Self-hosting troubleshooting

Diagnostic guides for the oz-agent-worker daemon and its task execution. Use this page when a worker won’t start, won’t connect, tasks stay queued, or tasks fail.

Note

The steps below apply to the managed architecture (oz-agent-worker daemon). For unmanaged deployments, refer to the documentation for the environment running oz agent run (e.g., GitHub Actions, Kubernetes).

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Worker won’t start

Docker backend

Cause: Docker isn’t running, or the daemon platform isn’t supported.

Fix:

1. Verify Docker is running: docker info.
2. Confirm the daemon platform is linux/amd64 or linux/arm64. Windows containers are not supported.
3. If the worker runs inside Docker, confirm the /var/run/docker.sock mount is correct and the mounting user has permission to the socket.

Kubernetes backend

Cause: The worker Deployment could not start, reach the Kubernetes API, or create its startup preflight Job. Missing Secrets, insufficient RBAC, and admission policies are common causes.

Fix:

1. Run kubectl describe pod -n NAMESPACE WORKER_POD. For Helm installs, if the pod reports CreateContainerConfigError, confirm the Secret configured by warp.apiKeySecret.name exists and contains the key configured by warp.apiKeySecret.key.
2. Check the worker logs for Kubernetes API or preflight diagnostics: kubectl logs -n NAMESPACE WORKER_POD.
3. Confirm the worker’s namespace has these permissions: create, get, list, watch, delete on jobs; get, list, watch on pods; get on pods/log; list on events.
4. Confirm the task namespace allows pods with a root init container, unless you enabled native image volumes with kubernetesBackend.useImageVolumes=true.
5. If your cluster restricts image sources, set kubernetesBackend.preflightImage to an allowlisted image. The default is busybox:1.36.
6. To pull the preflight image from a private registry, configure imagePullSecrets in kubernetesBackend.podTemplate.

A successful preflight confirms that the cluster can create the configured pod shape. It does not validate every task image, task Secret, setup command, or runtime network dependency.

Direct backend

Cause: The oz CLI isn’t installed or isn’t on the worker’s PATH.

Fix:

1. Install the Oz CLI on the worker host. See Installing the CLI.
2. If the CLI isn’t on PATH, set oz_path in the config file to the absolute path of the oz binary.

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Worker won’t connect

Cause: The API key is invalid, expired, or the host cannot reach the Automation Platform‘s backend.

Fix:

1. Confirm your API key is correct, not expired, and has team scope.
2. Regenerate the API key in Settings > Cloud platform > API keys if you suspect it’s invalid.
3. Ensure the host has outbound internet access to oz.warp.dev:443.
4. Check that no firewall rules are blocking WebSocket connections to wss://oz.warp.dev.
5. Increase log verbosity with --log-level debug to see connection details.

See Security and networking for the full list of outbound endpoints the worker needs.

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Tasks not being picked up

Cause: The worker isn’t running, the --host value doesn’t match the worker’s --worker-id, or the worker and task belong to different teams.

Fix:

1. Confirm the worker is running and connected. Check the worker logs for Successfully connected to server.
2. Verify the --host (or worker_host) value you passed matches your --worker-id exactly. Case-sensitive.
3. Ensure the worker’s team matches the team creating the task.

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Metrics not appearing

Cause: The worker is running but metrics aren’t showing up in Prometheus or your collector.

Fix:

1. Verify OTEL_METRICS_EXPORTER is set correctly on the worker process. Run curl -s localhost:9464/metrics from the worker host (for prometheus mode) to confirm the endpoint is serving.
2. For Prometheus scrape mode, confirm the bind address is 0.0.0.0 (not localhost) when running in Docker or Kubernetes. localhost is only reachable from inside the container.
3. Confirm no firewall or network policy blocks the metrics port (default 9464).
4. For OTLP push mode, verify OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT points to a reachable collector and that the protocol matches (http/protobuf vs grpc).
5. When using the Helm chart, confirm metrics.enabled=true is set. Check that the Service and (optionally) PodMonitor were created: kubectl get svc,podmonitor -n NAMESPACE.
6. If using metrics.podMonitor.create=true, verify the monitoring.coreos.com CRDs are installed in the cluster. The PodMonitor resource requires the Prometheus Operator.
7. Restart the worker with --log-level debug and look for metrics-related error messages at startup.

See Monitoring for the full setup guide.

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Task failures

Cause: A variety of reasons depending on backend. Start with the diagnostic steps common to all backends, then follow the backend-specific checks.

Fix (all backends):

1. Review task logs in the cloud agent dashboard or via session sharing.
2. Use --no-cleanup to keep the container, Job, or workspace indefinitely for inspection. With Kubernetes cleanup enabled, failed Jobs remain for 24 hours by default.
3. Use --log-level debug to see detailed execution logs.
4. Ensure the worker machine or cluster has sufficient resources (CPU, memory, disk).

Docker backend (task failures)

1. Verify Docker is running (docker info).
2. If using a custom image, confirm it is glibc-based (not Alpine/musl) and that its architecture matches the worker’s Docker daemon platform.

Kubernetes backend (task failures)

Start with the pod phase and recent events:

kubectl get jobs,pods -n NAMESPACE
kubectl describe pod -n NAMESPACE TASK_POD
kubectl logs -n NAMESPACE TASK_POD -c CONTAINER_NAME
kubectl logs -n NAMESPACE TASK_POD -c CONTAINER_NAME --previous

Then match the reported reason to these checks:

• Pending or Unschedulable: Read the pod’s scheduling events. Confirm that at least one eligible node has enough unallocated CPU and memory for the complete pod request. Also check task-pod selectors, affinity, taints and tolerations, topology constraints, resource quotas, and persistent volume requirements. If you depend on a node autoscaler, allow for provisioning latency and keep enough headroom to start task pods before the configured unschedulable timeout.
• OOMKilled: Increase the memory in the agent profile’s instance shape. The selected instance shape sets the task container’s CPU and memory requests and limits, overriding those fields for the task container in the pod template. Also confirm that sidecars and init containers have appropriate resources.
• ErrImagePull, ImagePullBackOff, or InvalidImageName: Confirm the image exists for the node architecture, the registry is reachable, and the task pod or service account references the required imagePullSecrets. A successful startup preflight does not validate a later task image.
• CreateContainerConfigError or FailedMount: Inspect the pod events for the named Secret, ConfigMap, service account, or volume. Confirm the object exists in the task namespace and that every referenced key is present.
• Init container failure: Inspect each init container’s status and logs. Admission policies must allow the worker’s sidecar-materialization init container to run as root unless native image volumes are enabled. Custom init containers must finish successfully before the task containers start.
• Evicted, DeadlineExceeded, or exit code 143: Check node pressure, lifecycle-tool events, the Job’s active deadline, and termination events. A task pod stores its workspace in pod-local ephemeral storage. Replacing an interrupted pod does not resume that run, so protect active task pods from voluntary node disruption. See Protect active task pods from disruption.
• The task starts but cannot reach a dependency: Test DNS resolution, TLS, and the destination from a task pod, not only from the worker pod. Worker connectivity to Warp does not prove that task-pod network policies, service mesh rules, proxies, or egress controls allow the task’s own dependencies.

The worker API key authenticates the worker to Warp. It is not injected as a general-purpose task credential. Provide repository, registry, and application credentials to task pods through your approved Secret integration and pod template.

Direct backend (task failures)

1. Verify the Oz CLI is accessible.
2. Verify the workspace root directory has write permissions for the user running the worker.

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Image pull failures

Docker backend (image pull)

1. If using a private registry, ensure Docker credentials are available to the worker. See Private Docker registries.
2. Try pulling the image manually on the worker host: docker pull <image>.

Kubernetes backend (image pull)

1. Configure imagePullSecrets in the pod_template section of your worker config.
2. Verify the Secret exists in the task namespace and contains valid credentials.

Both backends (image pull)

• Verify the image exists and the tag is correct.
• Check network connectivity from the worker/cluster to the registry.

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Related pages

• Self-hosting overview — Architecture and decision guide.
• Self-hosted worker reference — CLI flags and config schema, including every flag mentioned here.
• Security and networking — Outbound endpoints the worker needs.
• Agent Session Sharing — Attach to running tasks to debug interactively.