influxdata/influxdb · error · Error

invalid token

Error message

invalid token: {0}

What it means

Display message of the `Error::InvalidToken` variant, converted via #[from] from `hex::FromHexError`. It means a token string supplied to the serve command was not valid hexadecimal, so it could not be decoded into the raw token bytes.

Solutions

1. Re-copy the token carefully, ensuring no quotes, spaces, or truncation
2. Verify the token has an even number of valid hex characters [0-9a-fA-F]
3. Regenerate the token if the stored value is corrupted
4. Use the CLI command that prints the full token rather than hand-transcribing it

Example fix

// before
let token = "0xAbC"; // prefix + odd length -> FromHexError
// after
let token = "abc123"; // clean, even-length hex string

fn is_valid_hex_token(s: &str) -> bool {
    !s.is_empty() && s.len() % 2 == 0 && s.chars().all(|c| c.is_ascii_hexdigit())
}

fn is_valid_hex_token(s: &str) -> bool {
    !s.is_empty() && s.len() % 2 == 0 && s.chars().all(|c| c.is_ascii_hexdigit())
}

match hex::decode(token) {
    Err(e) => eprintln!("token is not valid hex: {e}"),
    Ok(bytes) => { /* proceed */ }
}

When it happens

Trigger: Passing a token (e.g. via a token-file or CLI argument) whose characters are not valid hex (odd length, non-hex characters) causes `token.parse::<Vec<u8>>()`-style hex decoding to fail.

Common situations: Copying a token with surrounding whitespace/quotes or a truncated/prefix-corrupted value; mixing up the token's textual ID with its hex-encoded secret.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Invalid ... format", "must be in format X", "does not look like a ..." — invalid argument format errors across CLI tools and libraries — this error's family across 17 libraries.

• Authentication and authorization failures — expired tokens, bad credentials, and missing scopes.

Related errors

• is not a valid data type, values are int64, uint64…
• Could not find '_'
• duration not to overflow
• from hex error
• Invalid database ID

AI-assisted analysis of influxdata/influxdb@06200ef96b (2026-09-19). Data as JSON: /api/errors/32c2a496fbe4c68b. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at influxdb3/src/commands/serve.rs:138

    #[error("Tracing config error: {0}")]
    TracingConfig(#[from] trace_exporters::Error),

    #[error("Error initializing tokio runtime: {0}")]
    TokioRuntime(#[source] std::io::Error),

    #[error("Failed to bind address")]
    BindAddress(#[source] std::io::Error),

    #[error("Server error: {0}")]
    Server(#[source] influxdb3_server::Error),

    #[error("Token error: {0}")]
    TokenError(CatalogError),

    #[error("Write buffer error: {0}")]
    WriteBuffer(#[from] influxdb3_write::write_buffer::Error),

    #[error("invalid token: {0}")]
    InvalidToken(#[from] hex::FromHexError),

    #[error("failed to initialize write buffer: {0:?}")]
    WriteBufferInit(#[source] anyhow::Error),

    #[error("failed to initialize catalog: {0}")]
    InitializeCatalog(#[source] CatalogError),

    #[error("failed to initialize last cache: {0}")]
    InitializeLastCache(#[source] last_cache::Error),

    #[error("failed to initialize distinct cache: {0:#}")]
    InitializeDistinctCache(#[source] influxdb3_cache::distinct_cache::ProviderError),

    #[error("lost backend")]
    LostBackend,

    #[error("lost HTTP/gRPC service")]

View on GitHub (pinned to 06200ef96b)