hashicorp/nomad · error

errMissingACLAuthMethodName

errMissingACLAuthMethodName

Error message

missing ACL auth-method name

What it means

errMissingACLAuthMethodName is a shared sentinel error used by ACLAuthMethods.Create, Update, Delete(?), and Get when the required auth-method Name is an empty string. Name is part of the request path (/v1/acl/auth-method/<name>), so the client rejects empty values before issuing the request.

Source

Thrown at api/acl.go:249

	var resp *OneTimeTokenExchangeResponse
	wm, err := a.client.put("/v1/acl/token/onetime/exchange", req, &resp, q)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, nil, err
	}
	if resp == nil {
		return nil, nil, errors.New("no ACL token returned")
	}
	return resp.Token, wm, nil
}

var (
	// errMissingACLRoleID is the generic errors to use when a call is missing
	// the required ACL Role ID parameter.
	errMissingACLRoleID = errors.New("missing ACL role ID")

	// errMissingACLAuthMethodName is the generic error to use when a call is
	// missing the required ACL auth-method name parameter.
	errMissingACLAuthMethodName = errors.New("missing ACL auth-method name")

	// errMissingACLBindingRuleID is the generic error to use when a call is
	// missing the required ACL binding rule ID parameter.
	errMissingACLBindingRuleID = errors.New("missing ACL binding rule ID")
)

// ACLRoles is used to query the ACL Role endpoints.
type ACLRoles struct {
	client *Client
}

// ACLRoles returns a new handle on the ACL roles API client.
func (c *Client) ACLRoles() *ACLRoles {
	return &ACLRoles{client: c}
}

// List is used to detail all the ACL roles currently stored within state.
func (a *ACLRoles) List(q *QueryOptions) ([]*ACLRoleListStub, *QueryMeta, error) {

View on GitHub (pinned to 482b49bf1a)

Solutions

1. Set authMethod.Name to a non-empty identifier before Create/Update.
2. Pass the actual auth-method name string to Get/Delete, sourced from `consul acl auth-method list` or your config.
3. Validate the name in your caller (e.g. fail fast if os.Getenv("AUTH_METHOD") is empty).

Example fix

// before
_, _, err := client.ACL().AuthMethods().Create(&api.ACLAuthMethod{Type: "kubernetes"}, nil)
// after
_, _, err := client.ACL().AuthMethods().Create(&api.ACLAuthMethod{
    Name: "kubernetes-prod",
    Type: "kubernetes",
    Config: map[string]interface{}{...},
}, nil)

if authMethod == nil || authMethod.Name == "" {
    return fmt.Errorf("ACL auth-method name is required")
}

func hasAuthMethodName(m *api.ACLAuthMethod) bool { return m != nil && m.Name != "" }

When it happens

Trigger: ACLAuthMethods.Create(m) with m.Name == ""; ACLAuthMethods.Update(m) with m.Name == ""; also Get("") and Delete("") with an empty name argument.

Common situations: Building an ACLAuthMethod from config (e.g. Kubernetes or JWT auth setup) where the Name field was omitted in HCL/JSON; passing an empty string variable for the name in Get/Delete; YAML key typo leaving Name unset.

Understand the failure class

Background: "missing required argument" and "the following required arguments were not provided": what required-argument errors mean and how to fix them — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

• errMissingACLRoleID
• errMissingACLBindingRuleID
• cannot specify ACL role ID
• missing ACL role name
• default ACL auth method already exists: %v

AI-assisted analysis of hashicorp/nomad@482b49bf1a (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/afbf8260720e1c44. Report an issue: GitHub.