hashicorp/nomad · error

Invalid job type: %q

Error message

Invalid job type: %q

What it means

Job.Validate() accepts only the known job types: core, service, batch, system, and sysbatch. An empty type yields 'Missing job type'; any other non-empty string fails with this error. The job type drives scheduler selection, so an unknown value cannot be dispatched.

Source

Thrown at nomad/structs/structs.go:4764

		mErr.Errors = append(mErr.Errors, errors.New("Job ID contains a space"))
	} else if strings.Contains(j.ID, "\000") {
		mErr.Errors = append(mErr.Errors, errors.New("Job ID contains a null character"))
	}
	if j.Name == "" {
		mErr.Errors = append(mErr.Errors, errors.New("Missing job name"))
	} else if strings.Contains(j.Name, "\000") {
		mErr.Errors = append(mErr.Errors, errors.New("Job Name contains a null character"))
	}

	if j.Namespace == "" {
		mErr.Errors = append(mErr.Errors, errors.New("Job must be in a namespace"))
	}
	switch j.Type {
	case JobTypeCore, JobTypeService, JobTypeBatch, JobTypeSystem, JobTypeSysBatch:
	case "":
		mErr.Errors = append(mErr.Errors, errors.New("Missing job type"))
	default:
		mErr.Errors = append(mErr.Errors, fmt.Errorf("Invalid job type: %q", j.Type))
	}
	if len(j.Datacenters) == 0 && !j.IsMultiregion() {
		mErr.Errors = append(mErr.Errors, errors.New("Missing job datacenters"))
	} else {
		for _, v := range j.Datacenters {
			if v == "" {
				mErr.Errors = append(mErr.Errors, errors.New("Job datacenter must be non-empty string"))
			}
		}
	}

	if len(j.TaskGroups) == 0 {
		mErr.Errors = append(mErr.Errors, errors.New("Missing job task groups"))
	}
	for idx, constr := range j.Constraints {
		if err := constr.Validate(); err != nil {
			outer := fmt.Errorf("Constraint %d validation failed: %s", idx+1, err)
			mErr.Errors = append(mErr.Errors, outer)

View on GitHub (pinned to 482b49bf1a)

Solutions

1. Set the job type to one of: service, batch, system, or sysbatch (core is reserved for internal use)
2. Use a periodic/cron trigger stanza on a batch or service job instead of inventing a 'cron' type
3. Validate with nomad job validate to catch typos before submission

Example fix

// before
job "app" {
  type = "daemon"
}
// after
job "app" {
  type = "service"
}

switch j.Type {
case structs.JobTypeService, structs.JobTypeBatch, structs.JobTypeSystem, structs.JobTypeSysBatch:
    // ok
case "":
    return errors.New("missing job type")
default:
    return fmt.Errorf("invalid job type %q", j.Type)
}

func validJobType(t string) bool {
    switch t {
    case structs.JobTypeCore, structs.JobTypeService, structs.JobTypeBatch, structs.JobTypeSystem, structs.JobTypeSysBatch:
        return true
    }
    return false
}

When it happens

Trigger: Submitting a job with type = "daemon", "cron", or any misspelled value (e.g. "Ssystem") via nomad job run or the jobs API.

Common situations: Confusing Nomad job types with other schedulers' terminology (e.g. 'daemon' or 'cron' — periodic jobs are service/batch with a cron trigger); case errors; hand-edited JSON specs.

Understand the failure class

Background: Invalid enum value errors: "Unknown type", "Invalid scope", "must be one of" — when a string is not on the library's allowed list — this error's family across 23 libraries.

Related errors

• <combined HCL diagnostics from str.String()>
• command cannot be empty
• hostname cannot be set on task group using %q networking mod
• Constraint %d validation failed: using unsupported operand %
• Constraint %d validation failed: %s

AI-assisted analysis of hashicorp/nomad@482b49bf1a (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/3d9fa4891abc9d26. Report an issue: GitHub.