hasura/graphql-engine · error

making http request failed: %w

Error message

making http request failed: %w

What it means

GetServerStatus's HTTP round trip itself failed: httpClient.Do returned an error before receiving a response (cli/util/server.go:138). This wraps transport-level failures — DNS resolution, refused connections, TLS handshake errors, timeouts, or cancelled contexts — not HTTP error statuses.

Source

Thrown at cli/util/server.go:138

	return state
}

func GetServerStatus(versionEndpoint string, httpClient *httpc.Client) (err error) {
	var op errors.Op = "util.GetServerStatus"

	req, err := http.NewRequest(http.MethodGet, versionEndpoint, nil)
	if err != nil {
		return errors.E(
			op,
			fmt.Errorf("failed to create GET request to %s: %w", versionEndpoint, err),
		)
	}

	var responseBs bytes.Buffer

	resp, err := httpClient.Do(context.Background(), req, &responseBs)
	if err != nil {
		return errors.E(op, fmt.Errorf("making http request failed: %w", err))
	}

	if resp.StatusCode != http.StatusOK {
		return errors.E(
			op,
			fmt.Errorf(
				"request failed: url: %s status code: %v status: %s \n%s",
				versionEndpoint,
				resp.StatusCode,
				resp.Status,
				responseBs.String(),
			),
		)
	}

	return nil
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 724551b9ae)

Solutions

1. Verify the server is up and reachable: curl http://<host>:<port>/version from the same machine/env.
2. Fix host/port in the CLI config or start the server if it's local.
3. For TLS errors, install/trust the CA or point to the correct https endpoint.
4. Increase the HTTP client timeout if the endpoint is slow, and add retry with backoff for transient failures.

Example fix

// before
status, err := util.GetServerStatus(url)
if err != nil { return err }

// after
var status *Status
err := retry(3, time.Second, func() error {
    var e error
    status, e = util.GetServerStatus(url)
    return e
})
if err != nil { return fmt.Errorf("server unreachable: %w", err) }

conn, err := net.DialTimeout("tcp", hostPort, 2*time.Second)
if err != nil { return fmt.Errorf("server not reachable: %w", err) }
conn.Close()

var st *Status
err := retry(3, 500*time.Millisecond, func() error {
    var e error
    st, e = util.GetServerStatus(u)
    return e
})
if err != nil { return fmt.Errorf("server unreachable after retries: %w", err) }

When it happens

Trigger: Calling GetServerStatus (used by the Validate and Execute command paths) when the server is not running, the host doesn't resolve, a TLS certificate is invalid, or the request exceeds the client's timeout.

Common situations: The backend server process is stopped or starting up; wrong host/port in config; self-signed cert without proper trust; firewall or proxy blocking the port; Kubernetes pod not ready; DNS entry missing in the environment.

Related errors

• exporting metadata from server: %w
• reading metadata from response: %w
• determining server metadata inconsistency: %w
• reading metadata from response: %w
• failed to obtain plugin archive: %w

AI-assisted analysis of hasura/graphql-engine@724551b9ae (2026-08-28). Data as JSON: /api/errors/297542b72816050d. Report an issue: GitHub.