hashicorp/terraform · warning · ErrRequestCanceled

request was canceled

Error message

request was canceled

What it means

ErrRequestCanceled is returned by GetManifest / DownloadFile when the underlying HTTP request failed because the provided context was cancelled (errors.Is(err, context.Canceled)). It distinguishes a user-initiated or parent cancellation from a genuine network/transport failure so callers can stop retrying.

Source

Thrown at internal/pluginshared/errors.go:17

// Copyright IBM Corp. 2014, 2026
// SPDX-License-Identifier: BUSL-1.1

package pluginshared

import (
	"errors"
	"fmt"
)

var (
	// ErrPluginNotSupported is the error returned when the upstream HCP Terraform does not
	// have a manifest.
	ErrPluginNotSupported = errors.New("plugin is not supported by the remote version of Terraform Enterprise")

	// ErrRequestCanceled is the error returned when the context was cancelled.
	ErrRequestCanceled = errors.New("request was canceled")

	// ErrArchNotSupported is the error returned when the plugin does not have a build for the
	// current OS/Architecture.
	ErrArchNotSupported = errors.New("plugin is not supported by your computer architecture/operating system")

	// ErrPluginNotFound is the error returned when the plugin manifest points to a location
	// that was does not exist.
	ErrPluginNotFound = errors.New("plugin download was not found in the location specified in the manifest")
)

// ErrQueryFailed is the error returned when the plugin http client request fails
type ErrQueryFailed struct {
	inner error
}

// ErrCloudPluginNotVerified is the error returned when the archive authentication process fails
type ErrCloudPluginNotVerified struct {
	inner error

View on GitHub (pinned to d32a084675)

Solutions

1. Treat ErrRequestCanceled as terminal — do not retry; surface 'cancelled by user' to the user.
2. If cancellations are unexpected, audit the context lifecycle upstream to find premature cancellation (e.g. a request-scoped context being reused).
3. Increase or remove the deadline on the parent context if the operation legitimately needs more time.
4. Separate user-cancellation handling from network-error handling using errors.Is(err, pluginshared.ErrRequestCanceled).

Example fix

// before
err := client.DownloadFile(url, &buf)
if err != nil {
    log.Fatalf("download failed: %v", err)
}

// after
err := client.DownloadFile(url, &buf)
if errors.Is(err, pluginshared.ErrRequestCanceled) {
    log.Println("download cancelled")
    return ctx.Err()
}
if err != nil {
    log.Fatalf("download failed: %v", err)
}

// Pass a context with the deadline you actually want
ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(parentCtx, 60*time.Second)
defer cancel()
client := BasePluginClient{ctx: ctx, /* ... */}

func isRequestCanceled(err error) bool {
    return errors.Is(err, pluginshared.ErrRequestCanceled) || errors.Is(err, context.Canceled)
}

if err := client.DownloadFile(url, &buf); err != nil {
    if errors.Is(err, pluginshared.ErrRequestCanceled) {
        return ctx.Err() // stop retrying
    }
    return err
}

When it happens

Trigger: The context passed to BasePluginClient (b.ctx) is cancelled while httpClient.Do(req) is in flight, OR the retryablehttp transport surfaces context.Canceled. Detected at client.go:214-216 (DownloadFile) and the analogous check in GetManifest.

Common situations: User pressed Ctrl+C during a plugin download/manifest fetch; a parent operation timed out and cancelled its context; a CI runner was killed; SIGTERM propagation cancelled the request.

Related errors

• canceled reading current outputs
• plugin is not supported by your computer architecture/operat
• plugin download was not found in the location specified in t
• current outputs were not ready to be read within the deadlin
• Provider installation was canceled by an interrupt signal.

AI-assisted analysis of hashicorp/terraform@d32a084675 (2026-08-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/b864311b4c684ba4. Report an issue: GitHub.