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

' ' is not a known provisioner. Please specify a…

Error message

'%{name}' is not a known provisioner. Please specify a valid
provisioner.

What it means

`vagrant up --provision-with X` (and reload/resume) raises ProvisionerFlagInvalid when X matches neither a provisioner name configured in the Vagrantfile nor a provisioner type registered by installed plugins. The check collects provisioner names across the targeted machines; if none of the flag values intersect those names, each value is looked up in the plugin manager's provisioner registry and any miss raises this error.

Solutions

Use the exact provisioner name from the Vagrantfile's `config.vm.provision "<name>"` (or its type, e.g. `shell`)
Fix typos in the --provision-with value
If the type comes from a plugin, install it (`vagrant plugin install ...`) and confirm with `vagrant plugin list`

Example fix

# before
config.vm.provision 'bootstrap', type: 'shell' do |p| ... end
# vagrant up --provision-with boostrap   # typo

# after
# vagrant up --provision-with bootstrap

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

declared = File.readlines('Vagrantfile').select { |l| l.include?('vm.provision') }
abort "no provisioner named #{flag} in this Vagrantfile" unless declared.any? { |l| l.include?(flag) }
system("vagrant up --provision-with #{flag}")

Try / catch

begin
  command.execute
rescue Vagrant::Errors::ProvisionerFlagInvalid => e
  warn "#{e.extra_data[:name]} is not a known provisioner; check Vagrantfile names"
  exit 1
end

Prevention

Extract --provision-with values from the same Vagrantfile source rather than hardcoding them
Name provisioners explicitly (`config.vm.provision 'bootstrap', type: 'shell'`) and reference the names in scripts
Verify plugin-provided provisioners with `vagrant plugin list` before using their type names

When it happens

Trigger: A typo like `--provision-with shl`; a plugin-provided type (e.g. chef_solo via plugin) whose plugin is not installed; passing a provisioner name defined only in a different machine's config while targeting machines that lack it.

Common situations: Custom-named provisioners (`config.vm.provision 'bootstrap', type: 'shell'`) where scripts pass the wrong identifier; workstations missing team plugins; docs drift after provisioners were renamed.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of hashicorp/vagrant@35f3160f4a (2026-08-21). Data as JSON: /api/errors/8085621f90a89978. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at plugins/commands/up/start_mixins.rb:50

      # This validates the provisioner flags and raises an exception
      # if there are invalid ones.
      def validate_provisioner_flags!(options, argv)
        if options[:provision_types].nil?
          return
        end

        provisioner_names = Set.new
        with_target_vms(argv) do |machine|
          machine.config.vm.provisioners.map(&:name).each do |name|
            provisioner_names.add(name)
          end
        end

        if (provisioner_names & options[:provision_types]).empty?
          (options[:provision_types] || []).each do |type|
              klass = Vagrant.plugin("2").manager.provisioners[type]
              if !klass
                raise Vagrant::Errors::ProvisionerFlagInvalid,
                  name: type.to_s
              end
          end
        end
      end
    end
  end
end

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