What causes "dremioAuthToken is blank" in cube-js/cube?

Provide a valid personal access token: dremioAuthToken: ' ' (or set DREMIO_AUTH_TOKEN env var) alongside dbUrl

dremioAuthToken is blank

Error message

dremioAuthToken is blank

What it means

When a DremioDriver is configured with dbUrl, the driver assumes a pre-authenticated connection string and requires the JWT to be supplied via dremioAuthToken. If dbUrl is set but dremioAuthToken is the empty string, the constructor throws this Error because there is no way to authenticate against the custom URL.

Source

Thrown at packages/cubejs-dremio-driver/driver/DremioDriver.js:97

        config.ssl ||
        getEnv('dbSsl', { dataSource, preAggregations }),
      ...config,
      pollTimeout: (
        config.pollTimeout ||
        getEnv('dbPollTimeout', { dataSource, preAggregations }) ||
        getEnv('dbQueryTimeout', { dataSource, preAggregations })
      ) * 1000,
      pollMaxInterval: (
        config.pollMaxInterval ||
        getEnv('dbPollMaxInterval', { dataSource, preAggregations })
      ) * 1000,
    };

    if (this.config.dbUrl) {
      this.config.url = this.config.dbUrl;
      this.config.apiVersion = '';
      if (this.config.dremioAuthToken === '') {
        throw new Error('dremioAuthToken is blank');
      }
    } else {
      const protocol = (this.config.ssl === true || this.config.ssl === 'true')
        ? 'https'
        : 'http';
      this.config.url = `${protocol}://${this.config.host}:${this.config.port}`;
      this.config.apiVersion = '/api/v3';
    }
  }

  /**
   * @public
   * @return {Promise<void>}
   */
  async testConnection() {
    return this.getToken();
  }

View on GitHub (pinned to 7d981676b3)

Solutions

Provide a valid personal access token: dremioAuthToken: '<token>' (or set DREMIO_AUTH_TOKEN env var) alongside dbUrl
If you intended username/password auth to a standard Dremio server, remove dbUrl and configure host/port/user/password instead
Generate a new token in the Dremio UI if the old one expired, then restart Cube

Example fix

// before
new DremioDriver({ dbUrl: 'dremio+sql://...', dremioAuthToken: '' })
// after
new DremioDriver({ dbUrl: 'dremio+sql://...', dremioAuthToken: process.env.DREMIO_AUTH_TOKEN })

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

if (config.dbUrl && !config.dremioAuthToken) {
  throw new Error('dbUrl requires dremioAuthToken (set DREMIO_AUTH_TOKEN)');
}

Type guard

function hasAuthToken(config) {
  return typeof config.dremioAuthToken === 'string' && config.dremioAuthToken.length > 0;
}

Try / catch

try {
  driver = new DremioDriver(config);
} catch (e) {
  if (e.message === 'dremioAuthToken is blank') {
    console.error('Set DREMIO_AUTH_TOKEN when using dbUrl');
    process.exit(1);
  } else { throw e; }
}

Prevention

Always source dremioAuthToken from an env var with a fail-fast startup check
Remove dbUrl if you intend host/port+user/password auth
Use config templates that mark required vars explicitly
Verify the token env var name in your deployment manifest matches the driver config

When it happens

Trigger: Configuring dataSource/dbUrl (e.g. for Dremio Cloud or SQL API endpoints) while leaving dremioAuthToken: '' in driver options; environment variable DREMIO_AUTH_TOKEN unset and defaulted to ''.

Common situations: Migrating from username/password config to dbUrl without adding the token; DREMIO_AUTH_TOKEN env var missing in the deployment; typos so the token env var never gets read; using dbUrl for Dremio Cloud where user/password auth is not supported.

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/b1fdc93e9bfb4df0. Report an issue: GitHub.