crowdsecurity/crowdsec · error

couldn't find custom appsec-rule '%s' in the following locat

Error message

couldn't find custom appsec-rule '%s' in the following location: %+v

What it means

installAppsecRuleCustom exhausts every directory in CustomItemsLocation without finding a file named after the requested custom appsec-rule, so the install fails. It distinguishes custom (non-hub) rules: the name was not found in the hub index nor in any custom location.

Source

Thrown at pkg/hubtest/appsecrule.go:84

		return false, fmt.Errorf("unable to copy appsec-rule from '%s' to '%s': %w", customAppsecRulePath, customAppsecRuleDest, err)
	}

	return true, nil
}

func (t *HubTestItem) installAppsecRuleCustom(appsecrule string) error {
	for _, customPath := range t.CustomItemsLocation {
		found, err := t.installAppsecRuleCustomFrom(appsecrule, customPath)
		if err != nil {
			return err
		}

		if found {
			return nil
		}
	}

	return fmt.Errorf("couldn't find custom appsec-rule '%s' in the following location: %+v", appsecrule, t.CustomItemsLocation)
}

func (t *HubTestItem) installAppsecRule(name string) error {
	log.Debugf("adding rule '%s'", name)

	if item := t.HubIndex.GetItem(cwhub.APPSEC_RULES, name); item != nil {
		return t.installAppsecRuleItem(item)
	}

	return t.installAppsecRuleCustom(name)
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 909b515798)

Solutions

1. Confirm the file '<appsecrule>' exists in one of the CustomItemsLocation directories (paths are printed in the error)
2. Fix the rule name in the test config to match the file name exactly (including .yaml extension)
3. Add the rule file to the expected custom items directory used by the test

Example fix

# before: test config references 'my-custom-rule' but file missing
.appsec-tests/  .tests/my-custom-rule.yaml -> references my-custom-rule (not present)
# after
cp my-custom-rule.yaml .tests/  # or rename to match referenced name

found := false
for _, dir := range t.CustomItemsLocation {
	if _, err := os.Stat(filepath.Join(dir, appsecrule)); err == nil {
		found = true
		break
	}
}
if !found {
	return fmt.Errorf("custom appsec-rule %q not in %v; fix name or location before install", appsecrule, t.CustomItemsLocation)
}

When it happens

Trigger: installAppsecRule called with a name that is not a hub item (HubIndex.GetItem returns nil) and no file <name> exists under any of t.CustomItemsLocation paths.

Common situations: Typo in the rule name in the test .tests config; the custom rule file lives outside the configured CustomItemsLocation (e.g. not in .tests/ or the custom dir); rule file name differs from the name referenced in the test config.

Understand the failure class

Background: 'Could not be found', 'does not exist', 'not found in database': the resource-not-found family when an ID, slug, key, or URI lookup comes back empty — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

• item %s:%s not found
• no appsec_config provided
• ip not found
• no hub configuration provided
• too many levels of symbolic links

AI-assisted analysis of crowdsecurity/crowdsec@909b515798 (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/60c0892f6dcdbeb9. Report an issue: GitHub.