argoproj/argo-workflows · error

unknown output format: %s

Error message

unknown output format: %s

What it means

printWorkflow hit its default switch branch: the -o/--output value for argo get is not one of name, json, yaml, wide, short. Because output is a free-form flag here, the default case catches typos and unsupported formats.

Source

Thrown at cmd/argo/commands/get.go:79

	command.Flags().StringVar(&getArgs.Status, "status", "", "Filter by status (Pending, Running, Succeeded, Skipped, Failed, Error)")
	command.Flags().StringVar(&getArgs.NodeFieldSelectorString, "node-field-selector", "", "selector of node to display, eg: --node-field-selector phase=abc")
	return command
}

func printWorkflow(wf *wfv1.Workflow, getArgs common.GetFlags) error {
	switch getArgs.Output.String() {
	case "name":
		fmt.Println(wf.Name)
	case "json":
		outBytes, _ := json.MarshalIndent(wf, "", "    ")
		fmt.Println(string(outBytes))
	case "yaml":
		outBytes, _ := yaml.Marshal(wf)
		fmt.Print(string(outBytes))
	case "short", "wide", "":
		fmt.Print(common.PrintWorkflowHelper(wf, getArgs))
	default:
		return fmt.Errorf("unknown output format: %s", getArgs.Output)
	}
	return nil
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 35bff19146)

Solutions

1. Use a supported --output value: name, json, yaml, wide, or short

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at cmd/argo/commands/get.go:79 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of argoproj/argo-workflows@35bff19146 (2026-09-03). Data as JSON: /api/errors/c24f1d01dfca1eaa. Report an issue: GitHub.