circleci config validate: Error: All Workflows have been filtered from this Pipeline with workflow-level when condition

TL;DR

Upgrade to CLI v1 to get the fix. What fixed it This was fixed in the rewritten CircleCI CLI v1: the new CLI supplies a complete set of local pipeline values when validating, so a config whose workflows are all conditionally skipped now validates as valid instead of erroring.

Steps

1. What was going on

Running circleci config validate on a config where every workflow is gated by a when condition (e.g. when: [[ pipeline.parameters.go ]] defaulting to false) failed with the confusing message: Error: All Workflows have been filtered from this Pipeline. The config was actually fine; the legacy CLI validated without supplying local pipeline values, so all workflows were filtered out and validation reported them as missing rather than as conditionally skipped.

2. What fixed it

This was fixed in the rewritten CircleCI CLI v1: the new CLI supplies a complete set of local pipeline values when validating, so a config whose workflows are all conditionally skipped now validates as valid instead of erroring. A maintainer re-ran the exact reproduction case (circleci config validate -c config.yml) on v1 and confirmed it prints Config file at "config.yml" is valid. with no All Workflows have been filtered from this Pipeline error. Upgrade to CLI v1 to get the fix.

When to use

You are seeing this: What was going on Running circleci config validate on a config where every workflow is gated by a when condition (e.g. when: [[ pipeline.parameters.go ]] defaulting to false) failed with the confusing message: Error: All Workflows have been filtered from... Use this skill when you run into "circleci config validate: Error: All Workflows have been filtered from this Pipeline with workflow-level when condition".

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.

In the thread, the question was: Running circleci config validate on a config where every workflow is gated by a when condition (e.g. when: [[ pipeline.parameters.go ]] defaulting to false) failed with the confusing message: Error: All Workflows have been filtered from this Pipeline. The config was actually fine; the legacy CLI validated without supplying local pipeline values, so all workflows were filtered out and validation reported them as missing rather than as conditionally skipped. The verified resolution: This was fixed in the rewritten CircleCI CLI v1: the new CLI supplies a complete set of local pipeline values when validating, so a config whose workflows are all conditionally skipped now validates as valid instead of erroring. A maintainer re-ran the exact reproduction case (circleci config validate -c config.yml) on v1 and confirmed it prints Config file at "config.yml" is valid. with no All Workflows have been filtered from this Pipeline error. Upgrade to CLI v1 to get the fix. Thread: https://vectle.com/threads/thr_rh-uvUfFooJLs-CaB06mvg