BerriAI/litellm · error · Exception

Not connected to DB!

Error message

Not connected to DB!

What it means

_update_single_user_helper backs POST /user/update and the bulk update endpoints. If prisma_client is None it raises a plain Exception 'Not connected to DB!'. The /user/update handler then wraps it into a ProxyException reading 'Authentication Error, Not connected to DB!' - misleading classification, but the root cause is simply that no database is configured.

Source

Thrown at litellm/proxy/management_endpoints/internal_user_endpoints.py:1355

        except Exception as e:  # noqa: BLE001  # a cache we cannot clear still expires; never fail the write
            verbose_proxy_logger.warning("Failed to invalidate cached entitlement key %r: %s", key, e)


async def _update_single_user_helper(
    user_request: UpdateUserRequest,
    user_api_key_dict: UserAPIKeyAuth,
    litellm_changed_by: str | None = None,
) -> dict[str, Any]:
    """
    Helper function to update a single user.
    Used by both user_update and bulk_user_update endpoints.

    Returns the updated user data or raises an exception on failure.
    """
    from litellm.proxy.proxy_server import litellm_proxy_admin_name, prisma_client

    if prisma_client is None:
        raise Exception("Not connected to DB!")

    if not user_request.user_id and not user_request.user_email:
        raise ValueError("Either user_id or user_email must be provided")

    _check_permissions_caller_permission(
        data=user_request,
        user_api_key_dict=user_api_key_dict,
    )

    data_json: Final[dict] = user_request.model_dump(exclude_unset=True)
    non_default_values = _update_internal_user_params(data_json=data_json, data=user_request)
    _hash_password_in_dict(non_default_values)

    existing_user_row: BaseModel | None = None
    if user_request.user_id:
        existing_user_row = await _user_table(prisma_client).find_first(where={"user_id": user_request.user_id})
    elif user_request.user_email:
        existing_user_row = await _user_table(prisma_client).find_first(where={"user_email": user_request.user_email})

View on GitHub (pinned to 77b7c6c40c)

Solutions

  1. Set general_settings.database_url (postgresql://...) or DATABASE_URL and restart the proxy
  2. Grep the proxy logs for 'Not connected to DB!' - the handler also logs the full exception and traceback at exception level
  3. Confirm the DB path works via GET /user/list before retrying the update

Example fix

# before
POST /user/update {"user_id": "u1", "user_alias": "x"}
# 400 ProxyException: Authentication Error, Not connected to DB!

# after: config.yaml
general_settings:
  database_url: postgresql://user:pass@host:5432/litellm
# restart, retry -> 200
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

import requests

def db_ready(base_url: str, admin_key: str) -> bool:
    r = requests.get(f"{base_url}/health/liveliness",
                     headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {admin_key}"}, timeout=10)
    return r.ok and r.json().get("litellm_database", "") != ""

Try / catch

except requests.HTTPError as e:
    body = e.response.text if e.response is not None else ""
    if "Not connected to DB!" in body:
        raise ConfigError("DATABASE_URL missing - user updates need Postgres") from e
    raise

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: POST /user/update or POST /user/bulk_update against a proxy started without general_settings.database_url / DATABASE_URL, or whose Prisma connection failed at startup.

Common situations: Running the proxy config-less for model routing only; missing DATABASE_URL env in the job's container; the auth-error wrapping sends developers chasing the wrong problem.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of BerriAI/litellm@77b7c6c40c (2026-08-18). Data as JSON: /api/errors/cb40733189a2dfa7. Report an issue: GitHub.