dbt-labs/dbt-core · error · minijinja::Error (InvalidOperation)

Package vars should be initialized for package: {package_nam

Error message

Package vars should be initialized for package: {package_name}

What it means

`ConfiguredVar::contains_var` resolves the package name and then requires an entry in the pre-initialized `vars` map for that package. This error is thrown when no package-vars map was initialized for the resolved package, meaning the caller never populated namespace vars before checking `var` existence. It's an initialization-contract error rather than a user-data problem.

Source

Thrown at crates/dbt-jinja-vars/src/configured_var.rs:70

                    .lookup(TARGET_PACKAGE_NAME, &[])
                    .and_then(|value| value.as_str().map(str::to_string))
            })
            .ok_or_else(|| {
                Error::new(
                    ErrorKind::InvalidOperation,
                    format!(
                        "'TARGET_PACKAGE_NAME' should be set. Missing in configured var context while looking up var: {var_name}"
                    ),
                )
            })
    }
}

impl VarFunction for ConfiguredVar {
    fn contains_var(&self, state: &State<'_, '_>, var_name: &str) -> Result<bool, Error> {
        let package_name = self.package_name(state, var_name)?;
        let vars_lookup = self.vars.get(&package_name).ok_or_else(|| {
            Error::new(
                ErrorKind::InvalidOperation,
                format!("Package vars should be initialized for package: {package_name}"),
            )
        })?;
        Ok(vars_lookup.contains_key(var_name))
    }

    fn call_as_function(
        &self,
        state: &State<'_, '_>,
        var_name: String,
        default_value: Option<Value>,
    ) -> Result<Value, Error> {
        // 1. CLI vars
        if let Some(value) = self.cli_vars.get(&var_name) {
            return Ok(cli_var_value_to_minijinja(value));
        }
        // 2. Check if this is dbt_project.yml parsing

View on GitHub (pinned to 0267ce9170)

Solutions

Initialize the vars map for every package (including empty maps) before evaluating templates that call var()/contains_var().
Verify the package name resolved from TARGET_PACKAGE_NAME matches a package you actually initialized vars for.
Check the vars-collection phase completed before the template evaluation.

Example fix

// before
let vars = HashMap::from([("root_pkg".to_string(), root_vars)]);
// after
let vars = HashMap::from([
    ("root_pkg".to_string(), root_vars),
    ("dep_pkg".to_string(), dep_vars), // ensure every package has an entry (possibly empty)
]);

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

// pre-check before evaluation
fn all_packages_initialized(vars: &HashMap<String, HashMap<String, Value>>, pkgs: &[String]) -> bool {
    pkgs.iter().all(|p| vars.contains_key(p))
}

Try / catch

match result {
    Err(e) if e.to_string().contains("Package vars should be initialized") => {
        // initialize vars map for the missing package and re-evaluate
    }
    other => other,
}

Prevention

Insert an (possibly empty) vars entry for every package during context construction.
Ensure var collection completes before template evaluation.
Validate that package names from TARGET_PACKAGE_NAME match registered keys.

When it happens

Trigger: Calling `contains_var(state, var_name)` (backing `var(...) is none` style checks) when `ConfiguredVar.vars` has no entry for the package resolved from TARGET_PACKAGE_NAME — e.g. a package with no vars ever registered.

Common situations: Cross-package var checks where the dependency package never had vars initialized; tooling that constructs ConfiguredVar with only the root package's vars; parse-time checks before vars collection completes.

Understand the failure class

Background: "This is a bug, please report it": internal invariant violations, unreachable panics, and SNH errors explained — this error's family across 47 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of dbt-labs/dbt-core@0267ce9170 (2026-09-07). Data as JSON: /api/errors/9d04f803ff2b3274. Report an issue: GitHub.