pulumi/pulumi · error

getting environment definition: %w

Error message

getting environment definition: %w

What it means

This wraps any error from GetEnvironment that is NOT a not-found condition: authentication failure, network errors, permission denied, or server-side errors. The not-found case is handled separately with a more specific message (see error 322).

Source

Thrown at pkg/cmd/esc/cli/env_provider_common.go:183

	envVars []envVar,
) error {
	var def []byte
	var tag string
	var err error
	if draft != "" && draft != "new" {
		def, tag, err = env.esc.client.GetEnvironmentDraft(ctx, ref.orgName, ref.projectName, ref.envName, draft)
		if err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("getting environment draft definition: %w", err)
		}
	} else {
		def, tag, _, err = env.esc.client.GetEnvironment(ctx, ref.orgName, ref.projectName, ref.envName, "", false)
		if err != nil {
			if client.IsNotFound(err) {
				return fmt.Errorf(
					"environment %s does not exist; pass --create to create it, or run `esc env init %s` first",
					ref.String(), ref.String())
			}
			return fmt.Errorf("getting environment definition: %w", err)
		}
	}

	newYAML, changed, err := mergeProviderIntoEnv(def, path, providerNode, envVars)
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}
	if !changed {
		fmt.Fprintf(env.esc.stdout, "No changes to %s; already up to date.\n", ref.String())
		return nil
	}

	diags, err := env.esc.updateEnvironment(ctx, ref, draft, newYAML, tag, "Provider updated.")
	if err != nil {
		return err
	}
	if len(diags) != 0 {
		werr := env.writeYAMLEnvironmentDiagnostics(env.esc.stderr, ref.projectName+"/"+ref.envName, newYAML, diags)

View on GitHub (pinned to 793f7b2e16)

Solutions

1. Re-authenticate with `esc login` (or `pulumi login`) and retry.
2. Confirm your account has read access to org/project/environment.
3. Check network connectivity, proxy settings, and Pulumi Cloud status.
4. Verify the environment exists; if it genuinely doesn't, use --create (that yields the clearer not-found message).

if _, err := escClient.GetUser(ctx); err != nil {
    return fmt.Errorf("ESC authentication invalid, run `esc login` first: %w", err)
}

err := applyProviderUpdate(ctx, env, ref, "", path, node, vars)
if err != nil && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "getting environment definition") {
    if isTransient(err) { // network/5xx
        time.Sleep(backoff)
        err = applyProviderUpdate(ctx, env, ref, "", path, node, vars)
    }
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling applyProviderUpdate with an empty draft where GetEnvironment(ctx, org, project, env, "", false) fails with an error other than 404: invalid/expired token, 401/403 from Pulumi Cloud, timeouts, 5xx responses.

Common situations: Stale `esc login` credentials; lacking read access to the environment (different org, RBAC); corporate proxy blocking the API; Pulumi Cloud outage.

Understand the failure class

Background: "API request failed": what wrapped HTTP errors from external APIs mean and how to find the real cause — this error's family across 29 libraries.

Related errors

• getting environment draft definition: %w
• getting environment draft definition: %w
• getting environment definition: %w
• resolving default organization: %w
• failed to publish template: %w

AI-assisted analysis of pulumi/pulumi@793f7b2e16 (2026-08-31). Data as JSON: /api/errors/a8974892a3dad50b. Report an issue: GitHub.