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<@ULVA73B9P> I am getting a weird error `Permissio...
# ask-marvin
u
@Marvin I am getting a weird error 
PermissionError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '.env'
, this is not coming from a flow but the prefect run itself, here is the stack trace:
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Traceback (most recent call last):                                                                                                                                      │
│   File "<frozen runpy>", line 198, in _run_module_as_main                                                                                                               │
│   File "<frozen runpy>", line 88, in _run_code                                                                                                                          │
│   File "/mnt/teams/gam-pm-team09/envs/quantops/master-el8-py312/.venv/lib/python3.12/site-packages/prefect/__main__.py", line 1, in <module>                            │
│     from prefect.cli import app                                                                                                                                         │
│   File "/mnt/teams/gam-pm-team09/envs/quantops/master-el8-py312/.venv/lib/python3.12/site-packages/prefect/cli/__init__.py", line 2, in <module>                        │
│     from prefect.cli.root import app                                                                                                                                    │
│   File "/mnt/teams/gam-pm-team09/envs/quantops/master-el8-py312/.venv/lib/python3.12/site-packages/prefect/cli/root.py", line 15, in <module>                           │
│     import prefect.context                                                                                                                                              │
│   File "/mnt/teams/gam-pm-team09/envs/quantops/master-el8-py312/.venv/lib/python3.12/site-packages/prefect/context.py", line 950, in <module>                           │
│     GLOBAL_SETTINGS_CONTEXT: SettingsContext = root_settings_context()                                                                                                  │
│                                                ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^                                                                                                  │
│   File "/mnt/teams/gam-pm-team09/envs/quantops/master-el8-py312/.venv/lib/python3.12/site-packages/prefect/context.py", line 909, in root_settings_context              │
│     profiles = prefect.settings.load_profiles()                                                                                                                         │
│                ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^                                                                                                                         │
│   File "/mnt/teams/gam-pm-team09/envs/quantops/master-el8-py312/.venv/lib/python3.12/site-packages/prefect/settings/profiles.py", line 307, in load_profiles            │
│     current_settings = get_current_settings()                                                                                                                           │
│                        ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^                                                                                                                           │
│   File "/mnt/teams/gam-pm-team09/envs/quantops/master-el8-py312/.venv/lib/python3.12/site-packages/prefect/settings/context.py", line 21, in get_current_settings       │
│     return Settings()                                                                                                                                                   │
│            ^^^^^^^^^^                                                                                                                                                   │
│   File "/mnt/teams/gam-pm-team09/envs/quantops/master-el8-py312/.venv/lib/python3.12/site-packages/pydantic_settings/main.py", line 189, in __init__                    │
│     **__pydantic_self__._settings_build_values(                                                                                                                         │
│       ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^                                                                                                                         │
│   File "/mnt/teams/gam-pm-team09/envs/quantops/master-el8-py312/.venv/lib/python3.12/site-packages/pydantic_settings/main.py", line 368, in _settings_build_values      │
│     dotenv_settings = DotEnvSettingsSource(                                                                                                                             │
│                       ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^                                                                                                                             │
│   File "/mnt/teams/gam-pm-team09/envs/quantops/master-el8-py312/.venv/lib/python3.12/site-packages/pydantic_settings/sources/providers/dotenv.py", line 51, in __init__ │
│     super().__init__(                                                                                                                                                   │
│   File "/mnt/teams/gam-pm-team09/envs/quantops/master-el8-py312/.venv/lib/python3.12/site-packages/pydantic_settings/sources/providers/env.py", line 58, in __init__    │
│     self.env_vars = self._load_env_vars()                                                                                                                               │
│                     ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^                                                                                                                               │
│   File "/mnt/teams/gam-pm-team09/envs/quantops/master-el8-py312/.venv/lib/python3.12/site-packages/pydantic_settings/sources/providers/dotenv.py", line 63, in _load_en │
│     return self._read_env_files()                                                                                                                                       │
│            ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^                                                                                                                                       │
│   File "/mnt/teams/gam-pm-team09/envs/quantops/master-el8-py312/.venv/lib/python3.12/site-packages/pydantic_settings/sources/providers/dotenv.py", line 100, in _read_e │
│     if env_path.is_file():                                                                                                                                              │
│        ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^                                                                                                                                               │
│   File "/opt/py312-gcc132/lib/python3.12/pathlib.py", line 892, in is_file                                                                                              │
│     return S_ISREG(self.stat().st_mode)                                                                                                                                 │
│                    ^^^^^^^^^^^                                                                                                                                          │
│   File "/opt/py312-gcc132/lib/python3.12/pathlib.py", line 840, in stat                                                                                                 │
│     return os.stat(self, follow_symlinks=follow_symlinks)                                                                                                               │
│            ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^                                                                                                               │
│ PermissionError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '.env'
I dont have any .env file in directory and dont need one
m
✅ thought for 443.7 seconds
Thanks for the stack trace — that helps. What’s happening: - When Prefect starts up, it builds its settings using pydantic-settings. As part of that, it will probe for a 
.env
file in the current working directory. - Your traceback shows the error occurs while pydantic checks 
Path('.env').is_file()
, which calls 
os.stat('.env')
. A PermissionError here means there is something named 
.env
in your current directory (a file, directory, or symlink) that your user cannot stat/access — even if you don’t intend to use it. Why you see this even if you “don’t have a .env”: - 
.env
is a hidden name; you won’t see it without listing hidden files. - It could be a directory or a symlink with restrictive permissions (e.g., mode 000) or pointing somewhere you cannot access. - pydantic-settings tries to check if it’s a file and trips over the permission error before it can decide to ignore it. Quick ways to unblock: 1) Inspect what 
.env
actually is and its permissions
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ls -lad .env
namei -l .env
stat .env
2) Fix or move it out of the way - If it’s a file you don’t need:
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mv .env .env.bak
- If it’s a directory with no execute bit (so you can’t stat it):
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chmod u+x .env
- If it’s a file with no read bit:
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chmod u+r .env
- If it’s a symlink, follow where it points (
namei -l .env
) and fix permissions on the target or remove the symlink. 3) Run the Prefect CLI from a different working directory - For example:
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cd ~
prefect config view
This avoids the problematic 
.env
in your current project directory. Important note: - In Prefect 3.x there isn’t a setting/flag to disable 
.env
probing altogether; it’s part of the settings bootstrap done by pydantic-settings. We can consider improving error handling here, but for now the remedies above are the practical approaches. If you can, please share: - Output of 
ls -lad .env
and 
namei -l .env
- Your current working directory (
pwd
) - Prefect version (
prefect version
) Docs for reference: - Settings and profiles in Prefect 3
u
@Marvin I am running prefect flow in a pod in kubernetes, is there a way to set working directory before the "prefect flow-run execute"?
m
✅ thought for 145.1 seconds
Yes — for Kubernetes runs you can set the container working directory so the Prefect process starts in a safe path (and skips any problematic 
.env
in the previous CWD). Recommended options: 1) Set workingDir in the Kubernetes work pool’s base job template - Get the default template:
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prefect work-pool get-default-base-job-template --type kubernetes > base.json
- Edit the container spec to add workingDir, e.g.:
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{
  "job_configuration": {
    "job_manifest": {
      "spec": {
        "template": {
          "spec": {
            "containers": [
              {
                "name": "prefect-job",
                "image": "{{ image }}",
                "imagePullPolicy": "{{ image_pull_policy }}",
                "env": "{{ env }}",
                "args": "{{ command }}",
                "workingDir": "/home/prefect"
              }
            ],
            "restartPolicy": "Never",
            "serviceAccountName": "{{ service_account_name }}"
          }
        }
      }
    },
    ...
  }
}
- Apply it to your work pool:
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prefect work-pool create "my-pool" --type kubernetes --base-job-template base.json --overwrite
2) Make workingDir configurable via job_variables (per-deployment) - In your base job template, parameterize the directory:
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"workingDir": "{{ working_dir }}"
- In your deployment call, set it:
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flow.from_source("<https://github.com/org/repo>", entrypoint="flows/my_flow.py:flow").deploy(
  name="my-deploy",
  work_pool_name="my-pool",
  job_variables={"working_dir": "/home/prefect"}
)
3) Set WORKDIR in your image or entrypoint - If you own the container image, set 
WORKDIR /home/prefect
in the Dockerfile or add an entrypoint script that `cd`s before exec’ing the Prefect command. Any of these ensures the container starts in a directory that doesn’t contain a 
.env
, so pydantic-settings won’t hit that PermissionError while probing for 
.env
. References: - Customize job variables - Manage work pools If you share your current work pool name and whether you prefer a pool-wide default or per-deployment override, I can sketch the exact JSON or deployment snippet.
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