BerriAI/litellm · error · HTTPException

DB not connected. This endpoint needs a database; set DATABA

Error message

DB not connected. This endpoint needs a database; set DATABASE_URL to a PostgreSQL connection string (postgresql://...) to enable it. See https://docs.litellm.ai/docs/proxy/virtual_keys

What it means

LiteLLM proxy raises this 500 from _get_prisma_client() when the global prisma_client is None, meaning the proxy process started without any PostgreSQL connection configured. Every Claude Code marketplace endpoint (/claude-code/marketplace.json, /claude-code/plugins and all sub-routes) persists plugin metadata in Postgres via Prisma, so they hard-require DATABASE_URL. The error text points at the virtual-keys docs because the database is a proxy-wide feature, not specific to this endpoint.

Source

Thrown at litellm/proxy/anthropic_endpoints/claude_code_endpoints/claude_code_marketplace.py:73


class _MarketplaceEntry(TypedDict, total=False):
    name: str
    source: object
    version: str
    description: str
    author: object
    homepage: object
    keywords: object
    category: object


async def _get_prisma_client() -> object:
    """Get the prisma client from proxy_server."""
    from litellm.proxy.proxy_server import prisma_client

    if prisma_client is None:
        raise HTTPException(
            status_code=500,
            detail={"error": CommonProxyErrors.db_not_connected_error.value},
        )
    return prisma_client


@router.get(
    "/claude-code/marketplace.json",
    tags=["Claude Code Marketplace"],
)
async def get_marketplace():
    """
    Serve marketplace.json for Claude Code plugin discovery.

    This endpoint is accessed by Claude Code CLI when users run:
    - claude plugin marketplace add <url>
    - claude plugin install <name>@<marketplace>

View on GitHub (pinned to 77b7c6c40c)

Solutions

  1. Set DATABASE_URL to a valid PostgreSQL connection string, e.g. export DATABASE_URL="postgresql://user:pass@host:5432/litellm", or add `database_url:` under the `general:` section of your proxy config YAML, then restart the proxy so Prisma connects and runs migrations.
  2. If running in Docker, verify the variable actually reaches the container: `docker exec <container> printenv DATABASE_URL` (check name, not value) and fix the compose/env_file wiring if missing.
  3. Confirm the DB is reachable from the proxy host (psql/<host>:5432) and that credentials are valid; a bad connection string can also leave prisma_client unset.
  4. After restart, re-hit the endpoint; if migrations created the plugin tables, GET /claude-code/plugins (with a valid virtual key) should return an empty list instead of this error.

Example fix

# before
litellm --config config.yaml   # no database configured -> 500 'DB not connected'

# after (env var)
export DATABASE_URL="postgresql://user:pass@localhost:5432/litellm"
litellm --config config.yaml

# after (config.yaml)
general:
  database_url: "postgresql://user:pass@localhost:5432/litellm"
Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Validate before calling

# Operator-side pre-check before starting the proxy:
import os
assert os.environ.get("DATABASE_URL", "").startswith("postgresql://"), (
    "DATABASE_URL must be a postgresql:// string or /claude-code/* returns 500"
)

Try / catch

import requests
try:
    r = requests.get(f"{base}/claude-code/marketplace.json", timeout=10)
except requests.RequestException:
    raise  # transport-level failure
if r.status_code == 500 and "DB not connected" in r.text:
    raise RuntimeError(
        "Proxy has no database; set DATABASE_URL on the LiteLLM proxy and restart"
    )
r.raise_for_status()

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Calling GET /claude-code/marketplace.json or any /claude-code/plugins* route on a proxy started with only `litellm --config config.yaml` (or `litellm --model ...`) where neither the DATABASE_URL env var nor `general.database_url` in the config is set. Also happens when the env var is set in a different shell/container than the one running the proxy, so the proxy process never sees it.

Common situations: Trying out the Claude Code plugin marketplace on a local dev proxy that was previously started without a DB; running the proxy in Docker/Kubernetes and forgetting to pass DATABASE_URL through env or env_file; setting database_url under the wrong config section so LiteLLM ignores it; upgrading LiteLLM and assuming the marketplace works without the DB feature.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of BerriAI/litellm@77b7c6c40c (2026-08-18). Data as JSON: /api/errors/214ad4a42a061095. Report an issue: GitHub.