What causes "Plugin.Name must not be empty" in hashicorp/nomad?

Set the Name field on the dynamicplugins.PluginInfo before calling RegisterPlugin

Plugin.Name must not be empty

Error message

Plugin.Name must not be empty

What it means

RegisterPlugin validates the PluginInfo struct before storing it in the dynamic plugin registry. An empty Name field means the plugin registration lacks a unique identifier, so the registry rejects it. The in-code comment notes this error is meant to aid developers creating new plugin types, not to appear in production clusters.

Source

Thrown at client/dynamicplugins/registry.go:186

}

func (d *dynamicRegistry) RegisterPlugin(info *PluginInfo) error {
	if info.Type == "" {
		// This error shouldn't make it to a production cluster and is to aid
		// developers during the development of new plugin types.
		return errors.New("Plugin.Type must not be empty")
	}

	if info.ConnectionInfo == nil {
		// This error shouldn't make it to a production cluster and is to aid
		// developers during the development of new plugin types.
		return errors.New("Plugin.ConnectionInfo must not be nil")
	}

	if info.Name == "" {
		// This error shouldn't make it to a production cluster and is to aid
		// developers during the development of new plugin types.
		return errors.New("Plugin.Name must not be empty")
	}

	d.pluginsLock.Lock()
	defer d.pluginsLock.Unlock()

	pmap, ok := d.plugins[info.Type]
	if !ok {
		pmap = make(map[string]*list.List)
		d.plugins[info.Type] = pmap
	}
	infos, ok := pmap[info.Name]
	if !ok {
		infos = list.New()
		pmap[info.Name] = infos
	}

	// TODO(tgross): https://github.com/hashicorp/nomad/issues/11786
	// If we're already registered, we should update the definition

View on GitHub (pinned to 482b49bf1a)

Solutions

Set the Name field on the dynamicplugins.PluginInfo before calling RegisterPlugin
Derive the name from the plugin's config/ID and validate it is non-empty at construction
Add a unit test for the registration handler that asserts Name is populated

Example fix

// before
info := &dynamicplugins.PluginInfo{Type: dynamicplugins.PluginTypeCSIDriver, ConnectionInfo: connInfo}
err := registry.RegisterPlugin(info)
// after
info := &dynamicplugins.PluginInfo{Type: dynamicplugins.PluginTypeCSIDriver, Name: driverName, ConnectionInfo: connInfo}
if info.Name == "" {
    return fmt.Errorf("plugin name is required")
}
err := registry.RegisterPlugin(info)

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

if info == nil || info.Name == "" {
    return fmt.Errorf("cannot register plugin of type %s: name is required", info.Type)
}
err := registry.RegisterPlugin(info)

Type guard

func validPluginInfo(info *dynamicplugins.PluginInfo) bool {
    return info != nil && info.Name != "" && info.Type != "" && info.ConnectionInfo != nil
}

Prevention

Always populate PluginInfo.Name from a validated config value at construction time
Add constructor helpers that reject empty names before building PluginInfo
Write registration-handler unit tests asserting non-empty Name

When it happens

Trigger: Calling client dynamicplugins Registry.RegisterPlugin with a *dynamicplugins.PluginInfo whose Name field is the empty string (typically constructed programmatically by a new plugin type registration handler).

Common situations: Developing a new dynamic plugin type (e.g. CSI or host volume plugin) where the registration handler forgets to set PluginInfo.Name, or builds it from a config value that is empty.

Understand the failure class

Background: "must not be empty", "cannot be empty" — required-field validation errors across open-source libraries — this error's family across 41 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of hashicorp/nomad@482b49bf1a (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/b1e3cbeea38cfec0. Report an issue: GitHub.