hashicorp/nomad · error

Invalid task directory given: %q

Error message

Invalid task directory given: %q

What it means

TaskTemplateManagerConfig.Validate() rejects the config when c.TaskDir is the empty string. The task directory is required because the template runner renders consul-template outputs into the task's sandbox directory. NewTaskTemplateManager calls Validate as its first step, so a manager can never be created without a TaskDir.

Source

Thrown at client/allocrunner/taskrunner/template/template.go:162

	// Nomad custom RenderFunc used for sandboxing. This is currently used by
	// the secrets block to hold all templated data in memory.
	RenderFunc renderer.Renderer
}

// Validate validates the configuration.
func (c *TaskTemplateManagerConfig) Validate() error {
	if c == nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("Nil config passed")
	} else if c.UnblockCh == nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("Invalid unblock channel given")
	} else if c.Lifecycle == nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("Invalid lifecycle hooks given")
	} else if c.Events == nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("Invalid event hook given")
	} else if c.ClientConfig == nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("Invalid client config given")
	} else if c.TaskDir == "" {
		return fmt.Errorf("Invalid task directory given: %q", c.TaskDir)
	} else if c.EnvBuilder == nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("Invalid task environment given")
	} else if c.MaxTemplateEventRate == 0 {
		return fmt.Errorf("Invalid max template event rate given")
	}

	// Once is a runner config, but in Nomad it is set per template, so all
	// templates given to a runner should have the same value for Once.
	var once bool
	for i, t := range c.Templates {
		if i == 0 {
			once = t.Once
		} else if t.Once != once {
			return fmt.Errorf("All templates should have same Once value")
		}
	}

	return nil

View on GitHub (pinned to 482b49bf1a)

Solutions

1. Set config.TaskDir to the task's directory path before calling NewTaskTemplateManager.
2. Ensure the alloc dir/task dir is created and its path propagated into the task runner config before template manager construction.
3. If writing tests, populate TaskDir with a t.TempDir() value in the config fixture.

Example fix

// before
cfg := &template.TaskTemplateManagerConfig{
    UnblockCh: ch,
    Lifecycle: lc,
    Events: ev,
    ClientConfig: cc,
}
// after
cfg := &template.TaskTemplateManagerConfig{
    UnblockCh: ch,
    Lifecycle: lc,
    Events: ev,
    ClientConfig: cc,
    TaskDir: taskDir, // e.g. filepath.Join(allocDir, taskName)
}

if cfg == nil || cfg.TaskDir == "" {
    return fmt.Errorf("template manager config needs a non-empty TaskDir")
}

func hasTaskDir(c *template.TaskTemplateManagerConfig) bool { return c != nil && c.TaskDir != "" }

tm, err := template.NewTaskTemplateManager(cfg)
if err != nil {
    return fmt.Errorf("creating template manager: %w", err)
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling NewTaskTemplateManager with a *TaskTemplateManagerConfig whose TaskDir field was never set (left as ""), typically because the caller building the config did not wire in the allocrunner's task directory handle.

Common situations: Custom client-side tooling or tests constructing TaskTemplateManagerConfig by hand; refactors of alloc runner code where the task dir is assigned after the template manager is built; mis-ordered initialization in a task runner setup.

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

• Invalid task environment given
• Invalid max template event rate given
• All templates should have same Once value
• Failed to parse signal %q
• wait config is nil or empty

AI-assisted analysis of hashicorp/nomad@482b49bf1a (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/5577618a138cf0a8. Report an issue: GitHub.