argoproj/argo-workflows · error

--watch cannot be combined with --dry-run

Error message

--watch cannot be combined with --dry-run

What it means

--dry-run renders the workflow without running it, so there is nothing to watch; --watch tracks a live run. validateOptions in cmd/argo/commands/submit.go rejects --watch with --dry-run before any API call.

Source

Thrown at cmd/argo/commands/submit.go:145

	var workflows []wfv1.Workflow
	for _, body := range fileContents {
		wfs := unmarshalWorkflows(ctx, body, cliOpts.Strict)
		workflows = append(workflows, wfs...)
	}

	return submitWorkflows(ctx, serviceClient, namespace, workflows, submitOpts, cliOpts)
}

func validateOptions(workflows []wfv1.Workflow, submitOpts *wfv1.SubmitOpts, cliOpts *common.CliSubmitOpts) error {
	if cliOpts.Watch {
		if len(workflows) > 1 {
			return errors.New("cannot watch more than one workflow")
		}
		if cliOpts.Wait {
			return errors.New("--wait cannot be combined with --watch")
		}
		if submitOpts.DryRun {
			return errors.New("--watch cannot be combined with --dry-run")
		}
		if submitOpts.ServerDryRun {
			return errors.New("--watch cannot be combined with --server-dry-run")
		}
	}

	if cliOpts.Wait {
		if submitOpts.DryRun {
			return errors.New("--wait cannot be combined with --dry-run")
		}
		if submitOpts.ServerDryRun {
			return errors.New("--wait cannot be combined with --server-dry-run")
		}
	}

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

View on GitHub (pinned to 35bff19146)

Solutions

1. Remove --watch when using --dry-run
2. Use --dry-run alone to print the rendered workflow
3. Use --server-dry-run alone (without --watch) to validate against the API server

Example fix

// before
argo submit my-wf.yaml --dry-run --watch
// after
argo submit my-wf.yaml --dry-run

if [ -n "$DRY_RUN" ] && echo "$FLAGS" | grep -q -- '--watch'; then
  echo "--watch cannot be combined with --dry-run" >&2; exit 2
fi

When it happens

Trigger: `argo submit my-wf.yaml --dry-run --watch`; also --dry-run combined with --watch in scripts that unconditionally add --watch.

Common situations: Validating generated manifests while habitually passing --watch; testing submit flags incrementally.

Understand the failure class

Background: "mutually exclusive" flag errors: what "can't supply both nx and xx", "--raw is not compatible with -i" and "cannot be used with" mean, and how to fix them — this error's family across 29 libraries.

Related errors

• --watch cannot be combined with --server-dry-run
• --wait cannot be combined with --dry-run
• cannot combine --from with file arguments
• cannot watch more than one workflow
• --wait cannot be combined with --watch

AI-assisted analysis of argoproj/argo-workflows@35bff19146 (2026-09-03). Data as JSON: /api/errors/43ad79e5c364eaee. Report an issue: GitHub.