ipfs/kubo · error

API file too large, must be <2048 bytes long: %s

Error message

API file too large, must be <2048 bytes long: %s

What it means

Reading $IPFS_PATH/api (the file tracking the daemon's RPC address) hit the deliberate 2048-byte cap: the file is read through a LimitReader as a safety measure, and reaching exactly 2048 bytes means it is not a sane API file (corrupted or planted).

Source

Thrown at repo/fsrepo/fsrepo.go:370

		}
		return nil, err
	}
	defer f.Close()

	// read up to 2048 bytes. io.ReadAll is a vulnerability, as
	// someone could hose the process by putting a massive file there.
	//
	// NOTE(@stebalien): @jbenet probably wasn't thinking straight when he
	// wrote that comment but I'm leaving the limit here in case there was
	// some hidden wisdom. However, I'm fixing it such that:
	// 1. We don't read too little.
	// 2. We don't truncate and succeed.
	buf, err := io.ReadAll(io.LimitReader(f, 2048))
	if err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}
	if len(buf) == 2048 {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("API file too large, must be <2048 bytes long: %s", apiFilePath)
	}

	s := string(buf)
	s = strings.TrimSpace(s)
	return ma.NewMultiaddr(s)
}

func (r *FSRepo) Keystore() keystore.Keystore {
	return r.keystore
}

func (r *FSRepo) Path() string {
	return r.path
}

// SetAPIAddr writes the API Addr to the /api file.
func (r *FSRepo) SetAPIAddr(addr ma.Multiaddr) error {
	// Create a temp file to write the address, so that we don't leave empty file when the

View on GitHub (pinned to 329838acdf)

Solutions

1. Delete the stale 'api' file in the repo directory and restart (or let the daemon rewrite it)
2. Check nothing is writing garbage into $IPFS_PATH/api
3. Re-run with a fresh IPFS_PATH if the repo is untrusted

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at repo/fsrepo/fsrepo.go:370 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of ipfs/kubo@329838acdf (2026-09-03). Data as JSON: /api/errors/2ce39758691ceaf0. Report an issue: GitHub.