[Bug]: container-use terminal fails if the environment has a secret configured

[kalin-sa]

What happened?

$ cu config secret set TEST "env://TEST"

Ask agent to create a new env.

$ cu list
ID             TITLE                                  CREATED         UPDATED
humane-spider  Setup environment for sa-go-creatives  19 seconds ago  19 seconds ago

cu terminal humane-spider

I get the following error:

● Container.withNewFile(
  ┆ path: "/cu/rc.sh"
  ┆ contents: "[ -f ~/.bashrc ] && . ~/.bashrc; \"/bin/bash\" --version | head -4; export PS1=\"\\033[33mcu\\033[0m \\033[02m\\$(pwd | sed \\\"s|^\\$HOME|~|\\\")\\033[0m \\$ \"\n"
  ): Container! 0.0s
▼ .terminal(cmd: ["/bin/bash", "--rcfile", "/cu/rc.sh", "-i"], experimentalPrivilegedNesting: true): Container! 0.0s ERROR
! failed to start service: start container: secret argon2:e0xSOGVG29IQw071H4NASqfVey5lo6QrFHp+MLcGkY0: not found
╰─✘ exec /bin/bash --rcfile /cu/rc.sh -i 0.0s ERROR
  ! start container: secret argon2:e0xSOGVG29IQw071H4NASqfVey5lo6QrFHp+MLcGkY0: not found

Version

container-use version 0.4.1
commit: 71346865565c2a0d9dd92350ed30c86ed73e43b9
built: 2025-08-01T18:32:52Z

Logs

[rglepper]

I've been fighting this one today. Turns out that all I needed to do was to expose the secret in the mcp configuration, like this:

    "container-use": {
      "command": "container-use",
      "args": ["stdio"],
      "env": {
        "TEST": "${TEST}"
      },
      "timeout": 60000
    },

This way the config seems to be loading the var from the .env file and exposing it to container-use correctly I'm guessing similar to --env-file .env in Docker

[kalin-sa]

I've been fighting this one today. Turns out that all I needed to do was to expose the secret in the mcp configuration, like this:

    "container-use": {
      "command": "container-use",
      "args": ["stdio"],
      "env": {
        "TEST": "${TEST}"
      },
      "timeout": 60000
    },

This way the config seems to be loading the var from the .env file and exposing it to container-use correctly I'm guessing similar to --env-file .env in Docker

I tried this and it is still failing here. I've tried also with file references, like "file:///tmp/test.txt", still no luck.

The bug is when you try to run container-use terminal with the new environment, created after the secret is configured. Does that work for you?

[kalin-sa]

I just upgraded to container-user 0.4.2, and dagger 0.18.16 and it seems to have fixed the issue.

[rglepper]

I've been fighting this one today. Turns out that all I needed to do was to expose the secret in the mcp configuration, like this:

    "container-use": {
      "command": "container-use",
      "args": ["stdio"],
      "env": {
        "TEST": "${TEST}"
      },
      "timeout": 60000
    },

This way the config seems to be loading the var from the .env file and exposing it to container-use correctly I'm guessing similar to --env-file .env in Docker

I tried this and it is still failing here. I've tried also with file references, like "file:///tmp/test.txt", still no luck.

The bug is when you try to run container-use terminal with the new environment, created after the secret is configured. Does that work for you?

My issue was an error when creating the environment. Sorry I misread your issue. Glad the new version fixed it.

[cwlbraa]

thanks from the report. i'm a little spooked that, in my mind, this was fixed prior to v0.4.1 and therefore underlying this report is some persistent wackiness with package management or the cu symlink.

glad you got unblocked though! closing.