Netflix/chaosmonkey · error

not terminating: Could not retrieve config for app=%s

Error message

not terminating: Could not retrieve config for app=%s

What it means

Fires in doTerminate when d.ConfGetter.Get(appName) fails to fetch the Chaos Monkey configuration for the app named by the instance group (missing config, storage/backend error). Without the app config (enabled flag, whitelist), no termination decision can be made, so the function aborts.

Source

Thrown at term/term.go:126

	*/
	if d.Env.InTest() && !leashed {
		return UnleashedInTestEnv{}
	}

	var killer chaosmonkey.Terminator

	if leashed {
		killer = leashedKiller{}
	} else {
		killer = d.T
	}

	// get Chaos Monkey config info for this app
	appName := group.App()
	appCfg, err := d.ConfGetter.Get(appName)

	if err != nil {
		return errors.Wrapf(err, "not terminating: Could not retrieve config for app=%s", appName)
	}

	if !appCfg.Enabled {
		log.Printf("not terminating: enabled=false for app=%s", appName)
		return nil
	}

	if appCfg.Whitelist != nil {
		log.Printf("not terminating: app=%s has a whitelist which is no longer supported", appName)
		return nil
	}

	instance, ok := PickRandomInstance(group, *appCfg, d.Dep)
	if !ok {
		log.Printf("No eligible instances in group, nothing to terminate: %+v", group)
		return nil
	}

View on GitHub (pinned to eaa28fb761)

Solutions

1. Check connectivity and credentials to the app-config source (usually Spinnaker)
2. Verify the app exists and has chaosmonkey config attached
3. Retry on transient Spinnaker failures

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at term/term.go:126 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of Netflix/chaosmonkey@eaa28fb761 (2026-09-03). Data as JSON: /api/errors/0bd7892cd6b11c84. Report an issue: GitHub.