stackit auth get-access-token outputs token to stderr instead of stdout

[rswrz]

Summary

The stackit auth get-access-token command currently outputs the access token to /dev/stderr instead of /dev/stdout. This behavior breaks standard CLI conventions and complicates usage in scripts and automation.

Current Behavior

• The access token is written to stderr.

• Capturing the token in a variable requires redirecting stderr to stdout:

  export STACKIT_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_TOKEN=$(stackit auth get-access-token 2>/dev/stdout)

• This approach also captures error messages in the variable. Example:

  $ export STACKIT_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_TOKEN=$(stackit auth get-access-token 2>/dev/stdout)
  $ echo $STACKIT_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_TOKEN
  Error: get session_expires_at_unix: read from keyring: secret not found in keyring, read from encoded file as fallback: value not found

Expected Behavior

• The access token should be output to stdout.
• Users should be able to capture the token reliably with:

export STACKIT_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_TOKEN=$(stackit auth get-access-token)

• On success:
  • The environment variable contains the token.
• On failure:
  • The environment variable remains empty.
  • The error message is output to stderr.

Impact

• Automation and scripting are unnecessarily complicated.
• There is a risk of storing error messages in the environment variable instead of a valid token.
• This behavior does not align with standard CLI practices.

Suggested Fix

• Output the access token to stdout.
• Use stderr exclusively for error messages.
• Optionally, provide a flag such as --output to specify the output stream, if needed.

Environment

$ uname -sm
Darwin arm64

$ stackit --version
STACKIT CLI (beta)
Version: 0.26.0 (2025-03-14)

[marceljk]

Hi @rswrz,

thanks for reporting this issue. I create internal a ticket to fix this issue.

[rubenhoenle]

Hey @rswrz,

this should be fixed with our latest release of the STACKIT CLI v0.29.0.

https://github.com/stackitcloud/stackit-cli/releases/tag/v0.29.0

I will close this issue for now, feel free to re-open if needed.