semaphoreui/semaphore · error

invalid inventory type

Error message

invalid inventory type

What it means

getPlaybookArgs builds the ansible-playbook command line, including the -i inventory argument. The inventory filename depends on the inventory's type (static, static-yaml, file-based, etc.); a type outside the known enum values hits the default branch and preparation fails with 'invalid inventory type'.

Solutions

1. Check the inventory's type field (project inventories in UI or DB table) and set it to a supported value (static, static-yaml, file-based)
2. Re-create the inventory through the UI/API so the type is set correctly
3. Upgrade Semaphore to a version that supports the inventory type in use
4. Restore the type value if it was corrupted by a manual edit or migration

Example fix

// before (DB row corrupted)
UPDATE inventory SET type='static-yaml' WHERE id=?; -- was 'custom'
// after: re-create via API
POST /project/{project_id}/inventory {"name":"inv","type":"static-yaml", ...}

switch inventory.Type {
case db.InventoryStatic, db.InventoryStaticYaml, db.InventoryFile, db.InventoryLocal:
    // ok
default:
    return fmt.Errorf("inventory %s has unsupported type %q", inventory.Name, inventory.Type)
}

func inventoryTypeSupported(t db.InventoryType) bool {
    switch t {
    case db.InventoryStatic, db.InventoryStaticYaml, db.InventoryFile, db.InventoryLocal:
        return true
    }
    return false
}

When it happens

Trigger: Running/Preparing a task whose Inventory.Type contains an unknown value — a manually inserted DB row, a corrupted type string, or an inventory created by a newer Semaphore version with a type this build does not know.

Common situations: Manual database manipulation or migration leftovers; rolling back Semaphore to a version predating a new inventory type (e.g. static-yaml); API clients posting an inventory with a bogus type that passed weak server-side validation.

Understand the failure class

Background: Invalid enum value errors: "Unknown type", "Invalid scope", "must be one of" — when a string is not on the library's allowed list — this error's family across 23 libraries.

Related errors

• inventory does not exist in inventories[].name
• access key does not suite for inventory's user credentials
• access key does not suite for inventory's sudo user…
• err
• name can not be empty

AI-assisted analysis of semaphoreui/semaphore@1774ccb71a (2026-09-07). Data as JSON: /api/errors/2904e9b4632e98b7. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at services/tasks/local_executor.go:459

	inputs = make(map[string]string)

	playbookName := t.Task.Playbook
	if playbookName == "" {
		playbookName = t.Template.Playbook
	}

	var inventoryFilename string
	switch t.Inventory.Type {
	case db.InventoryFile:
		if t.Inventory.RepositoryID == nil {
			inventoryFilename = t.Inventory.GetFilename()
		} else {
			inventoryFilename = path.Join(t.tmpInventoryFullPath(), t.Inventory.GetFilename())
		}
	case db.InventoryStatic, db.InventoryStaticYaml:
		inventoryFilename = t.tmpInventoryFullPath()
	default:
		err = fmt.Errorf("invalid inventory type")
		return
	}

	args = []string{
		"-i", inventoryFilename,
	}

	if t.Inventory.SSHKeyID != nil {
		switch t.Inventory.SSHKey.Type {
		case db.AccessKeySSH:
			if t.sshKeyInstallation.Login != "" {
				args = append(args, "--user", t.sshKeyInstallation.Login)
			}
		case db.AccessKeyLoginPassword:
			if t.sshKeyInstallation.Login != "" {
				args = append(args, "--user", t.sshKeyInstallation.Login)
			}
			if t.sshKeyInstallation.Password != "" {

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