Billionmail/BillionMail · error

DNS provider is required for DNS verification

Error message

DNS provider is required for DNS verification

What it means

Parameter check in AcmeCLI.Validate: VerifyType was set to "dns" but DnsProvider is empty. DNS-01 verification needs a DNS API provider to create the challenge TXT record, so validation fails before the acme.sh DNS hook is selected.

Source

Thrown at core/internal/service/acme/cli.go:102

	// Check email
	if cli.Email == "" {
		return fmt.Errorf("email is required")
	}

	// Check domains
	if len(cli.Domains) == 0 {
		return fmt.Errorf("at least one domain is required")
	}

	// Check verification type
	if cli.VerifyType != "http" && cli.VerifyType != "dns" {
		return fmt.Errorf("verification type must be either 'http' or 'dns'")
	}

	// Check DNS provider if using DNS verification
	if cli.VerifyType == "dns" {
		if cli.DnsProvider == "" {
			return fmt.Errorf("DNS provider is required for DNS verification")
		}

		// Check if DNS provider is supported
		supportedProviders := []string{"tencentcloud", "alidns", "cloudxns", "azuredns", "cloudflare", "godaddy"}
		isSupported := false
		for _, provider := range supportedProviders {
			if cli.DnsProvider == provider {
				isSupported = true
				break
			}
		}

		if !isSupported {
			return fmt.Errorf("unsupported DNS provider: %s, supported providers: %s",
				cli.DnsProvider, strings.Join(supportedProviders, ", "))
		}

		// Check DNS config

View on GitHub (pinned to fc36c76c05)

Solutions

1. Set cli.DnsProvider to one of the supported providers (e.g. cloudflare, alidns, tencentcloud)
2. Pass --dns-provider <name> alongside --verify-type dns
3. Skip requiring a provider when VerifyType is http

Example fix

// before
cli := &AcmeCLI{Email: e, Domains: d, VerifyType: "dns"} // provider missing
// after
cli := &AcmeCLI{Email: e, Domains: d, VerifyType: "dns", DnsProvider: "cloudflare", DnsConfig: cfg}

if strings.EqualFold(cli.VerifyType, "dns") && strings.TrimSpace(cli.DnsProvider) == "" {
    return errors.New("--dns-provider must be set when verify-type is dns")
}

if err := cli.Validate(); err != nil {
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "DNS provider is required") {
        log.Printf("--dns-provider missing for dns verification of %v", cli.Domains)
    }
    os.Exit(1)
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling Validate/Apply with VerifyType="dns" but DnsProvider left unset (missing --dns-provider flag or empty config key).

Common situations: Switching from http to dns verification without updating the invocation; template-based automation where the provider field is only filled for some environments.

Understand the failure class

Background: "missing required argument" and "the following required arguments were not provided": what required-argument errors mean and how to fix them — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

• unsupported DNS provider: %s, supported providers: %s
• DNS provider credentials are required for DNS verification
• DNS automated resolution failed: SecretId or SecretKey is em
• DNS provider initialization failed: {}
• DNS verification setup failed: {}

AI-assisted analysis of Billionmail/BillionMail@fc36c76c05 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/f214661473ebe345. Report an issue: GitHub.