juanfont/headscale · error

creating pre-auth key: %w

Error message

creating pre-auth key: %w

What it means

"creating pre-auth key: %w" at cmd/dev/main.go:184 wraps runHS(ctx, hsBin, configPath, "preauthkeys", "create", "-u", <userID>, "--reusable", "-e", "24h", "-o", "json") in cmd/dev. After creating the 'dev' user, the tool provisions a reusable pre-auth key valid for 24h. The wrapped error is a non-zero exit of that CLI invocation — the CLI's own stderr names the cause (bad user id, expiration rejected, DB failure).

Source

Thrown at cmd/dev/main.go:184

		return fmt.Errorf("creating user: %w", err)
	}

	userID, err := extractUserID(userJSON)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("parsing user: %w", err)
	}

	// Create pre-auth key.
	keyJSON, err := runHS(
		ctx, hsBin, configPath,
		"preauthkeys", "create",
		"-u", strconv.FormatUint(userID, 10),
		"--reusable",
		"-e", "24h",
		"-o", "json",
	)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("creating pre-auth key: %w", err)
	}

	authKey, err := extractAuthKey(keyJSON)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("parsing pre-auth key: %w", err)
	}

	// Print banner.
	fmt.Printf(
		`
=== Headscale Dev Environment ===
  Server:  http://127.0.0.1:%d
  Metrics: http://127.0.0.1:%d
  Debug:   http://127.0.0.1:%d/debug/ping
  Config:  %s
  State:   %s

Pre-auth key: %s

View on GitHub (pinned to 565fd254d0)

Solutions

1. Read the CLI error text above the wrapped message and fix the named flag/argument
2. Ensure the whole run uses one scratch dir (don't reuse state across runs with -keep)
3. Re-run `go run ./cmd/dev` from the current source so tool and CLI stay in sync

keyJSON, err := runHS(ctx, hsBin, configPath, "preauthkeys", "create", ...)
if err != nil {
	// CLI stderr above names the refused flag/arg; ctx.Err() means interrupted
	if ctx.Err() != nil {
		return nil
	}
	return fmt.Errorf("creating pre-auth key: %w", err)
}

When it happens

Trigger: The userID extracted in the previous step not matching a DB row (e.g. user created in a different DB file because the state dir changed between calls); the CLI rejecting '-e 24h' or '--reusable' due to flag changes; ctx cancelled mid-run.

Common situations: Version skew between the compiled dev tool and the current CLI flags; state directory mutated between the users-create and preauthkeys-create steps.

Related errors

• creating user: %w
• unmarshalling user JSON: %w (raw: %s)
• unmarshalling key JSON: %w (raw: %s)
• creating temp dir: %w
• writing config: %w

AI-assisted analysis of juanfont/headscale@565fd254d0 (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d9b158a3892f03b4. Report an issue: GitHub.