hashicorp/nomad · error

missing job ID for evaluation

Error message

missing job ID for evaluation

What it means

The Periodic.Force RPC failed argument validation: JobID in the periodic force request is empty, so there is no job to force-launch.

Source

Thrown at nomad/periodic_endpoint.go:55

	if authErr != nil {
		return structs.ErrPermissionDenied
	}
	defer metrics.MeasureSince([]string{"nomad", "periodic", "force"}, time.Now())

	// Check for write-job permissions
	if aclObj, err := p.srv.ResolveACL(args); err != nil {
		return err
	} else if !aclObj.AllowNsOpAnyOf(args.RequestNamespace(),
		acl.NamespaceCapabilityDispatchJob,
		acl.NamespaceCapabilitySubmitJob,
		acl.NamespaceCapabilityForcePeriodicJob,
	) {
		return structs.ErrPermissionDenied
	}

	// Validate the arguments
	if args.JobID == "" {
		return fmt.Errorf("missing job ID for evaluation")
	}

	// Lookup the job
	snap, err := p.srv.fsm.State().Snapshot()
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}

	ws := memdb.NewWatchSet()
	job, err := snap.JobByID(ws, args.RequestNamespace(), args.JobID)
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}
	if job == nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("job not found")
	}

	if !job.IsPeriodic() {

View on GitHub (pinned to 482b49bf1a)

Solutions

1. Set JobID on the PeriodicForceRequest
2. Verify the CLI/API invocation actually passed a job ID

Example fix

// before
req := &api.PeriodicForceRequest{JobID: os.Getenv("JOB_ID")} // may be empty
// after
jobID := os.Getenv("JOB_ID")
if jobID == "" { return errors.New("JOB_ID must be set") }
req := &api.PeriodicForceRequest{JobID: jobID}

// Go
if jobID == "" {
    return errors.New("job ID is required for periodic force")
}

// Go
_, err := client.Jobs().PeriodicForce(jobID, nil)
if err != nil && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "missing job ID") {
    return fmt.Errorf("client bug: empty JobID sent: %w", err)
}

When it happens

Trigger: Sending a PeriodicForceRequest with args.JobID == "" to the Force endpoint via RPC or the nomad job periodic force CLI/API with a blank job name.

Common situations: Empty variable interpolation in scripts/CI; unset environment variable used as job ID; CLI invoked with flags but no positional job ID.

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

• Must provide the NodeID
• Parameter for choose must be in form '<number>|<key>'
• missing node for client registration
• missing node ID for client registration
• missing datacenter for client registration

AI-assisted analysis of hashicorp/nomad@482b49bf1a (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/4c814df461ea58e2. Report an issue: GitHub.