hashicorp/nomad · error

Job ID contains a space

Error message

Job ID contains a space

What it means

Job.Validate() in nomad/structs rejects Job IDs containing whitespace. The check runs only when the ID is non-empty; any space character in j.ID triggers this error. IDs are used in API paths and raft log entries, so spaces are disallowed.

Source

Thrown at nomad/structs/structs.go:4746

	}

	nj.Periodic = j.Periodic.Copy()
	nj.Meta = maps.Clone(j.Meta)
	nj.ParameterizedJob = j.ParameterizedJob.Copy()
	return nj
}

// Validate is used to check a job for reasonable configuration
func (j *Job) Validate() error {
	var mErr multierror.Error

	if j.Region == "" && j.Multiregion == nil {
		mErr.Errors = append(mErr.Errors, errors.New("Missing job region"))
	}
	if j.ID == "" {
		mErr.Errors = append(mErr.Errors, errors.New("Missing job ID"))
	} else if strings.Contains(j.ID, " ") {
		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))

View on GitHub (pinned to 482b49bf1a)

Solutions

1. Remove spaces from the job ID, using hyphens or underscores instead (e.g. `id = "my-app"`)
2. Keep human-readable titles in `name` and a space-free value in `id`
3. Sanitize generated IDs: replace whitespace with '-' before submitting

Example fix

// before
id = "my app"
// after
id = "my-app"

if strings.Contains(j.ID, " ") {
    return fmt.Errorf("job ID %q must not contain spaces", j.ID)
}

func isSafeJobID(id string) bool { return id != "" && !strings.ContainsAny(id, " \t\x00") }

if err := job.Validate(); err != nil {
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "Job ID contains a space") {
        job.ID = strings.ReplaceAll(job.ID, " ", "-")
    }
}

When it happens

Trigger: Registering a job whose `id` field contains a literal space, e.g. `id = "my app"`, via `nomad job run`, the HTTP jobs API, or calling Job.Validate() in Go with j.ID containing ' '.

Common situations: Copy-pasting a job name with spaces into the id field; tooling that substitutes a human label (with spaces) into the ID; quoting mistakes in shell scripts that leave stray spaces in the ID.

Understand the failure class

Background: "invalid id" errors: invalid identifier format — why libraries reject IDs before lookup, and how to fix them — this error's family across 37 libraries.

Related errors

• Missing job ID
• Missing job name
• Missing job type
• Missing job task groups
• Disconnect cannot be configured with both lost_after and sto

AI-assisted analysis of hashicorp/nomad@482b49bf1a (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/b69363d2044e6622. Report an issue: GitHub.