hashicorp/terraform · error

Expected a workspace name as an argument, instead got an…

Error message

Expected a workspace name as an argument, instead got an empty string: %q

What it means

Thrown by terraform workspace delete when the NAME positional argument is provided but is an empty string. Terraform explicitly checks args[0]=="" separately from the missing-argument check to give a clearer error than a generic 'expected one argument' message.

Solutions

1. Check that the workspace name variable is set and non-empty before invoking the command
2. Use shell parameter expansion with a guard: terraform workspace delete "${WS_NAME:?workspace name required}"
3. Verify the argument is passed correctly by echoing it before the command: echo "[$WS_NAME]"

Example fix

# before
WS_NAME=""
terraform workspace delete "$WS_NAME"

# after
WS_NAME="dev"
terraform workspace delete "$WS_NAME"

// Validate workspace name argument before calling terraform workspace delete
func validateWorkspaceNameArg(name string) error {
    if name == "" {
        return errors.New("workspace name must not be empty")
    }
    return nil
}

When it happens

Trigger: Running terraform workspace delete "" or passing an empty-string argument. The name=="" check triggers after confirming at least one argument was provided but before checking for extra arguments.

Common situations: Shell variable expansion producing an empty string (e.g., terraform workspace delete "$WS_NAME" where WS_NAME is unset or empty); quoting errors in scripts; automated tooling or wrappers passing an empty workspace name.

Related errors

• can't delete default state
• Couldn't create initial workspace: no name provided
• Error creating workspace
• Failed to select workspace: input not a valid number
• Invalid workspace name set using

AI-assisted analysis of hashicorp/terraform@d32a084675 (2026-08-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/2f9d6ce9bc32096c. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at internal/command/arguments/workspace_delete.go:62

			err.Error(),
		))
	}

	// `workspace delete` takes only one positional argument: workspace name.
	args = cmdFlags.Args()
	var name string
	if len(args) == 0 {
		diags = diags.Append(errors.New("Expected a single argument: NAME.")) // Recreating pre-existing error from command package
	} else {

		// Obtain and validate name argument
		//
		// We purposefully don't use ValidWorkspaceName here; if a user
		// creates a workspace with an invalid name they should be able to
		// delete it easily.
		name = args[0]
		if name == "" {
			diags = diags.Append(fmt.Errorf("Expected a workspace name as an argument, instead got an empty string: %q\n", args[0]))
		}

		// Checking for extra arguments here, not with a len != 1 check above, allows the name to be returned
		args = args[1:]
		if len(args) != 0 {
			diags = diags.Append(errors.New("Expected a single argument: NAME."))
		}
	}

	return &WorkspaceDelete{
		Workspace:   Workspace{ViewType: ViewHuman},
		Name:        name,
		Lock:        stateLock,
		LockTimeout: stateLockTimeout,
		Force:       force,
	}, diags
}

View on GitHub (pinned to d32a084675)