puppetlabs/puppet · error · ArgumentError

No name provided in serialized data

Error message

No name provided in serialized data

What it means

Puppet::Node#initialize_from_hash restores a node from its serialized form (e.g. a node.yaml produced by a terminus). 'name' is the only mandatory key: classes and parameters default to empty collections, but a missing 'name' raises ArgumentError 'No name provided in serialized data' during deserialization.

Source

Thrown at lib/puppet/node.rb:29

  # the node sources.
  extend Puppet::Indirector

  # Asymmetric serialization/deserialization required in this class via to/from datahash
  include Puppet::Util::PsychSupport

  # Use the node source as the indirection terminus.
  indirects :node, :terminus_setting => :node_terminus, :doc => "Where to find node information.
    A node is composed of its name, its facts, and its environment."

  attr_accessor :name, :classes, :source, :ipaddress, :parameters, :environment_name
  attr_reader :time, :facts, :trusted_data

  attr_reader :server_facts

  ENVIRONMENT = 'environment'

  def initialize_from_hash(data)
    @name       = data['name']       || (raise ArgumentError, _("No name provided in serialized data"))
    @classes    = data['classes']    || []
    @parameters = data['parameters'] || {}
    env_name = data['environment'] || @parameters[ENVIRONMENT]
    unless env_name.nil?
      @parameters[ENVIRONMENT] = env_name
      @environment_name = env_name.intern
    end
  end

  def self.from_data_hash(data)
    node = new(name)
    node.initialize_from_hash(data)
    node
  end

  def to_data_hash
    result = {
      'name' => name,

View on GitHub (pinned to e227c27540)

Solutions

1. Fix the producer so it writes the node name (the certname) into the serialized hash
2. If the hash comes from a cache file, delete and regenerate it rather than patching
3. As recovery, default the name before loading: data['name'] ||= Puppet[:certname]
4. Validate the YAML structure (Hash with a String 'name') before handing it to initialize_from_hash

Example fix

# before
data = YAML.load_file('node.yaml')            # { 'classes' => [...] }
node = Puppet::Node.new('placeholder').tap { |n| n.initialize_from_hash(data) }

# after
data = YAML.load_file('node.yaml')
data['name'] ||= Puppet[:certname]
node = Puppet::Node.new(data['name']).tap { |n| n.initialize_from_hash(data) }

raise ArgumentError, "serialized node lacks required 'name'" unless data.is_a?(Hash) && data['name'].is_a?(String) && !data['name'].empty?
node = Puppet::Node.new(data['name']).tap { |n| n.initialize_from_hash(data) }

When it happens

Trigger: Loading a node hash that contains classes/parameters but no 'name' entry: a truncated node.yaml cache, an ENC or external tool emitting the hash without name, or hand-edited YAML where the key was removed.

Common situations: Corrupted node caches after crashes; tooling that round-trips nodes through YAML; schema drift where the producer stopped writing the name field.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Missing required field" and "field is required" errors: why libraries reject payloads that omit mandatory fields — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

• #{path}: #{detail.message}
• Could not intern from %{format}: %{err}
• Could not intern_multiple from %{format}: %{err}
• Serialized YAML did not contain a valid instance of %{klass}
• Serialized YAML did not contain a collection of instances wh

AI-assisted analysis of puppetlabs/puppet@e227c27540 (2026-08-21). Data as JSON: /api/errors/a559acbc1ea7541d. Report an issue: GitHub.