hashicorp/vagrant · error · Vagrant::Errors::VMNotFoundError

A VM by the name of %{name} was not found.

Error message

A VM by the name of %{name} was not found.

What it means

A plain machine name given to a v2 command resolved to no machine — get_machine.call(name.to_sym) returned nothing and the guard at lib/vagrant/plugin/v2/command.rb:208 raised. A name resolves only if it is defined in the local Vagrantfile's config.vm.define blocks or exists as an active/index machine; otherwise it is 'not found'.

Source

Thrown at lib/vagrant/plugin/v2/command.rb:208

              if pattern = name[/^\/(.+?)\/$/, 1]
                @logger.debug("Finding machines that match regex: #{pattern}")

                # This is a regular expression name, so we convert to a regular
                # expression and allow that sort of matching.
                regex = Regexp.new(pattern)

                @env.machine_names.each do |machine_name|
                  if machine_name =~ regex
                    machines << get_machine.call(machine_name)
                  end
                end

                raise Errors::VMNoMatchError if machines.empty?
              else
                # String name, just look for a specific VM
                @logger.debug("Finding machine that match name: #{name}")
                machines << get_machine.call(name.to_sym)
                raise Errors::VMNotFoundError, name: name if !machines[0]
              end
            end
          else
            # No name was given, so we return every VM in the order
            # configured.
            @logger.debug("Loading all machines...")
            machines = @env.machine_names.map do |machine_name|
              get_machine.call(machine_name)
            end
          end

          @logger.debug("have machine list to process")

          # Make sure we're only working with one VM if single target
          if options[:single_target] && machines.length != 1
            @logger.debug("Using primary machine since single target")
            primary_name = @env.primary_machine_name
            raise Errors::MultiVMTargetRequired if !primary_name

View on GitHub (pinned to 35f3160f4a)

Solutions

1. Run `vagrant status` to list the machine names valid for this environment
2. For non-local machines, get a fresh ID from `vagrant global-status` and use that
3. If the machine should exist locally, add the missing config.vm.define block to the Vagrantfile

valid = env.machine_names.map(&:to_s)
known_ids = env.machine_index.to_a.map { |e| e.name.to_s }
abort "unknown machine '#{name}'" unless valid.include?(name) || known_ids.include?(name)

When it happens

Trigger: `vagrant ssh db` where the Vagrantfile defines only :web; using an expired global-status ID as if it were a name; a machine defined in a different project directory.

Common situations: Typos and case mismatches; commands copied from docs for a different Vagrantfile; renaming vm.define blocks without updating wrapper scripts.

Understand the failure class

Background: 'Could not be found', 'does not exist', 'not found in database': the resource-not-found family when an ID, slug, key, or URI lookup comes back empty — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

• No virtual machines matched the regular expression given.
• This command requires a specific VM name to target in a mult
• A VM by the name of %{name} was not found.
• An invalid option was specified. The help for this command i
• The box you requested to be removed could not be found. No b

AI-assisted analysis of hashicorp/vagrant@35f3160f4a (2026-08-21). Data as JSON: /api/errors/ffcdf6cdc8c6494e. Report an issue: GitHub.