grafana/k6 · error

starting test

Error message

starting test: %w

What it means

After a successful upload, `k6 cloud` failed at client.StartTest — the request to actually launch the previously created load test (loadTest.GetId()) was rejected or failed in transport. The 'starting test' prefix identifies the stage; the wrapped ResponseError carries the decisive status code and API message.

Solutions

1. Check the Grafana Cloud UI for a still-running instance of the test; stop it, then re-run
2. If 401/403, refresh auth with `k6 cloud login` and retry
3. If 429/402, reduce concurrent cloud runs or raise plan limits, then retry with backoff
4. For 5xx/transport errors, retry after a short delay — the uploaded test remains usable, only the start needs repeating (re-invoking k6 cloud re-uploads)

Example fix

# before
k6 cloud run script.js   # 409: test already running

# after
k6 cloud stop --test <test-id> 2>/dev/null || true
sleep 5
k6 cloud run script.js

// ensure no active run before starting
run, _, _ := client.GetTestRun(ctx, loadTestID) // or ListTestRuns
if run != nil && isActive(run.Status) {
    _ = client.StopTest(ctx, loadTestID)
    time.Sleep(5 * time.Second)
}

run, err := client.StartTest(ctx, loadTest.GetId())
if err != nil {
    var re *cloudapiv6.ResponseError
    if errors.As(err, &re) {
        if re.Response.StatusCode == 409 { return fmt.Errorf("test already running; stop it first: %w", err) }
        if re.Response.StatusCode == 429 || re.Response.StatusCode >= 500 { /* retry with backoff */ }
    }
    return fmt.Errorf("starting test: %w", err)
}

When it happens

Trigger: 409 when a run of the same test is already active, 401/403 on expired or insufficient token permissions, 402/429 on plan or concurrency limits, or 5xx/transport failure contacting /cloud/v6 start endpoint.

Common situations: Re-running a test while a previous cloud run is still finishing (its teardown or abort grace period), quota exhaustion near the end of a billing period, or CI retries firing while the first run is starting.

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

• create or find load test
• invalid stack URL
• notify test run completed
• : .\n
• token is required to create cloud API client

AI-assisted analysis of grafana/k6@94169daab2 (2026-08-18). Data as JSON: /api/errors/709cd9e27c92df97. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at internal/cmd/cloud.go:303

		if err != nil {
			return err
		}
		executionPlan := test.derivedConfig.Scenarios.GetFullExecutionRequirements(et)
		testURL, err := resolveCloudTestURL(cloudConfig.StackURL.String, loadTest.GetId())
		if err != nil {
			return err
		}
		printExecutionDescription(
			gs, "cloud", test.sourceRootPath, testURL, test.derivedConfig, et, executionPlan, nil,
		)
		modifyAndPrintBar(gs, progressBar, pb.WithConstLeft("Run "), pb.WithConstProgress(1.0, "Archived"))
		printCloudTestStatus(gs, "Archived")
		return nil
	}

	run, err := client.StartTest(globalCtx, loadTest.GetId())
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("starting test: %w", err)
	}
	testRunID := run.GetId()

	// Trap Interrupts, SIGINTs and SIGTERMs.
	gracefulStop := func(sig os.Signal) {
		logger.WithField("sig", sig).Print("Stopping cloud test run in response to signal...")
		// Do this in a separate goroutine so that if it blocks, the
		// second signal can still abort the process execution.
		go func() {
			stopErr := client.StopTest(context.WithoutCancel(globalCtx), testRunID)
			if stopErr != nil {
				logger.WithError(stopErr).Error("Stop cloud test error")
			} else {
				logger.Info("Successfully sent signal to stop the cloud test, now waiting for it to actually stop...")
			}
			globalCancel()
		}()
	}

View on GitHub (pinned to 94169daab2)