Bad Request 400 on Boto Head Object operation during collectstatic when using zappa manage command

[chrismaille]

Command:

zappa manage production "collectstatic --no-input"

Traceback:

[ERROR] ClientError: An error occurred (400) when calling the HeadObject operation: Bad Request
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/var/task/handler.py", line 657, in lambda_handler
    return LambdaHandler.lambda_handler(event, context)
  File "/var/task/handler.py", line 244, in lambda_handler
    return handler.handler(event, context)
  File "/var/task/handler.py", line 454, in handler
    management.call_command(*event["manage"].split(" "))
  File "/tmp/onboard/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 194, in call_command
    return command.execute(*args, **defaults)
  File "/tmp/onboard/django/core/management/base.py", line 460, in execute
    output = self.handle(*args, **options)
  File "/tmp/onboard/django/contrib/staticfiles/management/commands/collectstatic.py", line 209, in handle
    collected = self.collect()
  File "/tmp/onboard/django/contrib/staticfiles/management/commands/collectstatic.py", line 135, in collect
    handler(path, prefixed_path, storage)
  File "/tmp/onboard/django/contrib/staticfiles/management/commands/collectstatic.py", line 368, in copy_file
    if not self.delete_file(path, prefixed_path, source_storage):
  File "/tmp/onboard/django/contrib/staticfiles/management/commands/collectstatic.py", line 278, in delete_file
    if self.storage.exists(prefixed_path):
  File "/tmp/onboard/storages/backends/s3.py", line 586, in exists
    self.connection.meta.client.head_object(
  File "/var/lang/lib/python3.12/site-packages/botocore/client.py", line 569, in _api_call
    return self._make_api_call(operation_name, kwargs)
  File "/var/lang/lib/python3.12/site-packages/botocore/client.py", line 1023, in _make_api_call
    raise error_class(parsed_response, operation_name)

The same command running without zappa works as expected: python manage.py collectstatic --no-input

[monkut]

collectstatic collectsCollects the static files into the defiend STATIC_ROOT location. This typically is done on static server.

On lambda, you can use django-storages to serve static files from s3 buckets.
The error you have seems to suggest you may be using this. In which case you may not have the django-storages configured correclty.

You might want to try using whitenoise for serving static files to be cached by the client.

[chrismaille]

Hi @monkut , thanks for the answer. The issue was in the s3.head_object call django-storages need to make during the collect static operation to check bucket info.

At first, I though the issue was in that library, but the collectionstatic --no-input command works on all scenarios except when called via zappa manage command.

(In fact, my workaround was create a new github actions workflow step installing the project and running the default collectstatic command.)

The whitenoise is a very good solution, but in my case, we need work the media files generated by this project on the S3.

[monkut]

From zappa's perspective, it's passing the zappa manage production "collectstatic --no-input" command down to django, and django handles it from there.

You can see that the call is made out to django-storages:

  File "/tmp/onboard/storages/backends/s3.py", line 586, in exists
    self.connection.meta.client.head_object(

Where it's failing with the 400 call. I don't think zappa is causing an issue here. I suspect there's a django-storages configuration issue. The call above does an exist with prefixed_path. Maybe the resulting prefixed_path is None?

[robertpro]

@chrismaille were you able to fix the problem?

I am getting the same issue, I think it is correctly configured:

STORAGES = {
    "default": {
        "BACKEND": "storages.backends.s3.S3Storage",
        "OPTIONS": {
            "location": "media",
            "file_overwrite": False,
        },
    },
    "staticfiles": {
        "BACKEND": "storages.backends.s3.S3Storage",
        "OPTIONS": {
            "location": "static",
            "default_acl": "public-read",
        },
    },
}

The S3 bucket also exists I am not sure how to debug, zappa tail says nothing.

[robertpro]

@monkut I am able to run collect static from my own machine, and it uploads correctly to the S3 bucket, I am sharing the same configuration for lambda deployment and local development for this test, I am not sure how to debug this issue, this is what zappa tail is showing:

[1751906257820] [DEBUG] 2025-07-07T16:37:37.820Z da395c7e-9c05-4168-9c66-960c4f0d9d1d Zappa Event: {'manage': 'collectstatic --noinput'}
[1751906258336] LAMBDA_WARNING: Unhandled exception. The most likely cause is an issue in the function code. However, in rare cases, a Lambda runtime update can cause unexpected function behavior. For functions using managed runtimes, runtime updates can be triggered by a function change, or can be applied automatically. To determine if the runtime has been updated, check the runtime version in the INIT_START log entry. If this error correlates with a chan    raise error_class(parsed_response, operation_name)e/client.py", line 1074, in _make_api_callllectstatic.py", line 278, in delete_filenformation, see https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lambda/latest/dg/runtimes-update.html   

And this is the output from the command:

❯ zappa manage staging "collectstatic --noinput"
[START] RequestId: da395c7e-9c05-4168-9c66-960c4f0d9d1d Version: $LATEST
[DEBUG] 2025-07-07T16:37:37.820Z da395c7e-9c05-4168-9c66-960c4f0d9d1d Zappa Event: {'manage': 'collectstatic --noinput'}
LAMBDA_WARNING: Unhandled exception. The most likely cause is an issue in the function code. However, in rare cases, a Lambda runtime update can cause unexpected function behavior. For functions using managed runtimes, runtime updates can be triggered by a function change, or can be applied automatically. To determine if the runtime has been updated, check the runtime version in the INIT_START log entry. If this error correlates with a change in the runtime version, you may be able to mitigate this error by temporarily rolling back to the previous runtime version. For more information, see https://docs.aws.amazon.com/lambda/latest/dg/runtimes-update.html
[ERROR] ClientError: An error occurred (400) when calling the HeadObject operation: Bad Request
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/var/task/handler.py", line 769, in lambda_handler
    return LambdaHandler.lambda_handler(event, context)
  File "/var/task/handler.py", line 244, in lambda_handler
    return handler.handler(event, context)
  File "/var/task/handler.py", line 454, in handler
    management.call_command(*event["manage"].split(" "))
  File "/var/lang/lib/python3.12/site-packages/django/core/management/__init__.py", line 194, in call_command
    return command.execute(*args, **defaults)
  File "/var/lang/lib/python3.12/site-packages/django/core/management/base.py", line 460, in execute
    output = self.handle(*args, **options)
  File "/var/lang/lib/python3.12/site-packages/django/contrib/staticfiles/management/commands/collectstatic.py", line 209, in handle
    collected = self.collect()
  File "/var/lang/lib/python3.12/site-packages/django/contrib/staticfiles/management/commands/collectstatic.py", line 135, in collect
    handler(path, prefixed_path, storage)
  File "/var/lang/lib/python3.12/site-packages/django/contrib/staticfiles/management/commands/collectstatic.py", line 368, in copy_file
    if not self.delete_file(path, prefixed_path, source_storage):
  File "/var/lang/lib/python3.12/site-packages/django/contrib/staticfiles/management/commands/collectstatic.py", line 278, in delete_file
    if self.storage.exists(prefixed_path):
  File "/var/lang/lib/python3.12/site-packages/storages/backends/s3.py", line 586, in exists
    self.connection.meta.client.head_object(
  File "/var/lang/lib/python3.12/site-packages/botocore/client.py", line 601, in _api_call
    return self._make_api_call(operation_name, kwargs)
  File "/var/lang/lib/python3.12/site-packages/botocore/context.py", line 123, in wrapper
    return func(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/var/lang/lib/python3.12/site-packages/botocore/client.py", line 1074, in _make_api_call
    raise error_class(parsed_response, operation_name)
[END] RequestId: da395c7e-9c05-4168-9c66-960c4f0d9d1d
[REPORT] RequestId: da395c7e-9c05-4168-9c66-960c4f0d9d1d
Duration: 518.10 ms
Billed Duration: 519 ms
Memory Size: 512 MB
Max Memory Used: 177 MB

Any ideas?

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