argoproj/argo-workflows · error

unknown kind: %s

Error message

unknown kind: %s

What it means

getLintClients builds the API service clients for each kind passed to `argo lint --kinds`. Only workflow, workflowtemplate, cronworkflow, clusterworkflowtemplate (and empty/all) are recognized; anything else returns `unknown kind: %s`. It is an allowlist check before any linting starts.

Source

Thrown at cmd/argo/lint/lint.go:312

			res.WorkflowTemplatesClient, err = client.NewWorkflowTemplateServiceClient()
			if err != nil {
				return ServiceClients{}, err
			}

		case wf.CronWorkflowPlural, wf.CronWorkflowShortName:
			res.CronWorkflowsClient, err = client.NewCronWorkflowServiceClient()
			if err != nil {
				return ServiceClients{}, err
			}

		case wf.ClusterWorkflowTemplatePlural, wf.ClusterWorkflowTemplateShortName:
			res.ClusterWorkflowTemplateClient, err = client.NewClusterWorkflowTemplateServiceClient()
			if err != nil {
				return ServiceClients{}, err
			}

		default:
			return res, fmt.Errorf("unknown kind: %s", kind)
		}
	}

	return res, nil
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 35bff19146)

Solutions

1. Use only supported kinds: workflow, workflowtemplate, cronworkflow, clusterworkflowtemplate (comma-separated or omitted to lint all known kinds).
2. Fix typos in the --kinds value; check `argo lint --help`.
3. Upgrade the argo CLI if linting kinds introduced in newer versions.

Example fix

// before
argo lint --kinds deployment ./manifests
// after
argo lint --kinds workflow,workflowtemplate ./manifests

kinds := []string{"workflow","workflowtemplate","cronworkflow","clusterworkflowtemplate"}
for _, k := range requested { if !slices.Contains(kinds, k) { return fmt.Errorf("unsupported kind %q", k) } }

clients, err := getLintClients(ctx, client, kinds)
if err != nil { return fmt.Errorf("argo lint kinds must be workflow|workflowtemplate|cronworkflow|clusterworkflowtemplate: %w", err) }

When it happens

Trigger: `argo lint --kinds pod my-file.yaml` or `--kinds workfloo` (typo); scripts passing a kind name valid in kubectl but not in argo (e.g. `deployment`); older CLI versions missing a kind added later (e.g. clusterworkflowtemplate).

Common situations: Users assuming argo lint validates arbitrary Kubernetes manifests; copy-pasted --kinds values from other tooling; version mismatch where a newer kind name is used with an old argo binary.

Understand the failure class

Background: "unknown output mode", "invalid value for flag", "expects true/false": fixing invalid flag value errors in CLI tools — this error's family across 24 libraries.

Related errors

• unknown formatter: %s
• unknown output mode: %s
• requires either selector or workflow
• Multiple archived workflows found with name '%s': %s (Crea
• --client-certificate and --client-key must be provided toget

AI-assisted analysis of argoproj/argo-workflows@35bff19146 (2026-09-03). Data as JSON: /api/errors/a6fdc8dfbddb5b5f. Report an issue: GitHub.