ipfs/kubo · error

remote pinning service name not specified

Error message

remote pinning service name not specified

What it means

`getRemotePinService` is the lower-level resolver that maps a service name to a configured `pinclient.Client`. An empty name string cannot address any config entry, so it short-circuits with this error before any config lookup. It is typically reached when `--service=` is passed with an empty value.

Source

Thrown at core/commands/pin/remotepin.go:756

func getRemotePinServiceFromRequest(req *cmds.Request, env cmds.Environment) (*pinclient.Client, error) {
	service, serviceFound := req.Options[pinServiceNameOptionName]
	if !serviceFound {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("a service name must be passed")
	}

	serviceStr := service.(string)
	var err error
	c, err := getRemotePinService(env, serviceStr)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}

	return c, nil
}

func getRemotePinService(env cmds.Environment, name string) (*pinclient.Client, error) {
	if name == "" {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("remote pinning service name not specified")
	}
	endpoint, key, err := getRemotePinServiceInfo(env, name)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}
	return pinclient.NewClient(endpoint, key), nil
}

func getRemotePinServiceInfo(env cmds.Environment, name string) (endpoint, key string, err error) {
	cfgRoot, err := cmdenv.GetConfigRoot(env)
	if err != nil {
		return "", "", err
	}
	repo, err := fsrepo.Open(cfgRoot)
	if err != nil {
		return "", "", err
	}
	defer repo.Close()

View on GitHub (pinned to 329838acdf)

Solutions

1. Provide a non-empty service name: `ipfs pin remote ls --service=web3.storage`.
2. In scripts, fail early if the variable is empty: `[ -n "$SVC" ] || { echo 'service name required'; exit 1; }`.
3. Check that the shell isn't eating the value (unquoted variables, `set -u` differences) and quote `"$SVC"`.
4. List configured names with `ipfs pin remote ls`-style service listing and pick the correct one.

Example fix

// before (shell)
ipfs pin remote ls --service="$SVC"   # SVC unset -> --service=
// after
: "${SVC:?service name is required}"
ipfs pin remote ls --service="$SVC"

#!/usr/bin/env bash
if [ -z "${SERVICE:-}" ]; then
  echo "service name must be non-empty" >&2
  exit 2
fi
ipfs pin remote ls --service="${SERVICE}"

When it happens

Trigger: Passing `--service=""` (empty value) to a `pin remote` subcommand; a script variable that interpolates to empty, e.g. `--service="$SVC"` where `$SVC` is unset; calling the command API with name "".

Common situations: Environment variable for the service name is unset in CI scripts; template expansion produced `--service=`; shell word-splitting dropped the value after `=`.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Must pass :limit option" / "Missing required option" — required option errors explained — this error's family across 41 libraries.

Related errors

• invalid configuration profile: %s
• inline-limit %d exceeds maximum allowed size of %d bytes
• %s can't be used with UnixFS metadata like mode or modificat
• %s and %s options are not compatible
• %s option requires %s to be set

AI-assisted analysis of ipfs/kubo@329838acdf (2026-09-03). Data as JSON: /api/errors/ebceae99a3d8cb73. Report an issue: GitHub.