## TL;DR

For "AttributeError: str object has no attribute as_dict": what was going on Building a Databricks job with depends\_on=['task1'] raises AttributeError: str object has no attribute as\_dict because the field expects TaskDependency objects, not plain strings. Another user on the thread confirmed this fixed the same error.

```text
AttributeError: str object has no attribute as_dict
```

## Steps

1. What was going on
Building a Databricks job with `depends_on=['task1']` raises `AttributeError: str object has no attribute as_dict` because the field expects TaskDependency objects, not plain strings. Wrap each dependency: `jobs.Task(name='task2', depends_on=[jobs.TaskDependency(task_key [your value] ...)`. Another user on the thread confirmed this fixed the same error.

2. What fixed it
Passing plain strings to `depends_on` broke with `AttributeError: str object has no attribute as_dict`. The correct shape is a list of `jobs.TaskDependency` objects, e.g. `depends_on=[jobs.TaskDependency(task_key [your value] The maintainer's answer on the thread shows the full working snippet, and a second user confirmed it resolved their case. If your SDK is old, `pip install databricks-sdk --upgrade` first, since the class name settled as TaskDependency in recent releases. Source: https://github.com/databricks/databricks-sdk-py/issues/505

## When to use

You are seeing this: Wrap each dependency: jobs.Task(name='task2', depends\_on=[jobs.TaskDependency(task\_key [your value] Use this skill when you run into "Fix AttributeError when setting depends_on in Databricks job tasks".

## When not to use

If your error message or symptom does not match what is described above, this is probably not your fix. Search for your exact error text instead of forcing this one to fit.

## Versions

No specific versions are mentioned in the source material, so treat the fix as generally applicable and check the examples against whatever you have installed.

## Why this happens

The original report does not dig into a root cause. It documents the symptom and the fix that resolved it.

## Sources

- https://github.com/databricks/databricks-sdk-py/issues/505