could not initialize New Relic client

[juupas]

We are getting the following when trying to create a marker for our app in GitHub Actions:

level=fatal msg="could not initialize New Relic client, make sure your profile is configured with newrelic profile configure"

This is the step configuration we have:

    - name: Create New Relic OTEL Application Deployment Marker
      if: ${{ steps.guid_otel.outputs.guid != '' }}
      uses: newrelic/[email protected]
      with:
        apiKey: ${{ secrets.api_key }}
        region: "EU"
        guid: ${{ steps.guid_otel.outputs.guid }}
        version: ${{ steps.version.outputs.version }}
        deeplink: ${{ github.server_url }}/${{ github.repository }}/actions/runs/${{ github.run_id }}
        user: "${{ github.actor }}"

We've had markers working some time before, so I don't know what has happened.

[sanderblue]

Hi @juupas, thanks for reporting. So far I haven't been able to reproduce the issue. That error message typically means credentials are missing. Can you double check your API key is set in your GitHub secrets?

[wrobbins]

My team encountered this as well. The issue was that secrets aren't passed through to "reusable workflows" GH docs.

Working example

jobs:
...
  notify:
    uses: ./.github/workflows/deploy-notifications.yml
    secrets:
      new_relic_api_key: ${{ secrets.NEW_RELIC_API_KEY }}
    with:
      new_relic_deployment_entity_guid: <REDACTED>

# deploy-notifications.yml
name: Notify of the most recent deployment

on:
  workflow_call:
    secrets:
      new_relic_api_key:
        required: true
        description: "The New Relic API key."
    inputs:
      new_relic_deployment_entity_guid:
        required: true
        type: string

jobs:
  newrelic:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    name: New Relic Deployment Marker
    steps:
      - name: Set Release Version from Tag
        run: echo "RELEASE_VERSION=${{ github.ref_name }}" >> $GITHUB_ENV
      - name: New Relic Application Deployment Marker
        uses: newrelic/[email protected] 
        with:
          region: "US"
          apiKey: ${{ secrets.new_relic_api_key }}
          guid: ${{ inputs.new_relic_deployment_entity_guid }}
          version: "${{ env.RELEASE_VERSION }}"
          user: "${{ github.actor }}"

From what we went through debugging this image locally - I have a few recommendations for the NR team.

• Pin deployment-marker-action to a versioned FROM image of the NR CLI instead of using latest. This will avoid any breaking (or unknown) changes happening in the CLI that might break this Action. Fortunately this wasn't the case. I.E. FROM newrelic/cli:latest --> FROM newrelic/cli:v0.68
• Better error messaging than what is given from the CLI. Possibly solutions:
  • Work with the CLI team to have a better error message than what we currently get about profile not being configured. A profile isn't actually necessary for the CLI to work. The actual error is that NEW_RELIC_API_KEY is unset/blank.
  • If working with the CLI team isn't an option update entrypoint.sh to do the precondition check- making sure NEW_RELIC_API_KEY is set and has a value.

[sanderblue]

Agreed we should have better error messaging :)