--nsqd-http-address or --lookupd-http-address required

Error message

--nsqd-http-address or --lookupd-http-address required

What it means

nsqadmin.New refuses to construct an instance when both opts.NSQDHTTPAddresses and opts.NSQLookupdHTTPAddresses are empty. nsqadmin needs at least one discovery source to render topics, nodes and channels; without it, every page would be blank, so startup fails with this error before the HTTP listener starts.

Source

Thrown at nsqadmin/nsqadmin.go:45

	httpListener        net.Listener
	waitGroup           util.WaitGroupWrapper
	notifications       chan *AdminAction
	graphiteURL         *url.URL
	httpClientTLSConfig *tls.Config
}

func New(opts *Options) (*NSQAdmin, error) {
	if opts.Logger == nil {
		opts.Logger = log.New(os.Stderr, opts.LogPrefix, log.Ldate|log.Ltime|log.Lmicroseconds)
	}

	n := &NSQAdmin{
		notifications: make(chan *AdminAction),
	}
	n.swapOpts(opts)

	if len(opts.NSQDHTTPAddresses) == 0 && len(opts.NSQLookupdHTTPAddresses) == 0 {
		return nil, errors.New("--nsqd-http-address or --lookupd-http-address required")
	}

	if len(opts.NSQDHTTPAddresses) != 0 && len(opts.NSQLookupdHTTPAddresses) != 0 {
		return nil, errors.New("use --nsqd-http-address or --lookupd-http-address not both")
	}

	if opts.HTTPClientTLSCert != "" && opts.HTTPClientTLSKey == "" {
		return nil, errors.New("--http-client-tls-key must be specified with --http-client-tls-cert")
	}

	if opts.HTTPClientTLSKey != "" && opts.HTTPClientTLSCert == "" {
		return nil, errors.New("--http-client-tls-cert must be specified with --http-client-tls-key")
	}

	n.httpClientTLSConfig = &tls.Config{
		InsecureSkipVerify: opts.HTTPClientTLSInsecureSkipVerify,
	}
	if opts.HTTPClientTLSCert != "" && opts.HTTPClientTLSKey != "" {

View on GitHub (pinned to 85cf10c09c)

Solutions

Pass at least one address: --lookupd-http-address=127.0.0.1:4161 (most common, gives cluster-wide view) or --nsqd-http-address=127.0.0.1:4151.
If flags come from a config file, verify the array is populated and the file is actually loaded.
Check that early flag-processing/validation did not swallow the flags before New() was called.

Example fix

# before
nsqadmin --http-address=0.0.0.0:4171
# after
nsqadmin --http-address=0.0.0.0:4171 --lookupd-http-address=127.0.0.1:4161

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

if len(opts.NSQDHTTPAddresses) == 0 && len(opts.NSQLookupdHTTPAddresses) == 0 {
	return nil, errors.New("nsqadmin: configure --nsqd-http-address or --lookupd-http-address before New()")
}
admin, err := nsqadmin.New(opts)

Prevention

Fail fast in deployment scripts: assert at least one address flag is non-empty before exec'ing nsqadmin.
Prefer lookupd addresses in clustered setups so the config stays valid as nodes come and go.

When it happens

Trigger: Launching nsqadmin with neither --nsqd-http-address nor --lookupd-http-address (e.g. relying on defaults or a config file section that was dropped). In apps/nsq_stat-style tools the equivalent check log.Fatal's at startup; in library use, New() returns nil and the error.

Common situations: Config-file migration where the addresses array was renamed or not carried over; running nsqadmin in a container with the flags omitted from the command line; misconfigured environment-specific overrides that yield empty lists.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of nsqio/nsq@85cf10c09c (2026-08-16). Data as JSON: /api/errors/6c0c1b49ca54c207. Report an issue: GitHub.