pulumi/pulumi · error

parse arguments: %w

Error message

parse arguments: %w

What it means

In the `pulumi do` command's RunFunc setup, command-line flag parsing errors (other than the explicitly allowed unknown flags and --help) are wrapped as 'parse arguments: %w'. The underlying pflag error names the specific bad flag or value.

Source

Thrown at pkg/cmd/pulumi/do/do.go:112

	var dryrun bool
	var showSecrets bool
	var stateless bool
	var output string

	// buildSubcommand returns the dynamically constructed subcommand along with a cleanup function that must be
	// deferred by the caller. The cleanup tears down the provider gRPC channel — running it as a defer inside
	// buildSubcommand would close the channel before the subcommand's RunE actually invokes the provider.
	buildSubcommand := func(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) (*cobra.Command, func(), error) {
		// We have to do our own flag parsing because we're dynamically building the CLI from provider schemas.
		// Parse the arguments so far, but don't error on unknown flags since those will be dynamically added by
		// provider plugins.
		flags := cmd.Flags()
		flags.ParseErrorsAllowlist.UnknownFlags = true
		err := flags.Parse(args)
		// We shouldn't ever see --help here
		contract.Assertf(!errors.Is(err, pflag.ErrHelp), "unexpected --help flag")
		if err != nil {
			return nil, nil, fmt.Errorf("parse arguments: %w", err)
		}

		if output != "" && output != "default" && output != "json" {
			return nil, nil, fmt.Errorf("unsupported output format %q (supported: default, json)", output)
		}

		pargs := flags.Args()
		// If we don't have any args and no package then this is just `pulumi do` so return nil and the caller handle
		// calling help.
		if len(pargs) == 0 && pkg == "" {
			return nil, nil, nil
		}

		// If --package was passed use that, else set it based on the token
		if pkg == "" {
			pkg, _, _ = strings.Cut(pargs[0], ":")
		}

View on GitHub (pinned to 793f7b2e16)

Solutions

1. Read the wrapped pflag error to identify the offending flag and fix its value or spelling
2. Run with --help to list valid flags for the command
3. Quote arguments containing spaces or special characters in your script

Example fix

// before
pulumi do --timeout notanumber
// after
pulumi do --timeout 300

// validate flag values before invoking, e.g.:
if ! timeout.isdigit(): raise SystemExit('--timeout expects an integer')

try { run(cmd) } catch (e) { if (e.message.startsWith('parse arguments:')) { console.error('bad flag:', e.cause ?? e.message); process.exit(2) } else throw e }

When it happens

Trigger: Passing an invalid value to a typed flag (e.g. non-integer to an int flag), or a malformed flag that is not covered by the unknown-flags allowlist, when invoking the internal `pulumi do` entry point.

Common situations: Typo'd flag names not exempted from the allowlist; scripts passing values of the wrong type; quoting errors turning one flag into garbage tokens.

Related errors

• no environment name specified
• unknown output format %q
• the provider command does not accept versions
• expected <project-number> and <access-token>
• invalid project number %q: must be a positive integer

AI-assisted analysis of pulumi/pulumi@793f7b2e16 (2026-08-31). Data as JSON: /api/errors/3f5b8d96eff74875. Report an issue: GitHub.