Interesting that the above code doesn't kick out the error for you. Using the above code (including showing the ref of each):

use Modern::Perl;
use Text::CSV::Slurp;
use Data::Dumper;

sub generate {
    my %inline;
    $inline{'total'} = 2;
    $inline{'items'} = [
        { 'name' => 'item1' },
        { 'name' => 'item2' }
    ];
    return \%inline;
}

my $ref = &generate();

print Dumper( $ref->{'items'} );

print "\$ref->{'items'} is " . ref( $ref->{'items'} ) . "\n";
foreach my $item ( @{ $ref->{'items'} } ) {
    print $item->{'name'} . " is " . ref( $item ) . "\n";
}

my $csv = Text::CSV::Slurp->create( input => $ref );
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Gets the error for me on both mac and ubuntu boxes: Error on Mac:

$VAR1 = [
          {
            'name' => 'item1'
          },
          {
            'name' => 'item2'
          }
        ];
$ref->{'items'} is ARRAY
item1 is HASH
item2 is HASH
Need an an array of hashes input to create CSV from at /usr/local/Cell
+ar/perl/5.24.0_1/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.24.0/Text/CSV/Slurp.pm line 53
+.
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And on Ubuntu box:

$VAR1 = [
          {
            'name' => 'item1'
          },
          {
            'name' => 'item2'
          }
        ];
$ref->{'items'} is ARRAY
item1 is HASH
item2 is HASH
Need an an array of hashes input to create CSV from at /usr/local/shar
+e/perl/5.22.1/Text/CSV/Slurp.pm line 53.
[download]