block/buzz · critical · anyhow::Error

BUZZ_RELAY_PRIVATE_KEY is required when BUZZ_REQUIRE_RELAY_M

Error message

BUZZ_RELAY_PRIVATE_KEY is required when BUZZ_REQUIRE_RELAY_MEMBERSHIP=true. NIP-43 events signed with an ephemeral key become unverifiable after restart.

What it means

NIP-43 membership events are signed by the relay's own keypair, so enforcement requires the stable BUZZ_RELAY_PRIVATE_KEY. This fatal error fires when BUZZ_REQUIRE_RELAY_MEMBERSHIP=true but no private key is configured — events signed with an ephemeral key would become unverifiable after restart, so boot aborts before any DB mutations.

Source

Thrown at crates/buzz-relay/src/main.rs:248

    // NIP-43: if membership enforcement is on, a valid owner pubkey is required.
    // config.rs already strips invalid values with a warning; catch the resulting
    // None here so we fail fast with a clear message rather than starting a relay
    // that no one can administer.
    if config.require_relay_membership && config.relay_owner_pubkey.is_none() {
        error!(
            "BUZZ_REQUIRE_RELAY_MEMBERSHIP=true but RELAY_OWNER_PUBKEY is not set or invalid. \
             Set RELAY_OWNER_PUBKEY to a valid 64-char hex pubkey."
        );
        return Err(anyhow::anyhow!(
            "RELAY_OWNER_PUBKEY required when BUZZ_REQUIRE_RELAY_MEMBERSHIP=true"
        ));
    }

    // NIP-43: relay membership requires a stable signing key.
    // Check this before any DB mutations so we fail fast — no point backfilling
    // or bootstrapping if we'll reject the config anyway.
    if config.require_relay_membership && config.relay_private_key.is_none() {
        return Err(anyhow::anyhow!(
            "BUZZ_RELAY_PRIVATE_KEY is required when BUZZ_REQUIRE_RELAY_MEMBERSHIP=true. \
             NIP-43 events signed with an ephemeral key become unverifiable after restart."
        ));
    }

    // NIP-43 / multi-tenant: seed the deployment's *own* community before any
    // membership backfill or owner bootstrap, so those writes are scoped to a
    // real `(community_id, pubkey)` and not a global pubkey. The host is derived
    // from `relay_url` with the *same* normalization request resolution uses
    // (`relay_url_authority` → `normalize_host`), so the bootstrapped owner lands
    // in exactly the community that live requests for this host will resolve to.
    //
    // `ensure_configured_community` is idempotent, so this is safe to run every
    // startup. An empty authority (unparseable `relay_url`)
    // is a misconfiguration — fail fast when membership is enforced rather than
    // seeding an empty-host community that no request can ever resolve to.
    let deployment_community = {
        let host = buzz_relay::tenant::relay_url_authority(&config.relay_url);

View on GitHub (pinned to f956e6fe06)

Solutions

1. Generate a stable secp256k1 private key and set BUZZ_RELAY_PRIVATE_KEY (64-char hex)
2. Confirm the secret actually reaches the process: `env | grep BUZZ_RELAY_PRIVATE_KEY`
3. Or set BUZZ_REQUIRE_RELAY_MEMBERSHIP=false until the key is provisioned

Example fix

# before
BUZZ_REQUIRE_RELAY_MEMBERSHIP=true
# BUZZ_RELAY_PRIVATE_KEY unset

# after
BUZZ_REQUIRE_RELAY_MEMBERSHIP=true
BUZZ_RELAY_PRIVATE_KEY=81100d7eeb199f8565d5a9c0d5f01b5f5a3395e8b4e4b6b1e2a9c8d7e6f5a4b3

# Both must be present together before boot.
if [ "$BUZZ_REQUIRE_RELAY_MEMBERSHIP" = "true" ] && [ -z "${BUZZ_RELAY_PRIVATE_KEY:-}" ]; then
  echo 'BUZZ_RELAY_PRIVATE_KEY is required when BUZZ_REQUIRE_RELAY_MEMBERSHIP=true'
  exit 1
fi

When it happens

Trigger: BUZZ_REQUIRE_RELAY_MEMBERSHIP=true with BUZZ_RELAY_PRIVATE_KEY unset (checked before backfill/bootstrap so nothing is written first).

Common situations: Enabling enforcement on a deployment that previously relied on dev-mode key generation; the k8s secret not mounted into the pod; key present locally but missing in the CI/staging environment.

Related errors

• RELAY_OWNER_PUBKEY required when BUZZ_REQUIRE_RELAY_MEMBERSH
• invalid BUZZ_RELAY_PRIVATE_KEY: {e}
• Configuration error: {e}
• Cannot derive a community host from BUZZ_RELAY_URL ({:?}); a
• Redis pool creation failed: {e}

AI-assisted analysis of block/buzz@f956e6fe06 (2026-08-16). Data as JSON: /api/errors/49bad9a66c1211bf. Report an issue: GitHub.