function "inputs" not defined when templating manifests with Skaffold/Helm/etc

[kerthcet]

apiVersion: argoproj.io/v1alpha1
kind: Workflow
metadata:
  generateName: hello-world-parameters-
spec:
  # invoke the whalesay template with
  # "hello world" as the argument
  # to the message parameter
  entrypoint: whalesay
  arguments:
    parameters:
    - name: message
      value: hello world
  templates:
  - name: whalesay
    inputs:
      parameters:
      - name: message       # parameter declaration
    container:
      # run cowsay with that message input parameter as args
      image: docker/whalesay
      command: [cowsay]
      args: ["{{inputs.parameters.message}}"]

I deployed an official demo, but print error function "inputs" not defined, can someone help pointing out the reason. My argo version is v3.0.5.

[kerthcet]

well, it's a bug from skaffold.

[Martijn-Y-ai]

Do you remember which bug and if it has been solved? I'm facing the same issue...

[KPhans]

hi there, has this been resolved? currently encountering this issue

[agilgur5]

That error is not from Argo, but from a templating engine such as Helm (or Skaffold or another).

If you're using Helm templating (or others), you need to escape Argo's own templating.
helm/helm#2798 lists several ways of doing so. The one I am most familiar with is "Option 1" from this SO answer (written by an Argo CD maintainer and Workflows contributor).
Here's how you could use that for your template:

# ...
      args: ["{{`{{inputs.parameters.message}}`}}"]

The links above describe how this works in detail, but basically the backticks tell Helm (et al) to render the inner string as-is as a literal. That makes Helm render the Argo syntax out properly.

Copied and slightly modified from my own answer in #11539