What causes "Missing config for attributes: ${missingEnv.join(', ')}" in hcengineering/platform?

Set every variable listed in the error message before starting the service

Missing config for attributes: ${missingEnv.join(', ')}

Error message

Missing config for attributes: ${missingEnv.join(', ')}

What it means

The media service (pods/media) builds its Config from environment variables at module initialization and throws if any required variable is undefined. This fail-fast validation prevents the service from running with partial configuration (e.g. missing storage or queue settings).

Source

Thrown at pods/media/src/config.ts:37

export interface Config {
  AccountsUrl: string
  Secret: string
  ServiceID: string
  Partitions: number
}

const config: Config = (() => {
  const params: Partial<Config> = {
    AccountsUrl: process.env.ACCOUNTS_URL,
    Secret: process.env.SECRET,
    ServiceID: process.env.SERVICE_ID ?? 'media',
    Partitions: parseNumber(process.env.PARTITIONS) ?? 1
  }

  const missingEnv = (Object.keys(params) as Array<keyof Config>).filter((key) => params[key] === undefined)

  if (missingEnv.length > 0) {
    throw Error(`Missing config for attributes: ${missingEnv.join(', ')}`)
  }

  return params as Config
})()

function parseNumber (str: string | undefined): number | undefined {
  if (str !== undefined) {
    const intValue = Number.parseInt(str)
    if (Number.isInteger(intValue)) {
      return intValue
    }
  }
}

export default config

View on GitHub (pinned to 63e28dc964)

Solutions

Set every variable listed in the error message before starting the service
Diff your environment against the current Config in pods/media/src/config.ts and add newly introduced variables
Fix env name typos (case-sensitive) in manifests and .env files
For truly optional values, give them defaults in config.ts like Partitions' parseNumber fallback

Example fix

// before
Storage: process.env.STORAGE_URL // undefined if unset -> throws
// after
Storage: process.env.STORAGE_URL ?? 'http://localhost:9000'

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

const required = ['MONGO_URL', 'STORAGE_URL', 'PARTITIONS'] // keys from pods/media Config
const missing = required.filter((k) => process.env[k] === undefined)
if (missing.length > 0) {
  throw new Error(`media service missing env vars: ${missing.join(', ')}`)
}

Type guard

function isEnvComplete(keys: readonly string[], env: NodeJS.ProcessEnv): boolean {
  return keys.every((k) => typeof env[k] === 'string' && env[k] !== '')
}

Try / catch

let config: Config
try {
  config = (await import('./config')).default
} catch (err) {
  if (err instanceof Error && err.message.startsWith('Missing config for attributes')) {
    console.error('Fix media env config:', err.message)
    process.exit(1)
  }
  throw err
}

Prevention

Fill every variable from the media .env-template; never ship partial env files
Re-check config.ts after each platform upgrade for new required keys
Prefer explicit defaults (like parseNumber fallback) for optional values
Run a pre-start env validation script in container entrypoints

When it happens

Trigger: Launching pods/media with missing required env vars (per its Config: e.g. storage endpoints, MONGO_URL, PARTITIONS-related vars, credentials); an env var intentionally optional but not defaulted in code; typos in variable names.

Common situations: Fresh deployments where the .env template was not fully filled in; Helm/compose files not updated after new config keys were added in an upgrade; running the service locally without sourcing the env file.

Understand the failure class

Background: "environment variable is not set" and "Missing keys in environment" errors: what missing required env var messages mean and how to fix them — this error's family across 28 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of hcengineering/platform@63e28dc964 (2026-08-29). Data as JSON: /api/errors/dcab948b2363c2b9. Report an issue: GitHub.