ory/kratos · error

ClientContextKey was expected to be *client.OryKratos but…

Error message

ClientContextKey was expected to be *client.OryKratos but it contained an invalid type %T 

What it means

NewClient in cmd/cliclient/client.go looks up a client object stored in the command context under ClientContextKey. The value found must be *client.OryKratos; if the context key holds some other type (the %T in the message identifies it), the library refuses to continue because it cannot safely return a Kratos API client.

Solutions

1. Check the %T in the message to see what type is actually stored under ClientContextKey.
2. Store the value as *client.OryKratos (via kratos.NewAPIClient(kratos.NewConfiguration())) before invoking the commands.
3. Use a separate context key per client library if you embed multiple Ory CLIs.
4. Fix test stubs to implement/return the exact *client.OryKratos type.

Example fix

// before
ctx = context.WithValue(ctx, client.ClientContextKey, myKetoClient)
// after
ctx = context.WithValue(ctx, client.ClientContextKey, kratos.NewAPIClient(kratos.NewConfiguration()))

v := cmd.Context().Value(client.ClientContextKey)
if v != nil {
    if _, ok := v.(*client.OryKratos); !ok {
        return fmt.Errorf("context client has wrong type %T", v)
    }
}

func kratosFromContext(ctx context.Context) (*client.OryKratos, bool) {
    c, ok := ctx.Value(client.ClientContextKey).(*client.OryKratos)
    return c, ok
}

api, err := cliclient.NewClient(cmd)
if err != nil && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "ClientContextKey was expected") {
    log.Error("wrong client type stored in context; store *client.OryKratos", "err", err)
}

When it happens

Trigger: Embedding the Ory CLI commands in your own cobra command tree where code earlier in the chain stored a different type under the ClientContextKey (e.g. another API client or a raw configuration struct), then invoking a Kratos command.

Common situations: Composing Ory Keto/Hydra/Kratos CLI libraries together with a shared context key; tests stubbing the context value with a mock of the wrong type; refactors replacing the stored client type without updating the key.

Understand the failure class

Background: Type mismatch errors: IllegalArgumentException, TypeError and type guards across 150 open-source libraries — this error's family across 150 libraries.

Related errors

• expected to get the DSN as an argument, or the…
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• api_key auth strategy requires a string value
• basic_auth auth strategy requires a string user

AI-assisted analysis of ory/kratos@b86338da04 (2026-09-07). Data as JSON: /api/errors/dbfafa2500a7c720. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at cmd/cliclient/client.go:51

type ClientContext struct {
	Endpoint   string
	HTTPClient *http.Client
}

func NewClient(cmd *cobra.Command) (*kratos.APIClient, error) {
	if f, ok := cmd.Context().Value(ClientContextKey).(func(cmd *cobra.Command) (*ClientContext, error)); ok {
		cc, err := f(cmd)
		if err != nil {
			return nil, err
		}

		conf := kratos.NewConfiguration()
		conf.HTTPClient = cc.HTTPClient
		conf.Servers = kratos.ServerConfigurations{{URL: cc.Endpoint}}
		return kratos.NewAPIClient(conf), nil
	} else if f != nil {
		return nil, errors.Errorf("ClientContextKey was expected to be *client.OryKratos but it contained an invalid type %T ", f)
	}

	endpoint, err := cmd.Flags().GetString(FlagEndpoint)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, errors.WithStack(err)
	}

	if endpoint == "" {
		endpoint = os.Getenv(envKeyEndpoint)
	}

	if endpoint == "" {
		return nil, errors.Errorf("you have to set the remote endpoint, try --help for details")
	}

	u, err := url.Parse(endpoint)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, errors.Wrapf(err, `could not parse the endpoint URL "%s"`, endpoint)

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