< Marvin> why might I all the sudden start getting 401 Unaut Prefect Community #ask-marvin

<@ULVA73B9P> why might I all the sudden start gett...

Erik Paasonen

07/31/2025, 4:13 PM

@Marvin why might I all the sudden start getting 401 Unauthorized exceptions when running flows?

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prefect.exceptions.PrefectHTTPStatusError: Client error '401 Unauthorized' for url '<https://api.prefect.cloud/api/accounts>...

Marvin

07/31/2025, 4:14 PM

✅ thought for 34.6 seconds

Marvin

07/31/2025, 4:14 PM

Based on the research and GitHub issues, here are the most common reasons you might suddenly start getting 401 Unauthorized exceptions: 1. Expired API Key/Token - Prefect Cloud API keys expire after a certain period - You'll need to generate a new API key in the Prefect Cloud UI and update your authentication - Run

prefect cloud login

with your new API key 2. Long-Running Flow Issues - If your flow runs for more than 24 hours, you might encounter authentication issues - This is related to token expiration during long-running tasks - Consider breaking up very long-running flows into smaller chunks 3. Environment/Configuration Issues - Check if your

PREFECT_API_KEY

environment variable is still set correctly - Verify you're logged into the correct workspace with

prefect cloud workspace ls

- Ensure you're using the correct profile with

prefect profile ls

4. Version Compatibility - If you've recently upgraded Prefect, ensure all components (client, server, workers) are on compatible versions - Some users have reported auth issues when upgrading to newer versions To resolve this, try the following steps: 1. First, verify your current authentication:

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bash
prefect cloud workspace ls

2. If that fails, generate a new API key in the Prefect Cloud UI and login again:

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bash
prefect cloud login -k 'your-new-api-key'

3. Verify your profile and workspace settings:

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bash
prefect profile ls
prefect config view

If these steps don't resolve the issue, please let me know and provide: - How long your flows typically run - Whether you've recently upgraded Prefect - The output of

prefect version

This will help me provide more specific guidance for your situation.

Erik Paasonen

07/31/2025, 4:30 PM

@Marvin it's an expired API key. does Prefect's Terraform provider have a way for Terraform to rotate this?

Marvin

07/31/2025, 4:30 PM

❌ Error: Client error '422 Unprocessable Entity' for url 'https://api.github.com/search/issues?q=repo%3APrefectHQ%2Fprefect-terraform+api+key+rotation&order=desc&per_page=3' For more information check: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Status/422

😅 1

Marvin

07/31/2025, 4:30 PM

Brendan Dalpe

07/31/2025, 4:38 PM

@Erik Paasonen check out this example: https://github.com/PrefectHQ/terraform-provider-prefect/blob/main/examples/resources/prefect_service_account/resource.tf

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resource "time_rotating" "ninety_days" {
  rotation_days = 90
}

# Pass the time_rotating resource to the `api_key_expiration` attribute
# in order to automate the rotation of the Service Account key
resource "prefect_service_account" "example_rotate_time_key" {
  name               = "my-service-account"
  api_key_expiration = time_rotating.ninety_days.rotation_rfc3339
}

❤️ 1

Brendan Dalpe

07/31/2025, 4:40 PM

I'll look into the Marvin issue

Erik Paasonen

07/31/2025, 4:40 PM

awesome, thanks for the tip!

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