Cannot create sandbox pod

[jackchuong]

Hi all,
I installed deer-flow on K8S by helm
helm -n staging-infra upgrade --install deerflow oci://ghcr.io/bytedance/charts/deer-flow --version 2.1.0-nightly.20260715-45865e9 -f deerflow-values.yaml
this is my deerflow-values.yaml

namespace: staging-infra

postgresql:
  enabled: false

  external:
    databaseUrl: "postgresql://deerflow:xxx@10.20.31.4:5432/deerflow1"

redis:
  enabled: false

  external:
    redisUrl: "redis://:xxx@10.20.31.5:6379/5"

persistence:
  home:
    enabled: true
    storageClass: "nfs-staging"
    accessMode: ReadWriteMany
    size: 10Gi

ingress:
  enabled: true
  className: "nginx"
  host: "xxx"
  tls:
    enabled: true
    secretName: "xxx"

config: |
  config_version: 31
  log_level: info

  models:
    - name: primary
      display_name: Cloud VIP 01 (LiteLLM)
      use: langchain_openai:ChatOpenAI
      model: cloud-vip-01
      api_key: $DEERFLOW_LLM_API_KEY
      base_url: http://litellm-litellm-gateway.staging-infra:4000/v1
      request_timeout: 600.0
      max_retries: 2
      supports_vision: true

  tool_groups:
    - name: web
    - name: file:read
    - name: file:write
    - name: bash

  tools:
    - name: web_search
      group: web
      use: deerflow.community.ddg_search.tools:web_search_tool
      max_results: 5
    - name: web_fetch
      group: web
      use: deerflow.community.jina_ai.tools:web_fetch_tool
      timeout: 10
    - name: image_search
      group: web
      use: deerflow.community.image_search.tools:image_search_tool
      max_results: 5
    - name: ls
      group: file:read
      use: deerflow.sandbox.tools:ls_tool
    - name: read_file
      group: file:read
      use: deerflow.sandbox.tools:read_file_tool
    - name: glob
      group: file:read
      use: deerflow.sandbox.tools:glob_tool
      max_results: 200
    - name: grep
      group: file:read
      use: deerflow.sandbox.tools:grep_tool
      max_results: 100
    - name: write_file
      group: file:write
      use: deerflow.sandbox.tools:write_file_tool
    - name: str_replace
      group: file:write
      use: deerflow.sandbox.tools:str_replace_tool
    - name: bash
      group: bash
      use: deerflow.sandbox.tools:bash_tool

  database:
    backend: postgres
    postgres_url: $DATABASE_URL

  checkpointer:
    type: postgres
    connection_string: $DATABASE_URL

  stream_bridge:
    type: redis

  sandbox:
    use: deerflow.community.aio_sandbox:AioSandboxProvider
    provisioner_url: http://provisioner:8002
    provisioner_api_key: $DEER_FLOW_INTERNAL_AUTH_TOKEN
    image: enterprise-public-cn-beijing.cr.volces.com/vefaas-public/all-in-one-sandbox:latest

  memory:
    enabled: true
    manager_class: deermem
    mode: middleware
    storage_path: memory.json
    backend_config:
      storage_class: file
      model:
        provider: openai
        model: cloud-vip-01
        api_key: $DEERFLOW_LLM_API_KEY
        base_url: http://litellm-litellm-gateway.staging-infra:4000/v1

  scheduler:
    enabled: true

secrets:
  app:
    BETTER_AUTH_SECRET: "xxx"
    DEER_FLOW_INTERNAL_AUTH_TOKEN: "xxx"
  DEERFLOW_LLM_API_KEY: "xxx"

deer-flow is installed successfully

deployment.apps/deerflow-deer-flow-frontend                  1/1     1            1           13m
deployment.apps/deerflow-deer-flow-gateway                   1/1     1            1           13m
deployment.apps/deerflow-deer-flow-nginx                     1/1     1            1           13m
deployment.apps/deerflow-deer-flow-provisioner               1/1     1            1           13m
pod/deerflow-deer-flow-frontend-cc97578d5-kkd9v                   1/1     Running     0             13m
pod/deerflow-deer-flow-gateway-6779d995df-bhmmb                   1/1     Running     0             13m
pod/deerflow-deer-flow-nginx-6b6df4587d-txp88                     1/1     Running     0             13m
pod/deerflow-deer-flow-provisioner-665c8f49c6-xpvt7               1/1     Running     0             13m
service/provisioner                           ClusterIP   100.70.77.223    <none>        8002/TCP                                       14m
ingress.networking.k8s.io/deerflow-deer-flow      nginx   xxx   10.20.131.6.nip.io   80, 443   13m
persistentvolumeclaim/deerflow-deer-flow-home                           Bound    pvc-936ba140-acdb-4f16-b1ac-53172deabce8   10Gi       RWX            nfs-staging    <unset>                 13m
configmap/deerflow-deer-flow-config        1      13m
configmap/deerflow-deer-flow-extensions    1      13m
configmap/deerflow-deer-flow-nginx         1      13m
secret/deerflow-deer-flow-app            Opaque                           2      13m
secret/deerflow-deer-flow-postgres       Opaque                           1      13m
secret/deerflow-deer-flow-provider       Opaque                           2      13m
secret/deerflow-deer-flow-redis          Opaque                           1      13m
secret/sh.helm.release.v1.deerflow.v1    helm.sh/release.v1               1      13m
serviceaccount/deerflow-deer-flow-provisioner   0         13m

when I try to run sandbox pod , I get error

pod gateway logs
2026-08-18 05:02:13 - deerflow.community.aio_sandbox.remote_backend - WARNING - Provisioner list_running failed: 401 Client Error: Unauthorized for url: http://provisioner:8002/api/sandboxes

pod provisioner logs

2026-08-18 04:58:13,558 [WARNING] app: provisioner auth rejected: GET /api/sandboxes
INFO:     100.96.1.198:50602 - "GET /api/sandboxes HTTP/1.1" 401 Unauthorized

I have checked and find out that secret/deerflow-deer-flow-app , key DEER_FLOW_INTERNAL_AUTH_TOKEN and BETTER_AUTH_SECRET do not match with values I put in deerflow-values.yaml , maybe it is reason

what is the right way to specify these values in deerflow-values.yaml to make sure that gateway can authenticate with provisioner ?
Please give me some advice, thank you very much.

[tt-a1i]

I think you've hit a gap in that chart version. I checked commit 45865e9, which matches the commit in 2.1.0-nightly.20260715-45865e9.

The 401 isn't caused by the generated app secrets. The provisioner uses a separate PROVISIONER_API_KEY, and it rejects every /api/* request when that variable is missing or doesn't match the gateway's X-API-Key:

deer-flow/docker/provisioner/app.py

Line 85 in 45865e9

PROVISIONER_API_KEY = os.environ.get("PROVISIONER_API_KEY", "")

deer-flow/docker/provisioner/app.py

Lines 209 to 215 in 45865e9

	@app.middleware("http")
	async def verify_api_key(request: Request, call_next):
	if request.url.path.startswith("/api/"):
	key = request.headers.get("X-API-Key", "")
	if not PROVISIONER_API_KEY or not secrets.compare_digest(key, PROVISIONER_API_KEY):
	logger.warning("provisioner auth rejected: %s %s", request.method, request.url.path)
	return Response(status_code=401, content="Unauthorized")

So the values/config side should look like this:

secrets:
  DEERFLOW_LLM_API_KEY: "..."
  PROVISIONER_API_KEY: "<same-random-value>"

sandbox:
  provisioner_url: http://provisioner:8002
  provisioner_api_key: $PROVISIONER_API_KEY

There's one more piece: this version of the chart loads the flat secrets map into the gateway, but not into the provisioner Deployment. You'll need to patch the Deployment so the provisioner receives the same key. Based on the Secret name in your output:

- name: PROVISIONER_API_KEY
  valueFrom:
    secretKeyRef:
      name: deerflow-deer-flow-provider
      key: PROVISIONER_API_KEY

The missing env wiring is here:

https://github.com/bytedance/deer-flow/blob/45865e9f3f5ac1cd05bfce9406b30ea8da864c52/deploy/helm/deer-flow/templates/provisioner-deployment.yaml

Also, secrets.app isn't consumed by this chart. That's why those values don't match the generated app Secret, but that mismatch is separate from the provisioner 401.