permission denied when try to set up duckdb destination

[Johannes W. S. (johannes-ws)]

i got this error message "Failed to save DuckDB due to the following error: An exception occurred: PermissionError(13, 'Permission denied')", i just fill /local/lakehouse.duckdb, anyone help?

Version: 2.1.0 (OSS self-hosted)
OS: Ubuntu 24.04 (Linux headless server)
Deploy: Kubernetes via abctl

[Airbyte Support Bot (airbyte-support-bot)]

Hi Johannes W. S. (@johannes-ws), thank you for reporting this!

We're looking into this. Based on the details you've shared, the PermissionError(13, 'Permission denied') when using /local/lakehouse.duckdb is a known challenge when running Airbyte on Kubernetes (which abctl uses under the hood).

Why this happens

In Kubernetes-based deployments (including abctl), the /local path inside the container maps to a Kubernetes Persistent Volume. The connector process running inside the pod may not have write permissions to that volume, which causes the PermissionError.

This is different from a Docker Compose deployment where /local maps directly to a host directory (default LOCAL_ROOT=/tmp/airbyte_local).

Recommended options

1. Use MotherDuck (recommended for Kubernetes deployments): The DuckDB destination supports MotherDuck as a cloud-hosted option, which avoids local filesystem permission issues entirely. You can sign up for a free MotherDuck account and configure the destination with a md: database prefix and an API key.

2. Fix volume permissions: If you need a local DuckDB file, you can try adjusting the permissions on the underlying host directory that backs the Kubernetes volume. For abctl, this is typically at ~/.airbyte/abctl/data/ on your host. Try:

   sudo chmod -R 777 ~/.airbyte/abctl/data/

   Then retry setting up the destination.

3. Custom Helm values: You can also try setting the LOCAL_ROOT environment variable or configuring a custom volume mount with the correct permissions via a Helm values override file when installing with abctl.

Additional context

The DuckDB destination docs include a note that "local file-based DBs will not work in Airbyte Cloud or Kubernetes", but this warning is currently only shown in the Cloud version of the docs. Since abctl deploys Airbyte on a local Kubernetes cluster, this limitation applies to your setup as well.

We've escalated this to our internal team for investigation and to improve the documentation for abctl users.

We've escalated this to our team for investigation. We'll update this thread with any findings.

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Need more help? Join Airbyte Community Slack for peer support, or if you're a Cloud customer, open a support ticket referencing this URL.

[Airbyte Support Bot (airbyte-support-bot)]

This issue is being tracked internally: https://github.com/airbytehq/oncall/issues/12898