hashicorp/packer · error

The provided source URL is invalid. The following errors hav

Error message

The provided source URL is invalid.
The following errors have been discovered:
%s
A valid source looks like "github.com/hashicorp/happycloud"

What it means

ParsePluginSourceString aggregates validation failures from all parts of a plugin source address and reports them together. If any part is invalid, it returns this composite error listing each problem as a '* ...' line plus an example of a valid source. It is the top-level validation gate for required_plugins source strings.

Source

Thrown at hcl2template/addrs/plugin.go:152

	if url != nil && url.Scheme != "" {
		errs = append(errs, "A source URL must not contain a scheme (e.g. https://).")
	}

	if url != nil && url.RawQuery != "" {
		errs = append(errs, "A source URL must not contain a query (e.g. ?var=val)")
	}

	if url != nil && url.Fragment != "" {
		errs = append(errs, "A source URL must not contain a fragment (e.g. #anchor).")
	}

	if errs != nil {
		errsMsg := &strings.Builder{}
		for _, err := range errs {
			fmt.Fprintf(errsMsg, "* %s\n", err)
		}

		return nil, fmt.Errorf("The provided source URL is invalid.\nThe following errors have been discovered:\n%s\nA valid source looks like \"github.com/hashicorp/happycloud\"", errsMsg)
	}

	// check the 'name' portion, which is always the last part
	_, givenName := path.Split(str)
	_, err = ParsePluginPart(givenName)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf(`Invalid plugin type %q in source: %s"`, givenName, err)
	}

	// Due to how plugin executables are named and plugin git repositories
	// are conventionally named, it's a reasonable and
	// apparently-somewhat-common user error to incorrectly use the
	// "packer-plugin-" prefix in a plugin source address. There is
	// no good reason for a plugin to have the prefix "packer-" anyway,
	// so we've made that invalid from the start both so we can give feedback
	// to plugin developers about the packer- prefix being redundant
	// and give specialized feedback to folks who incorrectly use the full
	// packer-plugin- prefix to help them self-correct.

View on GitHub (pinned to eb36e3c3e4)

Solutions

1. Read the '* ...' sub-errors in the message and fix each listed component
2. Match the example format 'github.com/hashicorp/happycloud' (host/org/type)
3. Remove URL schemes, whitespace, and stray characters from the source string

Example fix

// before
source = "https://github.com/hashicorp/happycloud"
// after
source = "github.com/hashicorp/happycloud"

re := regexp.MustCompile(`^[a-z0-9-]+\.[a-z0-9-]+/[a-z0-9-]+/[a-z0-9-]+$`) // host/org/type shape
// check re.MatchString(src) before calling packer init

func looksLikeSource(s string) bool { return len(strings.Fields(s)) == 1 && strings.Count(s, "/") >= 2 && !strings.Contains(s, "://") }

if _, err := addrs.ParsePluginSourceString(src); err != nil {
  // print err and address each '* ...' sub-line
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling ParsePluginSourceString (from decodeRequiredPluginsBlock, installFromServer, or RunContext) with a malformed source like 'not a source!!', 'github.com/', or an address failing host/name parsing.

Common situations: Typo'd required_plugins entries in Packer HCL2 templates; empty or truncated source strings; using URL-scheme prefixed addresses ('https://github.com/...'); missing org or name segments.

Related errors

• Plugin source has a type with the prefix %q, which isn't val
• cannot use multiple consecutive dashes
• must contain only letters, digits, and dashes, and may not u
• Invalid plugin type %q in source: %s"
• Plugin source has a type with the %q prefix, which isn't val

AI-assisted analysis of hashicorp/packer@eb36e3c3e4 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/5cbec5db173b1668. Report an issue: GitHub.