crowdsecurity/crowdsec · error

while configuring %s: %w

Error message

while configuring %s: %w

What it means

loadPlugins spawns each plugin binary, connects over gRPC, and sends its config via pluginClient.Configure(ctx, &protobufs.Config{Config: data}) where data is the env-expanded yaml. If the plugin rejects the config or the RPC fails, the plugin name and error are wrapped as "while configuring %s: %w". It means the plugin process itself (or the transport to it) refused the registration.

Source

Thrown at pkg/csplugin/broker.go:322

		if err != nil {
			return err
		}

		for _, pc := range pb.pluginConfigByName {
			if pc.Type != pSubtype {
				continue
			}

			data, err := yaml.Marshal(pc)
			if err != nil {
				return err
			}

			data = []byte(csstring.StrictExpand(string(data), os.LookupEnv))

			_, err = pluginClient.Configure(ctx, &protobufs.Config{Config: data})
			if err != nil {
				return fmt.Errorf("while configuring %s: %w", pc.Name, err)
			}

			log.Infof("registered plugin %s", pc.Name)

			pb.notificationPluginByName[pc.Name] = pluginClient
		}
	}

	return pb.verifyPluginBinaryWithProfile()
}

func (pb *PluginBroker) loadNotificationPlugin(ctx context.Context, name string, binaryPath string) (protobufs.NotifierServer, error) {
	handshake, err := getHandshake()
	if err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}

	log.Debugf("Executing plugin %s", binaryPath)

View on GitHub (pinned to 909b515798)

Solutions

1. Run the plugin binary manually with the config to see its own validation error.
2. Verify all env vars referenced in the notification yaml are set in crowdsec's environment (StrictExpand fails on unset vars).
3. Check that required config fields for the plugin type (api_key, webhook url, etc.) are present and valid.
4. Rebuild/reinstall the plugin binary so its protobufs version matches crowdsec's.

Example fix

// before: unset env var in yaml
api_key: ${SLACK_API_KEY}
// after: export it for the crowdsec process
export SLACK_API_KEY=xoxb-... && systemctl restart crowdsec

// pre-flight: expand env vars used in notification yamls
csstring.StrictExpand(data, os.LookupEnv) // run before Configure to catch unset vars early

resp, err := pluginClient.Configure(ctx, cfgProto)
if err != nil {
    log.Errorf("plugin %s rejected config: %v; validate yaml and env vars", pc.Name, err)
    return err
}

When it happens

Trigger: PluginBroker.Init -> loadPlugins: gRPC Configure call returns error — plugin process crashed/exited, plugin validates config and rejects it (bad API key, missing fields), env expansion (StrictExpand) produced invalid yaml, or socket/timeout issues.

Common situations: Notification plugin config contains an unset env var reference ($SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL unset) leading to invalid value; plugin rejects config because of missing required field; plugin binary incompatible with the protobufs API version; plugin panics on startup.

Understand the failure class

Background: "API request failed": what wrapped HTTP errors from external APIs mean and how to find the real cause — this error's family across 29 libraries.

Related errors

• timeout exceeded
• while getting process attributes: both plugin user and group
• loading config: %w
• loading plugin: %w
• plugin %q: config not found

AI-assisted analysis of crowdsecurity/crowdsec@909b515798 (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/2b48195caeff1a94. Report an issue: GitHub.