What causes "sqs_name is required when using sqs polling method" in crowdsecurity/crowdsec?

Add `sqs_name: my-queue` to the s3 source config

sqs_name is required when using sqs polling method

Error message

sqs_name is required when using sqs polling method

What it means

Validation in the S3 datasource's UnmarshalConfig: polling_method is sqs (SQS-event-driven ingestion) but sqs_name is unset. With SQS polling, the queue is the trigger source — without its name the module cannot subscribe to any queue. Note bucket_name and sqs_name are themselves mutually exclusive; this check fires only when the name is missing in sqs mode.

Source

Thrown at pkg/acquisition/modules/s3/config.go:139

	if s.Config.PollingInterval == 0 {
		s.Config.PollingInterval = 60
	}

	if s.Config.MaxBufferSize == 0 {
		s.Config.MaxBufferSize = bufio.MaxScanTokenSize
	}

	if s.Config.PollingMethod != PollMethodList && s.Config.PollingMethod != PollMethodSQS {
		return fmt.Errorf("invalid polling method %s", s.Config.PollingMethod)
	}

	if s.Config.BucketName != "" && s.Config.SQSName != "" {
		return errors.New("bucket_name and sqs_name are mutually exclusive")
	}

	if s.Config.PollingMethod == PollMethodSQS && s.Config.SQSName == "" {
		return errors.New("sqs_name is required when using sqs polling method")
	}

	if s.Config.BucketName == "" && s.Config.PollingMethod == PollMethodList {
		return errors.New("bucket_name is required")
	}

	if s.Config.SQSFormat != "" && s.Config.SQSFormat != SQSFormatEventBridge && s.Config.SQSFormat != SQSFormatS3Notification && s.Config.SQSFormat != SQSFormatSNS {
		return fmt.Errorf("invalid sqs_format %s, must be empty, %s, %s or %s", s.Config.SQSFormat, SQSFormatEventBridge, SQSFormatS3Notification, SQSFormatSNS)
	}

	return nil
}

func (s *Source) Configure(ctx context.Context, yamlConfig []byte, logger *log.Entry, _ metrics.AcquisitionMetricsLevel) error {
	err := s.UnmarshalConfig(yamlConfig)
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}

View on GitHub (pinned to 909b515798)

Solutions

Add `sqs_name: my-queue` to the s3 source config
Revert polling_method to `list` if you meant direct bucket polling
Check key spelling and indentation of the sqs_name field

Example fix

// before
polling_method: sqs
// after
polling_method: sqs
sqs_name: my-queue

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

if cfg.PollingMethod == "sqs" && cfg.SQSName == "" {
    return errors.New("sqs_name required for sqs polling")
}

Prevention

Set sqs_name whenever polling_method is sqs
Check YAML indentation of required keys
Validate configs with cscli before restart

When it happens

Trigger: An s3 acquisition config with `polling_method: sqs` but empty/missing `sqs_name`, checked in UnmarshalConfig.

Common situations: Switching polling_method to sqs without adding the queue name, YAML indentation putting sqs_name outside the source block, or a typo like sqs_queue_name.

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

AI-assisted analysis of crowdsecurity/crowdsec@909b515798 (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/90b80b4b0f9cd8e3. Report an issue: GitHub.