could not parse environment variable

Error message

could not parse environment variable '{}' with '{}' value: {}

What it means

env_parse_duration parses an env var into a duration-like value: it first reads a unit suffix, then parses the numeric part with T::from_str. If the numeric part fails to parse it panics with the variable name, raw value, and underlying parse error. It also enforces an optional maximum afterwards.

Solutions

Set the value as <number><supported unit> matching what the code strips (e.g. '60s', '10m'), or a bare number if unitless is accepted
Trim whitespace and remove surrounding quotes from the env value
Unset the variable to use the built-in default

Example fix

// before
CUBEJS_REFRESH_WIFI=every few minutes
// after
CUBEJS_REFRESH_WIFI=300s

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

// Validate duration env vars: number + supported unit
check_duration() {
  echo "$1" | grep -Eq '^[0-9]+(s|m|h|ms)?$' || { echo "invalid duration '$1' (expected e.g. 30s, 5m)"; exit 1; }
}
[ -n "$CUBEJS_REFRESH_WIFI" ] && check_duration "$CUBEJS_REFRESH_WIFI"

Prevention

Express durations as plain numbers with a single unit suffix (300s, 5m, 1h)
Avoid prose values like 'every few minutes' in env files
Watch for CI-injected trailing whitespace/newlines in secrets and env vars
Document the exact accepted formats next to each duration variable

When it happens

Trigger: Setting a duration env var (e.g. cache/connect timeouts) to a value whose numeric component is unparseable — 'abc s', '5minutes' with an unsupported unit path, or trailing whitespace/quotes.

Common situations: Hand-edited deployment configs using human-friendly values ('5 min', '30seconds') instead of the supported numeric+unit format; CI secrets with stray spaces or newline characters.

Understand the failure class

Background: "environment variable is not set" and "Missing keys in environment" errors: what missing required env var messages mean and how to fix them — this error's family across 28 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of cube-js/cube@7d981676b3 (2026-09-02). Data as JSON: /api/errors/a324b2577f4fa67b. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at rust/cubesql/cubesql/src/config/mod.rs:475

        ),
    })
}

pub fn env_parse_duration<T>(name: &str, default: T, max: Option<T>, min: Option<T>) -> T
where
    T: FromStr + PartialOrd + Display,
    T::Err: Display,
{
    let v = match env::var(name).ok() {
        None => {
            return default;
        }
        Some(v) => v,
    };

    let n = match v.parse::<T>() {
        Ok(n) => n,
        Err(e) => panic!(
            "could not parse environment variable '{}' with '{}' value: {}",
            name, v, e
        ),
    };

    if let Some(max) = max {
        if n > max {
            panic!(
                "wrong configuration for environment variable '{}' with '{}' value: greater then max size {}",
                name, v,
                max
            )
        }
    };

    if let Some(min) = min {
        if n < min {
            panic!(

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