kubernetes/kops · error

--name is required

Error message

--name is required

What it means

`kops delete instancegroup` validates its arguments in cobra's Args function before running. If rootCommand.ClusterName(true) returns an empty string — i.e. neither the --name flag nor a KOPS_CLUSTER_NAME was supplied and no cluster state exists — the command aborts with this error. kops needs the cluster name to locate and modify the instance group.

Source

Thrown at cmd/kops/delete_instancegroup.go:72

	Yes         bool
	ClusterName string
	GroupName   string
}

func NewCmdDeleteInstanceGroup(f *util.Factory, out io.Writer) *cobra.Command {
	options := &DeleteInstanceGroupOptions{}

	cmd := &cobra.Command{
		Use:     "instancegroup INSTANCE_GROUP",
		Aliases: []string{"instancegroups", "ig"},
		Short:   deleteInstanceGroupShort,
		Long:    deleteInstanceGroupLong,
		Example: deleteInstanceGroupExample,
		Args: func(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) error {
			options.ClusterName = rootCommand.ClusterName(true)

			if options.ClusterName == "" {
				return fmt.Errorf("--name is required")
			}

			if len(args) == 0 {
				return fmt.Errorf("must specify the name of the instance group to delete")
			}

			options.GroupName = args[0]

			if len(args) != 1 {
				return fmt.Errorf("can only delete one instance group at a time")
			}

			return nil
		},
		ValidArgsFunction: completeInstanceGroup(f, nil, &[]string{kops.InstanceGroupRoleControlPlane.ToLowerString()}),
		RunE: func(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) error {
			ctx := cmd.Context()

View on GitHub (pinned to 4c8573c808)

Solutions

1. Pass the cluster explicitly: `kops delete instancegroup --name <cluster-name> workers`.
2. Export KOPS_CLUSTER_NAME=<cluster-name> in the shell or CI environment.
3. Check scripts/aliases that previously set --name and restore it.

Example fix

// before
$ kops delete instancegroup workers
error: --name is required
// after
$ kops delete instancegroup --name prod.example.com workers

[ -n "${KOPS_CLUSTER_NAME:-$CLUSTER_NAME}" ] || { echo "set --name or KOPS_CLUSTER_NAME" >&2; exit 1; }

When it happens

Trigger: Running `kops delete instancegroup workers` without --name, without KOPS_CLUSTER_NAME set, and outside a kops state-store context that can infer the cluster.

Common situations: Scripting/CI where the --name flag was dropped; relying on KOPS_CLUSTER_NAME that isn't exported in the shell; deleting an instance group from a directory other than where the cluster name was set via dotenv/flags.

Understand the failure class

Background: "--flag is required" and "must specify" CLI errors: how missing-required-flag validation works and how to fix it — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

• spec.PublicKey is required
• adding keypair to %q is not supported
• unable to parse YAML %v: %v
• error adding SSH public key: %v
• parsing file %q: %v

AI-assisted analysis of kubernetes/kops@4c8573c808 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/87bf5eb1f774fb63. Report an issue: GitHub.