hashicorp/packer · error

no release version found for constraints: %q

Error message

no release version found for constraints: %q

What it means

InstallLatest iterated all available releases (remote listing plus local fallback) and found no version satisfying the requirement's VersionConstraints. Thrown when the `versions` slice is empty and no other error was recorded; the constraint string is quoted in the message.

Source

Thrown at packer/plugin-getter/plugins.go:952

						log.Printf("[WARNING] %v, ignoring", err)
						os.Remove(outputFileName)
						continue
					}

					// Success !!
					return &Installation{
						BinaryPath: strings.ReplaceAll(outputFileName, "\\", "/"),
						Version:    "v" + version.String(),
					}, nil
				}

			}
		}
	}

	if len(versions) == 0 {
		if errs.Len() == 0 {
			err := fmt.Errorf("no release version found for constraints: %q", pr.VersionConstraints.String())
			errs = multierror.Append(errs, err)
		}
		return nil, errs
	}

	if errs.ErrorOrNil() == nil {
		err := fmt.Errorf("could not find a local nor a remote checksum for plugin %q %q", pr.Identifier, pr.VersionConstraints)
		errs = multierror.Append(errs, err)
	}
	errs = multierror.Append(errs, fmt.Errorf("could not install any compatible version of plugin %q", pr.Identifier))
	return nil, errs
}

func GetPluginDescription(pluginPath string) (pluginsdk.SetDescription, error) {
	out, err := exec.Command(pluginPath, "describe").Output()
	if err != nil {
		return pluginsdk.SetDescription{}, err
	}

View on GitHub (pinned to eb36e3c3e4)

Solutions

1. Loosen the required_plugins version constraint in the .pkr.hcl (e.g. `version >= "1.0.0"`)
2. Run `packer plugins installed` / check GitHub releases for the plugin to see which versions actually exist
3. Check for pre-release-only matches and pin an explicit released version
4. Verify the plugin source identifier (hostname/namespace/name) is correct
5. Fix network/proxy access to github.com if release listing failed

Example fix

// before
packer {
  required_plugins {
    amazon = { version = "= 9.9.9", source = "github.com/hashicorp/amazon" }
  }
}
// after
packer {
  required_plugins {
    amazon = { version = ">= 1.2.0", source = "github.com/hashicorp/amazon" }
  }
}

// check the constraint resolves against real releases before init
// e.g. curl https://api.github.com/repos/hashicorp/packer-plugin-amazon/tags
// and confirm the required version exists and is not pre-release-only
required := `version >= "1.2.0"`
if !anyReleaseSatisfies("github.com/hashicorp/amazon", required) {
    return fmt.Errorf("constraint %q has no matching release", required)
}

When it happens

Trigger: required_plugins constraint in the HCL template (e.g. `version >= "1.2.0"`) matches none of the plugin's published GitHub releases, or the plugin identifier has no releases at all.

Common situations: Typos or overly tight version constraints; requesting a version that only exists as a pre-release which the getter skips; plugin renamed/moved on GitHub so the release listing is empty; offline or proxied environment where release listing fails silently and local copies don't match the constraint.

Related errors

• could not install any compatible version of plugin %q
• unsupported dependency type %q; locals can only depend on lo
• unhandled buildvar type: %T
• could not write final plugin binary file: %w
• failed to checksum binary file: %s

AI-assisted analysis of hashicorp/packer@eb36e3c3e4 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/6e1748938d6dd24d. Report an issue: GitHub.