/", 2)
	return len(p) == 2 && p[0] != "" && p[1] != ""
}

Try / catch

err := cmd.Run()
if err != nil && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "is malformed. Should be") {
    log.Fatal("pass --from kind/name")
}

Prevention

Always include both kind and name separated by '/'.
Check shell variables expand to non-empty values before building --from.
Use short kinds accepted by the CLI (cronwf, workflowtemplate, clusterworkflowtemplate, workflow).

When it happens

Trigger: Running e.g. `argo submit --from cronwf` (no '/name') or `--from 'cronwf/'` (empty name) or `--from '/hello-world-cwf'` (empty kind).

Common situations: Forgetting the name and passing only a kind; shell variables expanding to empty name; using fully-qualified kinds or namespace-qualified paths (ns/name/kind) that the parser doesn't accept.

Understand the failure class

Parsing and encoding errors: unexpected token, malformed input — why parsers reject input and how to find the real culprit.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of argoproj/argo-workflows@35bff19146 (2026-09-03). Data as JSON: /api/errors/6360ceb7a1fdae8f. Report an issue: GitHub.