BerriAI/litellm · error · ValueError

REDIS_CLUSTER_NODES environment variable is not valid JSON.

Error message

REDIS_CLUSTER_NODES environment variable is not valid JSON. Please ensure it's properly formatted.

What it means

Error "REDIS_CLUSTER_NODES environment variable is not valid JSON. Please ensure it's properly formatted." thrown in BerriAI/litellm.

Source

Thrown at litellm/_redis.py:487

        and redis_kwargs["startup_nodes"] is not None
        or "sentinel_nodes" in redis_kwargs
        and redis_kwargs["sentinel_nodes"] is not None
    ):
        pass
    elif "host" not in redis_kwargs or redis_kwargs["host"] is None:
        raise ValueError("Either 'host' or 'url' must be specified for redis.")

    # litellm.print_verbose(f"redis_kwargs: {redis_kwargs}")
    return redis_kwargs


def init_redis_cluster(redis_kwargs) -> redis.RedisCluster:
    _redis_cluster_nodes_in_env: Final[str | None] = get_secret("REDIS_CLUSTER_NODES")
    if _redis_cluster_nodes_in_env is not None:
        try:
            redis_kwargs["startup_nodes"] = json.loads(_redis_cluster_nodes_in_env)
        except json.JSONDecodeError:
            raise ValueError(
                "REDIS_CLUSTER_NODES environment variable is not valid JSON. Please ensure it's properly formatted."
            )

    verbose_logger.debug("init_redis_cluster: startup nodes are being initialized.")
    from redis.cluster import ClusterNode

    args: Final = _get_redis_cluster_kwargs()
    cluster_kwargs: Final = {}
    for arg in redis_kwargs:
        if arg in args:
            cluster_kwargs[arg] = redis_kwargs[arg]

    new_startup_nodes: Final[list[ClusterNode]] = []

    for item in redis_kwargs["startup_nodes"]:
        new_startup_nodes.append(ClusterNode(**item))

    cluster_kwargs.pop("startup_nodes", None)

View on GitHub (pinned to 6c2dcb801b)

Solutions

1. Fix REDIS_CLUSTER_NODES to be valid JSON, e.g. '[{"host": "h1", "port": 6379}]'.

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at litellm/_redis.py:487 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of BerriAI/litellm@6c2dcb801b (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/104a2cb06510a693. Report an issue: GitHub.