crowdsecurity/crowdsec · error

leakspeed is required

Error message

leakspeed is required

What it means

LeakyType.Validate enforces that a leaky-bucket configuration declares a positive capacity and a non-empty leak_speed. This error means the bucket spec parsed from the user's YAML has no leak_speed at all, so the bucket could never drain and cannot be constructed.

Source

Thrown at pkg/leakybucket/buckettype.go:29

}

var bucketTypes = map[string]BucketType{
	"leaky":       LeakyType{},
	"trigger":     TriggerType{},
	"counter":     CounterType{},
	"conditional": ConditionalType{},
	"bayesian":    BayesianType{},
}

type LeakyType struct{}

func (LeakyType) Validate(f *BucketFactory) error {
	if f.Spec.Capacity <= 0 {
		return fmt.Errorf("invalid capacity '%d': must be > 0", f.Spec.Capacity)
	}

	if f.Spec.LeakSpeed == "" {
		return errors.New("leakspeed is required")
	}

	if f.leakspeed <= 0 {
		return fmt.Errorf("invalid leakspeed '%s': must be > 0", f.Spec.LeakSpeed)
	}

	return nil
}

func (LeakyType) BuildProcessors(_ *BucketFactory) []Processor {
	return []Processor{&DumbProcessor{}}
}

type TriggerType struct{}

func (TriggerType) Validate(f *BucketFactory) error {
	if f.Spec.Capacity != 0 {
		return fmt.Errorf("invalid capacity '%d': must be 0", f.Spec.Capacity)

View on GitHub (pinned to 909b515798)

Solutions

1. Add a valid leakspeed to the bucket spec, e.g. `leakspeed: 10s`
2. Re-validate the scenario with `cscli hubtest` or by reloading crowdsec and checking for this error
3. Check for YAML indentation issues that push leakspeed outside the bucket's spec block
4. Confirm the field name spelling: `leakspeed` (no underscore) under the bucket spec

Example fix

// before
# type: leaky
# capacity: 5
// after
# type: leaky
# capacity: 5
# leakspeed: 10s

// before loading the bucket config
if b.Spec.Type == "leaky" {
    if b.Spec.Capacity <= 0 { return fmt.Errorf("capacity must be > 0") }
    if b.Spec.LeakSpeed == "" { return fmt.Errorf("leakspeed is required") }
    if _, err := time.ParseDuration(b.Spec.LeakSpeed); err != nil { return err }
}

if err := LeakyType{}.Validate(factory); err != nil {
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "leakspeed is required") {
        return fmt.Errorf("bucket %q: add a leakspeed like '10s' to the spec", factory.Name)
    }
    return err
}

When it happens

Trigger: Loading a scenario/parsers YAML whose leaky bucket has type: leaky but omits the `leakspeed:` field (f.Spec.LeakSpeed == ""), during bucket factory validation at startup or scenario load.

Common situations: Hand-editing a scenario and deleting the leakspeed line; copying a bucket template and leaving leakspeed blank; a parsed-but-invalid duration string removed by tooling; hubtest of an incomplete custom scenario.

Understand the failure class

Background: "is required", "must be set", "missing required field": configuration validation errors across open-source libraries — this error's family across 36 libraries.

Related errors

• duration is required
• a condition is required
• bayesian conditions are required
• invalid prior: must be > 0 and <= 1
• path must start with /

AI-assisted analysis of crowdsecurity/crowdsec@909b515798 (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/e2a2b83c95f9b71d. Report an issue: GitHub.