pika/pika · error · TypeError

credentials must be an object of type: {pika.credentials.VAL

Error message

credentials must be an object of type: {pika.credentials.VALID_TYPES!r}, but got {value!r}

What it means

Raised by Parameters.credentials setter (connection.py:278-281) when value is not an instance of one of pika.credentials.VALID_TYPES (PlainCredentials or ExternalCredentials). pika requires a typed credentials object so it can negotiate the correct SASL auth mechanism; passing a raw tuple, a string, a dict, or None is rejected with TypeError.

Source

Thrown at pika/connection.py:279

        """
        One of the classes from `pika.credentials.VALID_TYPES`.

        Defaults to `DEFAULT_CREDENTIALS`.
        """
        return self._credentials

    @credentials.setter
    def credentials(
        self, value: (pika.credentials.PlainCredentials |
                      pika.credentials.ExternalCredentials)
    ) -> None:
        """
        :param value: authentication credential object of one of the classes
            from  `pika.credentials.VALID_TYPES`

        """
        if not isinstance(value, tuple(pika.credentials.VALID_TYPES)):
            raise TypeError(
                f'credentials must be an object of type: {pika.credentials.VALID_TYPES!r}, but '
                f'got {value!r}')
        # Copy the mutable object to avoid accidental side-effects
        self._credentials = copy.deepcopy(value)

    @property
    def frame_max(self) -> int:
        """
        :returns: desired maximum AMQP frame size to use. Defaults to
            `DEFAULT_FRAME_MAX`.

        """
        return self._frame_max

    @frame_max.setter
    def frame_max(self, value: int) -> None:
        """
        :param value: desired maximum AMQP frame size to use between

View on GitHub (pinned to 295ad9e579)

Solutions

1. Wrap username/password with pika.PlainCredentials(user, password).
2. For x509 TLS auth, use pika.ExternalCredentials().
3. Prefer pika.URLParameters('amqp://user:pass@host/vhost') which parses credentials for you.

Example fix

# before
params = pika.ConnectionParameters(credentials=('guest', 'guest'))

# after
import pika
params = pika.ConnectionParameters(
    credentials=pika.PlainCredentials('guest', 'guest')
)

import pika.credentials
if not isinstance(value, tuple(pika.credentials.VALID_TYPES)):
    value = pika.PlainCredentials(value[0], value[1]) if isinstance(value, (tuple, list)) else value
params = pika.ConnectionParameters(credentials=value)

import pika.credentials

def is_credentials(value) -> bool:
    return isinstance(value, tuple(pika.credentials.VALID_TYPES))

try:
    params = pika.ConnectionParameters(credentials=raw)
except TypeError as e:
    if 'credentials must be' in str(e):
        params = pika.ConnectionParameters(credentials=pika.PlainCredentials(raw[0], raw[1]))
    else:
        raise

When it happens

Trigger: Passing a (username, password) tuple directly instead of wrapping it in pika.PlainCredentials; passing a plain password string; passing None; passing a dict like {'username':..., 'password':...}.

Common situations: Confusing the credentials object with the raw username/password tuple; migrating from an older config format; loading credentials from a secret store and forgetting to wrap them.

Related errors

• Expected pika.connection.Parameters instance, but got None i
• connection_configs does not support iteration: {error!r}
• blocked_connection_timeout must be a Real number, but got {v
• channel_max must be an int, but got {value!r}
• client_properties must be dict or None, but got {value!r}

AI-assisted analysis of pika/pika@295ad9e579 (2026-08-04). Data as JSON: /data/errors/af3400f043ce6139.json. Report an issue: GitHub.