--variable=VALUE argument seems to be ignored in the CreateRelease TeamCity Step

[Clare-Octopus]

Version

TC Plugin - 6.3.0
CLI - 9.1.7
Octopus Version - 2026.2.13126

What happened?

Setting the --variable=VALUE argument in the Additional command line arguments field in an OctopusDeploy: Create release step does not seem to actually set the value of the prompted variable in the release. The flag is valid for a CreateRelease step as per our documentation here.

This results in an error when trying to deploy the release via TeamCity:

System.ArgumentException: Please provide a variable for the prompted value ImageTag

I have tried a number of different ways to type the variable into the Additional command line arguments field for example --variable "ImageTag:1.5.2" and --variable 'ImageTag:1.5.2' but nothing seems to work in TeamCity.

Whats odd is that if you put basically the exact same code directly into the same octo CLI version in command prompt, it will create the release and respect the --variable flag:

TeamCity command -

octo.exe create-release --server http://192.168.0.201/ --apikey SECRET --space Default --project "TC Prompted variable" --enableservicemessages --version 1.0.4 --deployto Dev --progress --variable ImageTag:1.5.2

Old CLI command (the exact same CLI version TC is using) -

octo.exe create-release --server http://192.168.0.201/ --apikey SECRET --space Default --project "TC Prompted variable" --enableservicemessages --version 0.0.5 --deployto Dev --progress --variable ImageTag:1.5.2

In my project, I have a Run a Script step with a simple PowerShell Write-Host "$ImageTag" script. ImageTag being the prompted Project variable. You can see the release deploys and prints out the variable value from the CLI code when running directly through the CLI (not TeamCity):

More Information

Initial customer ticket (Internal) - https://octopuscd.zendesk.com/agent/tickets/208482
RnD (Internal) - https://octopusdeploy.slack.com/archives/CNHBHV2BX/p1781689481192679

Workaround

Please see my comment below for the fix for this.

[Clare-Octopus]

After more testing, it seems it was working via the CLI because it had a deploy flag (I put an environment in the TeamCity Create Release step so it auto-deployed — --deployto Dev).

To get this working, you need to ensure --variable:Value is set on the Deploy a Release step in TeamCity.

This will then work in Octopus:

Create release command via TC - octo.exe create-release --server http://192.168.0.201/ --apikey SECRET --space Default --project "TC Prompted variable" --enableservicemessages --version 1.0.8

Deploy a release command via TC - octo.exe deploy-release --server http://192.168.0.201/ --apikey SECRET --space Default --project TC Prompted variable --enableservicemessages --version latest --deployto Dev --variable ImageTag:1.5.2

Octopus Deployment:

I think we need to edit our documentation on the CreateRelease commands to reflect the --deployto flag needs to be used with the --variable flag.

We do have the --variable flag in our documentation on the DeployRelease commands and that is correct.