hashicorp/nomad · error

unable to parse var content: %v

Error message

unable to parse var content: %v

What it means

When config.VarContent is non-empty, decode parses it as HCL/JSON (as 'input.hcl'). If the resulting diagnostics have errors, decode returns 'unable to parse var content: <diagnostics>', aborting jobspec parsing because the inline variable definitions are invalid.

Source

Thrown at jobspec2/parse.go:150

func decode(c *jobConfig) error {
	config := c.ParseConfig

	file, diags := parseHCLOrJSON(config.Body, config.Path)

	for _, varFile := range config.VarFiles {
		parsedVarFile, ds := parseFile(varFile)
		if parsedVarFile == nil || ds.HasErrors() {
			return fmt.Errorf("unable to parse var file: %v", ds.Error())
		}

		config.parsedVarFiles = append(config.parsedVarFiles, parsedVarFile)
		diags = append(diags, ds...)
	}

	if config.VarContent != "" {
		hclFile, hclDiagnostics := parseHCLOrJSON([]byte(config.VarContent), "input.hcl")
		if hclDiagnostics.HasErrors() {
			return fmt.Errorf("unable to parse var content: %v", hclDiagnostics.Error())
		}
		config.parsedVarFiles = append(config.parsedVarFiles, hclFile)
	}

	// Return early if the input job or variable files are not valid.
	// Decoding and evaluating invalid files may result in unexpected results.
	if diags.HasErrors() {
		return diags
	}

	diags = append(diags, c.decodeBody(file.Body)...)

	if diags.HasErrors() {
		var str strings.Builder
		for i, diag := range diags {
			if i != 0 {
				str.WriteByte('\n')
			}

View on GitHub (pinned to 482b49bf1a)

Solutions

1. Fix the HCL syntax error named in the wrapped diagnostics message.
2. Validate the inline content by writing it to a temp .hcl file and running hclfmt/hcl2 parser on it.
3. Check shell quoting when building VarContent from command-line flags.
4. Prefer passing vars via a well-formed var file rather than concatenated inline content.

Example fix

// before (invalid inline content)
VarContent: "key=unquoted value with spaces"

// after
VarContent: "key = \"value with spaces\""

if cfg.VarContent != "" {
    if _, diags := hclparse.ParseHCL([]byte(cfg.VarContent), "check.hcl"); diags.HasErrors() {
        return fmt.Errorf("invalid VarContent: %s", diags.Error())
    }
}

if err != nil && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "unable to parse var content") {
    // log the diagnostics; fix quoting/syntax before retry
}

When it happens

Trigger: Passing VarContent (or -var style content collected by the caller) that is not valid HCL/JSON, e.g. missing quotes, wrong syntax, or invalid structure, then calling ParseWithConfig.

Common situations: CLI flag assembly bugs where multiple -var values are joined incorrectly; shell quoting stripping quotes; embedding JSON with trailing commas; key=value lines containing unescaped special characters.

Understand the failure class

• Parsing and encoding errors: unexpected token, malformed input — why parsers reject input and how to find the real culprit.

Related errors

• unable to parse var file: %v
• <combined HCL diagnostics from str.String()>
• Failed to read var file(s): %w
• Failed to parse ACL Policy: %v
• failed to parse HCL file %s: %w

AI-assisted analysis of hashicorp/nomad@482b49bf1a (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/e217709d8c1896d4. Report an issue: GitHub.