flippercloud/flipper · error · ArgumentError

timestamp should be an instance of Time

Error message

timestamp should be an instance of Time

What it means

Error "timestamp should be an instance of Time" thrown in flippercloud/flipper.

Source

Thrown at lib/flipper/cloud/message_verifier.rb:12

require "openssl"
require "digest/sha2"

module Flipper
  module Cloud
    class MessageVerifier
      class InvalidSignature < StandardError; end

      DEFAULT_VERSION = "v1"

      def self.header(signature, timestamp, version = DEFAULT_VERSION)
        raise ArgumentError, "timestamp should be an instance of Time" unless timestamp.is_a?(Time)
        raise ArgumentError, "signature should be a string" unless signature.is_a?(String)
        "t=#{timestamp.to_i},#{version}=#{signature}"
      end

      def initialize(secret:, version: DEFAULT_VERSION)
        @secret = secret
        @version = version || DEFAULT_VERSION

        raise ArgumentError, "secret should be a string" unless @secret.is_a?(String)
        raise ArgumentError, "secret should not be empty" if @secret.empty?
        raise ArgumentError, "version should be a string" unless @version.is_a?(String)
      end

      def generate(payload, timestamp)
        raise ArgumentError, "timestamp should be an instance of Time" unless timestamp.is_a?(Time)
        raise ArgumentError, "payload should be a string" unless payload.is_a?(String)

        OpenSSL::HMAC.hexdigest(OpenSSL::Digest.new("sha256"), @secret, "#{timestamp.to_i}.#{payload}")

View on GitHub (pinned to 1f86de3ec9)

Solutions

1. Pass a Time instance as the timestamp argument, not a String or Integer
2. Convert with Time.at(epoch) or Time.parse(string) before calling the verifier
3. Check the caller: message_verifier expects Time, so fix the type at the call site

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at lib/flipper/cloud/message_verifier.rb:12 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of flippercloud/flipper@1f86de3ec9 (2026-08-23). Data as JSON: /api/errors/2fe70d7e2d5818de. Report an issue: GitHub.