hashicorp/nomad · error

invalid path %q

Error message

invalid path %q

What it means

ValidatePath guard: the variable path fails the validVariablePath regex — it contains characters or shapes not permitted in variable paths (e.g. invalid segments). The offending path is quoted in the message.

Source

Thrown at nomad/structs/variables.go:418

	}

	if vd.Items.Size() > maxVariableSize {
		return errQuotaExhausted
	}

	if err := ValidatePath(vd.Path); err != nil {
		return err
	}

	return vd.Lock.Validate()
}

func ValidatePath(path string) error {
	if len(path) == 0 {
		return fmt.Errorf("variable requires path")
	}
	if !validVariablePath.MatchString(path) {
		return fmt.Errorf("invalid path %q", path)
	}

	parts := strings.Split(path, "/")

	if parts[0] != "nomad" {
		return nil
	}

	// Don't allow a variable with path "nomad"
	if len(parts) == 1 {
		return fmt.Errorf(`"nomad" is a reserved top-level directory path, but you may write variables to "nomad/jobs", "nomad/job-templates", "nomad/sentinel", or below`)
	}

	switch {
	case parts[1] == "jobs" || parts[1] == "sentinel":
		// Any path including "nomad/jobs" or "nomad/sentinel" is valid
		return nil
	case parts[1] == "job-templates" && len(parts) == 3:

View on GitHub (pinned to 482b49bf1a)

Solutions

1. Use only path-safe characters and slash-separated segments
2. Avoid empty segments (double slashes) and invalid characters in the path

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at nomad/structs/variables.go:418 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of hashicorp/nomad@482b49bf1a (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/4164f8525fc56657. Report an issue: GitHub.