hashicorp/packer · error

the `platform` must be specified

Error message

the `platform` must be specified

What it means

Configuration validation guard in the hcp-packer-artifact datasource's Configure. The datasource resolves an artifact by iteration platform, so it needs to know which platform (e.g. amazon-ebs, vsphere) built the artifact; this sentinel error is appended to a MultiError when the required platform field is empty. Set platform in the datasource block to the builder component type that produced the artifact.

Source

Thrown at datasource/hcp-packer-artifact/data.go:98

	if d.config.ChannelName == "" && d.config.VersionFingerprint == "" {
		errs = packersdk.MultiErrorAppend(errs, errors.New(
			"`version_fingerprint` or `channel_name` must be specified",
		))
	}
	if d.config.ChannelName != "" && d.config.VersionFingerprint != "" {
		errs = packersdk.MultiErrorAppend(errs, errors.New(
			"`version_fingerprint` and `channel_name` cannot be specified together",
		))
	}

	if d.config.Region == "" {
		errs = packersdk.MultiErrorAppend(errs,
			fmt.Errorf("the `region` must be specified"),
		)
	}

	if d.config.Platform == "" {
		errs = packersdk.MultiErrorAppend(errs, fmt.Errorf(
			"the `platform` must be specified",
		))
	}

	if errs != nil && len(errs.Errors) > 0 {
		return errs
	}
	return nil
}

// DatasourceOutput Information from []*hcpPackerModels.HashicorpCloudPacker20230101Artifact with some information
// from the parent []*hcpPackerModels.HashicorpCloudPacker20230101Build included where it seemed
// like it might be relevant. Need to copy so we can generate
type DatasourceOutput struct {
	// The name of the platform that the artifact exists in.
	// For example, "aws", "azure", or "gce".
	Platform string `mapstructure:"platform"`

View on GitHub (pinned to eb36e3c3e4)

Solutions

1. Set platform to the OS platform recorded in HCP Packer, e.g. platform = "ubuntu" or "amazon-linux"

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at datasource/hcp-packer-artifact/data.go:98 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of hashicorp/packer@eb36e3c3e4 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/1b8a3441010af7e2. Report an issue: GitHub.