alibaba/nacos · error · IllegalArgumentException

Plugin config value must be positive: + key

Error message

Plugin config value must be positive:  + key

What it means

Thrown by parsePositiveLong() in NacosAuthPluginConfig when a numeric config value (token.expire.seconds) parses successfully as a long but is less than or equal to zero. The method enforces strictly positive token lifetimes; zero or negative values are rejected with an IllegalArgumentException.

Source

Thrown at plugin-default-impl/nacos-default-auth-plugin/src/main/java/com/alibaba/nacos/plugin/auth/impl/configuration/NacosAuthPluginConfig.java:125

            cachingEnabled, anonymousAiEnabled);
    }
    
    private static String value(Map<String, String> config, String key, String defaultValue) {
        if (config == null || !config.containsKey(key)) {
            return defaultValue;
        }
        String result = config.get(key);
        if (result == null) {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("Plugin config value cannot be null: " + key);
        }
        return result;
    }
    
    private static long parsePositiveLong(String value, String key) {
        try {
            long result = Long.parseLong(value);
            if (result <= 0) {
                throw new IllegalArgumentException("Plugin config value must be positive: " + key);
            }
            return result;
        } catch (NumberFormatException e) {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("Plugin config value is not a number: " + key, e);
        }
    }
    
    private static boolean parseBoolean(String value, String key) {
        if (!Boolean.TRUE.toString().equalsIgnoreCase(value)
            && !Boolean.FALSE.toString().equalsIgnoreCase(value)) {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("Plugin config value is not a boolean: " + key);
        }
        return Boolean.parseBoolean(value);
    }
    
    private static void validateTokenSecret(String tokenSecretKey) {
        if (StringUtils.isBlank(tokenSecretKey)) {
            return;

View on GitHub (pinned to 9b989acdf1)

Solutions

1. Set token.expire.seconds to a positive integer (e.g., 18000 for ~5 hours, the typical default is 18000).
2. Remove the property entirely to fall back to AuthConstants.DEFAULT_TOKEN_EXPIRE_SECONDS.
3. Validate the value is > 0 in your config-management pipeline before deploy.

Example fix

// before
nacos.core.auth.plugin.nacos.token.expire.seconds=0

// after
nacos.core.auth.plugin.nacos.token.expire.seconds=18000

String raw = config.get(NacosAuthPluginConfig.TOKEN_EXPIRE_SECONDS);
if (raw != null) {
    long v = Long.parseLong(raw); // NumberFormatException -> 1263
    if (v <= 0) throw new IllegalArgumentException("token.expire.seconds must be > 0, got " + v);
}

When it happens

Trigger: Configuring nacos.core.auth.plugin.nacos.token.expire.seconds=0 or a negative number; NacosAuthPluginConfig.from() calls parsePositiveLong() which Long.parseLong succeeds but the result <= 0 check fails.

Common situations: Setting token expiry to 0 intending 'no expiry' (Nacos does not support that); a negative value from a templated/misconfigured deployment; copy-paste of a duration with a stray minus sign.

Related errors

• Plugin config value is not a number: + key
• Base directory cannot be blank
• listener is null
• dataId={dataId}, group={group}
• 10000

AI-assisted analysis of alibaba/nacos@9b989acdf1 (2026-08-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/981810a4c7ae4679. Report an issue: GitHub.