nektos/act · error

--no-healthcheck conflicts with --health-* options

Error message

--no-healthcheck conflicts with --health-* options

What it means

Error [85]: The Docker ExecCreate API call failed while setting up a command execution inside the container (Exec). Act creates an exec instance with user/cmd/workingDir/env before attaching. Wrapped daemon errors include: container not running, bad user, or API incompatibility.

Source

Thrown at pkg/container/docker_cli.go:577

	securityOpts, maskedPaths, readonlyPaths := parseSystemPaths(securityOpts)

	storageOpts, err := parseStorageOpts(copts.storageOpt.GetSlice())
	if err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}

	// Healthcheck
	var healthConfig *container.HealthConfig
	haveHealthSettings := copts.healthCmd != "" ||
		copts.healthInterval != 0 ||
		copts.healthTimeout != 0 ||
		copts.healthStartPeriod != 0 ||
		copts.healthRetries != 0 ||
		copts.healthStartInterval != 0
	if copts.noHealthcheck {
		if haveHealthSettings {
			return nil, errors.New("--no-healthcheck conflicts with --health-* options")
		}
		healthConfig = &container.HealthConfig{Test: []string{"NONE"}}
	} else if haveHealthSettings {
		var probe []string
		if copts.healthCmd != "" {
			probe = []string{"CMD-SHELL", copts.healthCmd}
		}
		if copts.healthInterval < 0 {
			return nil, errors.New("--health-interval cannot be negative")
		}
		if copts.healthTimeout < 0 {
			return nil, errors.New("--health-timeout cannot be negative")
		}
		if copts.healthRetries < 0 {
			return nil, errors.New("--health-retries cannot be negative")
		}
		if copts.healthStartPeriod < 0 {
			return nil, errors.New("--health-start-period cannot be negative")

View on GitHub (pinned to 4f41128141)

Solutions

1. Check 'docker ps -a' — if the act job container exited immediately, inspect its logs: docker logs <container>
2. Verify the container user exists in the image when overriding user
3. Re-run: transient daemon restarts cause this; ensure docker info is healthy first
4. Update Docker so daemon API >= the version act's client requests

Example fix

# before: entrypoint exits, later execs fail
$ docker logs act-job  # exits immediately
# after: fix entrypoint/cmd in workflow or base image, then re-run
$ act -j job

// Ensure container is running before exec
if c, _ := cli.ContainerInspect(ctx, id); !c.State.Running {
	return errors.New("container not running; check docker logs")
}

if err := exec(ctx); err != nil && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "failed to create exec") {
	if c, _ := cli.ContainerInspect(ctx, id); c.State.ExitCode != 0 {
		logs, _ := cli.ContainerLogs(ctx, id, client.ContainerLogsOptions{ShowStdout: true, ShowStderr: true})
		defer logs.Close() // read + surface
	}
}

When it happens

Trigger: cr.cli.ExecCreate erroring because the target container exited or was removed before the exec, an invalid user name in input.User, or the container is paused/restarting so exec creation is rejected.

Common situations: Job container crashing at startup (bad entrypoint) so the first step's exec targets a dead container; --user set to a non-existent container user; Docker daemon restarting mid-run; race with docker rm of act containers.

Related errors

• --health-start-interval cannot be negative
• conflicting options: cannot specify both --link and per-netw
• conflicting options: cannot specify both --ip and per-networ
• conflicting options: cannot specify both --link-local-ip and
• --pid: invalid PID mode

AI-assisted analysis of nektos/act@4f41128141 (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/c6a01454d5283fb5. Report an issue: GitHub.