hashicorp/packer · error

error retrieving version from HCP Packer Registry: %s

Error message

error retrieving version from HCP Packer Registry: %s

What it means

Returned by the hcp-packer-artifact datasource's Execute() when cli.GetVersion() (which queries the HCP Packer Registry for a version identified by version_fingerprint) fails. It wraps the underlying client/HTTP error, so the %s suffix carries the real cause (auth failure, 404, network error, etc.). The datasource returns a null cty value, so the Packer run aborts because the template cannot proceed without the version metadata.

Source

Thrown at datasource/hcp-packer-artifact/data.go:175

	ctx := context.TODO()

	cli, err := hcpapi.NewClient()
	if err != nil {
		return cty.NullVal(cty.EmptyObject), err
	}

	var version *hcpPackerModels.HashicorpCloudPacker20230101Version
	var channelID string
	if d.config.VersionFingerprint != "" {
		log.Printf(
			"[INFO] Reading info from HCP Packer Registry (%s) "+
				"[project_id=%s, organization_id=%s, version_fingerprint=%s]",
			d.config.BucketName, cli.ProjectID, cli.OrganizationID, d.config.VersionFingerprint,
		)

		version, err = cli.GetVersion(ctx, d.config.BucketName, d.config.VersionFingerprint)
		if err != nil {
			return cty.NullVal(cty.EmptyObject), fmt.Errorf(
				"error retrieving version from HCP Packer Registry: %s", err,
			)
		}
	} else {
		log.Printf(
			"[INFO] Reading info from HCP Packer Registry (%s) "+
				"[project_id=%s, organization_id=%s, channel=%s]",
			d.config.BucketName, cli.ProjectID, cli.OrganizationID, d.config.ChannelName,
		)

		var channel *hcpPackerModels.HashicorpCloudPacker20230101Channel
		channel, err = cli.GetChannel(ctx, d.config.BucketName, d.config.ChannelName)
		if err != nil {
			return cty.NullVal(cty.EmptyObject), fmt.Errorf(
				"error retrieving channel from HCP Packer Registry: %s", err.Error(),
			)
		}

View on GitHub (pinned to eb36e3c3e4)

Solutions

1. Verify the version_fingerprint matches an existing version in the bucket (HCP Packer UI or the publishing build's output).
2. Confirm HCP_CLIENT_ID and HCP_CLIENT_SECRET are set and valid in the execution environment.
3. Check that the HCP project/organization bound to your credentials contains the bucket_name referenced.
4. Confirm network access to api.cloud.hashicorp.com (proxy/firewall) and retry transient failures.
5. If you just need 'latest', resolve via channel_name instead of a pinned fingerprint.

Example fix

// before
data "hcp-packer-artifact" "foo" {
  bucket_name = "my-bucket"
  version_fingerprint = "2024-01-01T00:00:00Z" # wrong: fingerprint never published
}
// after
data "hcp-packer-artifact" "foo" {
  bucket_name = "my-bucket"
  channel_name = "production" # or use the exact fingerprint printed by the publishing build
}

if os.Getenv("HCP_CLIENT_ID") == "" || os.Getenv("HCP_CLIENT_SECRET") == "" {
    return fmt.Errorf("HCP credentials must be set before resolving hcp-packer-artifact")
}
if cfg.VersionFingerprint == "" && cfg.ChannelName == "" {
    return fmt.Errorf("either version_fingerprint or channel_name must be set")
}

// Data source failures abort `packer build`; guard in a wrapper script:
if ! packer build template.pkr.hcl; then
  echo "HCP version lookup failed: check version_fingerprint and HCP credentials" >&2
  exit 1
fi

When it happens

Trigger: Execute() runs with version_fingerprint set and cli.GetVersion(ctx, bucket_name, version_fingerprint) errors: fingerprint not in the bucket, missing/invalid HCP_CLIENT_ID/HCP_CLIENT_SECRET, wrong project/organization, misspelled bucket_name, or the registry API is unreachable.

Common situations: Typo in version_fingerprint; fingerprint from a different bucket; expired or missing HCP service-principal credentials in CI; version deleted between publish and consume; corporate proxy blocking api.cloud.hashicorp.com.

Related errors

• error retrieving channel from HCP Packer Registry: %s
• error retrieving image iteration from HCP Packer registry: %
• error retrieving channel from HCP Packer registry: %s
• there is no version associated with the channel %s
• the version %s is revoked and can not be used on Packer buil

AI-assisted analysis of hashicorp/packer@eb36e3c3e4 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/6fbdd7d5c1ea88df. Report an issue: GitHub.