{"record":{"id":"88eb03385541e762","repo":"tauri-apps/tauri","slug":"failed-to-generate-key","errorCode":null,"errorMessage":"Failed to generate key","messagePattern":"Failed to generate key","errorType":"panic","errorClass":null,"httpStatus":null,"severity":"error","filePath":"crates/tauri-cli/src/signer/generate.rs","lineNumber":35,"sourceCode":"  #[clap(short, long)]\n  password: Option<String>,\n  /// Write private key to a file\n  #[clap(short, long)]\n  write_keys: Option<PathBuf>,\n  /// Overwrite private key even if it exists on the specified path\n  #[clap(short, long)]\n  force: bool,\n  /// Skip prompting for values\n  #[clap(long, env = \"CI\")]\n  ci: bool,\n}\n\npub fn command(mut options: Options) -> Result<()> {\n  if options.ci && options.password.is_none() {\n    log::warn!(\"Generating new private key without password. For security reasons, we recommend setting a password instead.\");\n    options.password.replace(\"\".into());\n  }\n  let keypair = generate_key(options.password).expect(\"Failed to generate key\");\n\n  if let Some(output_path) = options.write_keys {\n    let (secret_path, public_path) =\n      save_keypair(options.force, output_path, &keypair.sk, &keypair.pk)\n        .expect(\"Unable to write keypair\");\n\n    println!();\n    println!(\"Your keypair was generated successfully:\");\n    println!(\"Private: {} (Keep it secret!)\", display_path(secret_path));\n    println!(\"Public: {}\", display_path(public_path));\n    println!(\"---------------------------\")\n  } else {\n    println!();\n    println!(\"Your keys were generated successfully!\",);\n    println!();\n    println!(\"Private: (Keep it secret!)\");\n    println!(\"{}\", keypair.sk);\n    println!();","sourceCodeStart":17,"sourceCodeEnd":53,"githubUrl":"https://github.com/tauri-apps/tauri/blob/52e4b6e71d8632a7e648f866c442e287ecddee34/crates/tauri-cli/src/signer/generate.rs#L17-L53","documentation":"`tauri signer generate` creates a minisign keypair via generate_encrypted_keypair (which derives a key from the password). This expect fires if keypair generation internally fails; in practice that means a non-UTF-8/unusable password read from the prompt or environment, or an extremely rare OS entropy/wrapping failure inside the helper (generate_key itself unwraps internally).","triggerScenarios":"Running `tauri signer generate` with a password containing bytes that break the key encoding path (e.g. TAURI_SIGNING_PRIVATE_KEY_PASSWORD-style secrets with invalid encoding fed through -p), or transient entropy/process issues in restricted CI sandboxes.","commonSituations":"CI secrets with bad encodings passed as the password; exotic locale terminals mangling typed passwords; very old CLI versions with signer bugs.","solutions":["Retry with a simple ASCII password first to isolate encoding issues.","Pass the password explicitly via the password flag/env rather than an interactive prompt in CI.","Update to the latest CLI version (`cargo install tauri-cli --locked` / latest npm package).","If it still fails, open an issue with the exact command (never include the password/key material)."],"exampleFix":"# before: password secret with stray bytes\n$ tauri signer generate -p \"$SIGNING_PASSWORD\"\n\n# after: re-entered plain ASCII secret\n$ tauri signer generate -p 'correct-horse-battery'","handlingStrategy":"retry","validationCode":"# Keep signing passwords plain ASCII (no stray bytes) before generating\npython3 -c \"import os,sys; \\\n  (os.environ['KEY_PASSWORD'].encode('ascii')) if 'KEY_PASSWORD' in os.environ else None\" || {\n  echo 'password must be ASCII'; exit 1; }","typeGuard":null,"tryCatchPattern":"# Retry once with an explicit password; generation failures are rarely persistent\ntauri signer generate -w keys/app.key -p \"$PW\" || tauri signer generate -w keys/app.key -p \"$PW\"","preventionTips":["Use simple ASCII passwords for updater keys, stored in a secrets manager.","Pass the password via flag/env (or CI=true for passwordless keys) instead of interactive prompts in pipelines.","Stay on a recent CLI version; signer internals improve between releases."],"tags":["rust","tauri-cli","signer","minisign","key-generation","updater"],"backgroundTag":"key-generation-failed","analyzedSha":"52e4b6e71d8632a7e648f866c442e287ecddee34","analyzedAt":"2026-08-20T13:59:20.734Z","schemaVersion":2},"datasetVersion":"2026-08-31T19:17:28.585Z"}