Azure Pipelines Deployment Lifecycle Hook Invalid

Deployment strategies expose a fixed set of lifecycle hooks. runOnce supports preDeploy, deploy, routeTraffic, postRouteTraffic, and on.{success,failure}; using a hook the strategy does not define - or misspelling one - fails to compile.

What this error means

The pipeline rejects the deployment job with Unexpected value '<hook>' under the strategy, naming a hook that is not valid for that strategy. The deploy job never starts.

/azure-pipelines.yml (Line: 18, Col: 11): Unexpected value 'postDeploy'

Common causes

Misspelled or non-existent hook

The hooks are exact keywords. postDeploy is not a hook (postRouteTraffic is); onFailure is not (on: { failure: ... } is). Anything outside the set is rejected.

Hook not offered by the strategy

canary adds no extra deploy phases beyond runOnce/rolling semantics - placing a hook a strategy does not define is invalid.

How to fix it

Use the exact hook names

Stick to the documented hooks and the on: block for success/failure.

strategy:
  runOnce:
    preDeploy:
      steps: [ { script: echo prep } ]
    deploy:
      steps: [ { script: ./deploy.sh } ]
    on:
      failure:
        steps: [ { script: ./rollback.sh } ]

Check which hooks the strategy supports

1. Confirm the strategy (runOnce/rolling/canary) and its valid hooks in the deployment-jobs docs.
2. Replace any unsupported hook with the nearest valid one.
3. Move success/failure handling into the on: block, not a custom hook.

How to prevent it

• Keep a reference of the valid lifecycle hooks per strategy.
• Use on: { success, failure } for post-deploy handling.
• Validate the pipeline after editing deployment hooks.

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