hashicorp/terraform · error

Unknown address type

Error message

Unknown address type %q for %q

What it means

Thrown from the default branch of the address-Network switch in the reattach loader. Only 'unix' and 'tcp' are recognised; any other value is rejected.

Solutions

1. Set addr.Network to exactly "unix" or "tcp" (lowercase)
2. Do not put the gRPC protocol name in the network field
3. Re-export TF_REATTACH_PROVIDERS from a known-working debug session

Example fix

// before: {"addr":{"network":"TCP","string":"127.0.0.1:5678"}}
// after : {"addr":{"network":"tcp","string":"127.0.0.1:5678"}}

// Allow only the two recognised network types before decoding.
switch c.Addr.Network {
case "unix", "tcp":
default:
    return fmt.Errorf("reattach network must be 'unix' or 'tcp', got %q", c.Addr.Network)
}

func IsKnownReattachNetwork(s string) bool {
    return s == "unix" || s == "tcp"
}

providers, err := reattach.DecodeProviders(raw)
if err != nil && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "Unknown address type") {
    return fmt.Errorf("reattach addr.network must be lowercase 'unix' or 'tcp': %w", err)
}

When it happens

Trigger: c.Addr.Network is neither "unix" nor "tcp" (e.g. "TCP", "grpc", "socket", "http").

Common situations: Uppercase 'TCP'/'UNIX'; a protocol name mistakenly placed in the network field; typo such as 'ticp'; schema confusion between Protocol and Addr.Network fields.

Related errors

• Invalid TCP address for
• Invalid unix socket path
• Error parsing as a provider address
• Invalid format for
• can't set both encryption_key and kms_encryption_key

AI-assisted analysis of hashicorp/terraform@d32a084675 (2026-08-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/17ab948da7f98104. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at internal/getproviders/reattach/reattach.go:74

		for p, c := range m {
			a, diags := addrs.ParseProviderSourceString(p)
			if diags.HasErrors() {
				return unmanagedProviders, fmt.Errorf("Error parsing %q as a provider address: %w", a, diags.Err())
			}
			var addr net.Addr
			switch c.Addr.Network {
			case "unix":
				addr, err = net.ResolveUnixAddr("unix", c.Addr.String)
				if err != nil {
					return unmanagedProviders, fmt.Errorf("Invalid unix socket path %q for %q: %w", c.Addr.String, p, err)
				}
			case "tcp":
				addr, err = net.ResolveTCPAddr("tcp", c.Addr.String)
				if err != nil {
					return unmanagedProviders, fmt.Errorf("Invalid TCP address %q for %q: %w", c.Addr.String, p, err)
				}
			default:
				return unmanagedProviders, fmt.Errorf("Unknown address type %q for %q", c.Addr.Network, p)
			}
			unmanagedProviders[a] = &plugin.ReattachConfig{
				Protocol:        plugin.Protocol(c.Protocol),
				ProtocolVersion: c.ProtocolVersion,
				Pid:             c.Pid,
				Test:            c.Test,
				Addr:            addr,
			}
		}
	}
	return unmanagedProviders, nil
}

// IsProviderReattached determines if a given provider is being supplied to Terraform via the TF_REATTACH_PROVIDERS
// environment variable.
//
// Calling code is expected to pass in a provider address and the value of os.Getenv("TF_REATTACH_PROVIDERS")
func IsProviderReattached(provider tfaddr.Provider, in string) (bool, error) {

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