grafana/k6 · error

the cloud output needs the following system tags enabled

Error message

the cloud output needs the following system tags enabled: %s

What it means

Thrown while wiring up the cloud output (k6 cloud, k6 cloud run, or --out cloud): the cloud service requires the system tags name(proto), method, status, error, check and group on every sample, and the run was configured with a restricted systemTags set that omits at least one of them. The error lists exactly which required tags are missing. k6 aborts startup because cloud aggregation would otherwise be incomplete.

Solutions

1. Re-enable the tags named in the error: --system-tags 'check,error,group,method,name,proto,status' (plus any others you want)
2. Remove the --system-tags flag / systemTags option entirely so k6 uses its default set, which already includes all required tags
3. If the restriction comes from the script, edit `export const options = { systemTags: [...] }` to include the required tags
4. If cloud results are not needed, drop --out cloud and run locally instead

Example fix

// before
k6 run --out cloud --system-tags 'proto,status' script.js

// after
k6 run --out cloud --system-tags 'check,error,group,method,name,proto,status' script.js
// or simply omit --system-tags (defaults include all required tags)

# before invoking k6 with a cloud output, verify the system-tags flag is a superset of the required tags
req="check error group method name proto status"
for t in $req; do
  case " $K6_SYSTEM_TAGS $EXTRA_SYSTEM_TAGS " in
    *" $t "*) ;;
    *) echo "missing required system tag: $t"; exit 1;;
  esac
done
k6 run --out cloud script.js

When it happens

Trigger: Running with a cloud output while --system-tags, K6_SYSTEM_TAGS, or options.systemTags in the script does not include all of: proto/name, method, status, error, check, group. Example: `k6 run --out cloud --system-tags 'proto,status' script.js` fails listing error, check, group (and name/method if omitted).

Common situations: Copy-pasted options blocks that slim systemTags to cut storage costs; shared CI configs tuned for local JSON output then reused with --out cloud; scripts written before the cloud output enforced required tags.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Invalid value" and "allowed values are" config errors: what your library rejected and how to fix it — this error's family across 41 libraries.

Related errors

• 99
• can't have two secret sources that are default ones, second…
• couldn't parse secret source configuration
• env var ' ' is not a valid boolean value
• failed to initialize cloud secret source

AI-assisted analysis of grafana/k6@01ffac6f24 (2026-08-18). Data as JSON: /api/errors/5cb0212d0f23bd5a. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at internal/cmd/outputs_cloud.go:300

	return nil
}

// validateRequiredSystemTags checks if all required tags are present.
func validateRequiredSystemTags(scriptTags *metrics.SystemTagSet) error {
	var missingRequiredTags []string
	requiredTags := metrics.SystemTagSet(metrics.TagName |
		metrics.TagMethod |
		metrics.TagStatus |
		metrics.TagError |
		metrics.TagCheck |
		metrics.TagGroup)
	for _, tag := range metrics.SystemTagValues() {
		if requiredTags.Has(tag) && !scriptTags.Has(tag) {
			missingRequiredTags = append(missingRequiredTags, tag.String())
		}
	}
	if len(missingRequiredTags) > 0 {
		return fmt.Errorf(
			"the cloud output needs the following system tags enabled: %s",
			strings.Join(missingRequiredTags, ", "),
		)
	}
	return nil
}

func cloudConfToRawMessage(conf cloudapi.Config) (json.RawMessage, error) {
	var buff bytes.Buffer
	enc := json.NewEncoder(&buff)
	if err := enc.Encode(conf); err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}
	return buff.Bytes(), nil
}

// resolveCloudTestName returns the test name from the config, or derives it from
// the script path when the config name is unset. A name of "-" is replaced

View on GitHub (pinned to 01ffac6f24)