pillar through command line causes critical log error but renders correctly

[vbasem]

when using pillars in stack yaml file that are only provided via command line causes a critical error log message but they render just fine:

Error

 [salt.pillar      :1019][CRITICAL][23755] Pillar render error: Failed to load ext_pillar stack: 'dict object' has no attribute 'namespace'

test.yml

appspace1: {{ pillar.namespace }}

test it with:

salt-call pillar.items pillar='{"namespace":"dev"}'