KubernetesJobOperator generates invalid job names

[quentin-sommer]

Apache Airflow Provider(s)

cncf-kubernetes

Versions of Apache Airflow Providers

apache-airflow-providers-cncf-kubernetes==10.9.0

Apache Airflow version

2.10.5

Operating System

linux

Deployment

Google Cloud Composer

Deployment details

composer-2.16.1-airflow-2.10.5

What happened

When using GKEStartJobOperator the job name that is generated doesn't strip _ characters, leading to a kubernetes server error response:

[2026-01-07, 11:54:30 EST] {kubernetes.py:568} ERROR - Exception when attempting to create Namespaced Job: 
{
  "apiVersion": "batch/v1",
  "kind": "Job",
  "metadata": {
    "annotations": {},
    "labels": {},
    "name": "job-cloud_composer_task_export_answers_stats-3gxv44tg",
    "namespace": "data-science"
  },
}

// actual error
{
  "kind": "Status",
  "apiVersion": "v1",
  "metadata": {},
  "status": "Failure",
  "message": "Job.batch \"job-cloud_composer_task_export_answers_stats-3gxv44tg\" is invalid: metadata.name: Invalid value: \"job-cloud_composer_task_export_answers_stats-3gxv44tg\": a lowercase RFC 1123 subdomain must consist of lower case alphanumeric characters, '-' or '.', and must start and end with an alphanumeric character (e.g. 'example.com', regex used for validation is '[a-z0-9]([-a-z0-9]*[a-z0-9])?(\\.[a-z0-9]([-a-z0-9]*[a-z0-9])?)*')",
  "reason": "Invalid",
  "details": {
    "name": "job-cloud_composer_task_export_answers_stats-3gxv44tg",
    "group": "batch",
    "kind": "Job",
    "causes": [
      {
        "reason": "FieldValueInvalid",
        "message": "Invalid value: \"job-cloud_composer_task_export_answers_stats-3gxv44tg\": a lowercase RFC 1123 subdomain must consist of lower case alphanumeric characters, '-' or '.', and must start and end with an alphanumeric character (e.g. 'example.com', regex used for validation is '[a-z0-9]([-a-z0-9]*[a-z0-9])?(\\.[a-z0-9]([-a-z0-9]*[a-z0-9])?)*')",
        "field": "metadata.name"
      }
    ]
  },
  "code": 422
}

The regex provided in the stacktrace:

[a-z0-9]([-a-z0-9]*[a-z0-9])?(\\.[a-z0-9]([-a-z0-9]*[a-z0-9])?)*')

Doesn't validate the job name:

job-cloud_composer_task_export_answers_stats-3gxv44tg

Our task names use underscores as it's the python convetion

What you think should happen instead

the pod operator

airflow/providers/cncf/kubernetes/src/airflow/providers/cncf/kubernetes/operators/pod.py

Line 671 in 2daadf4

self.name = self._set_name(self.name)

calls _set_name which replaces invalid chars by -

but the job operator

airflow/providers/cncf/kubernetes/src/airflow/providers/cncf/kubernetes/operators/job.py

Line 190 in 2daadf4

def execute(self, context: Context):

doesn't call set name, leading to invalid names being preserved.

The actual names come from this function:

airflow/providers/cncf/kubernetes/src/airflow/providers/cncf/kubernetes/kubernetes_helper_functions.py

Line 125 in 2daadf4

def create_unique_id(

How to reproduce

Use GKEStartJobOperator or KubernetesStartJobOperator with a task id containing a _

Anything else

I'm willing to submit a fix and I'm already prepping one

Are you willing to submit PR?

• Yes I am willing to submit a PR! Fix job_name normalization in KubernetesJobOperator #60231

Code of Conduct

• I agree to follow this project's Code of Conduct