clockworklabs/SpacetimeDB · error

Environment publish failed with HTTP

Error message

Environment publish failed with HTTP {}

What it means

`publish_only` PUTs the encoded environment update to the server and requires a success status. Any non-2xx response — authentication failure, permission denied on the database, schema/validation rejection, server error — aborts with this message including the status code.

Solutions

1. Read the HTTP status: 401/403 → `spacetime login` again and confirm you own the database identity.
2. Verify supplied keys/values match the module's declared environment schema (names, formats).
3. Retry if the status is 5xx and check server logs/health.
4. Ensure the database identity used matches the one the module was published under.

Example fix

// before
spacetime publish -s https://prod.example mydb  # Environment publish failed with HTTP 403 Forbidden
// after: log in with the owning identity
spacetime login --server https://prod.example
spacetime publish -s https://prod.example mydb

// pre-check ownership and auth before publishing env values
spacetime list --server "$SERVER" | grep -q "$DB" || echo "database not found/owned by you"
spacetime login show --server "$SERVER" >/dev/null || spacetime login --server "$SERVER"

// rust
match publish_env().await {
    Err(e) if e.to_string().contains("Environment publish failed with HTTP 40") => {
        relogin().await?; publish_env().await
    }
    other => other,
}

When it happens

Trigger: PUT of the environment update returns 401/403 (bad token or not the database owner), 4xx validation error (e.g. invalid key/value against the module's declared schema), or 5xx server failure.

Common situations: Publishing environment values for a database owned by another identity; supplying values that fail `validate_supplied_values` server-side; token expiry mid-session; transient server outage.

Understand the failure class

Background: "API error: {status}" and "HTTP 401/403/404/429/5xx" errors: non-2xx HTTP responses explained — this error's family across 27 libraries.

Related errors

• Cannot read environment schema: HTTP
• Publish failed with HTTP
• Environment read failed with HTTP
• Invalid publish response
• Permission denied publishing environment values

AI-assisted analysis of clockworklabs/SpacetimeDB@eddf9f5014 (2026-09-20). Data as JSON: /api/errors/1af5f058f9f6c598. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at crates/cli/src/subcommands/publish/environment.rs:139

    );
    let metadata: EnvironmentMetadata = response.json().await.context("Invalid environment metadata")?;
    let schema = EnvironmentSchema::new(metadata.declarations)?;
    let resolved = resolve(&schema, input, |key| std::env::var_os(key))?;
    options.validate_values(&resolved.values)?;
    print!("{}", resolved.display());
    let request = PublishRequest {
        module: None,
        environment: resolved.values,
        environment_remove: options.remove.clone(),
        environment_replace: options.replace,
        expected_module_version: Some(metadata.module_version),
    };
    let response = add_auth_header_opt(client.put(url), &auth)
        .header(reqwest::header::CONTENT_TYPE, CONTENT_TYPE)
        .body(request.encode()?)
        .send()
        .await?;
    anyhow::ensure!(
        response.status().is_success(),
        "Environment publish failed with HTTP {}",
        response.status()
    );
    match response
        .json::<spacetimedb_client_api_messages::name::PublishResult>()
        .await
        .map_err(|_| anyhow::anyhow!("Invalid publish response"))?
    {
        spacetimedb_client_api_messages::name::PublishResult::Success { database_identity, .. } => {
            println!("Updated environment for database {database_identity}");
            Ok(())
        }
        spacetimedb_client_api_messages::name::PublishResult::PermissionDenied { .. } => {
            anyhow::bail!("Permission denied publishing environment values")
        }
    }
}

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