How to deploy to a Prefect Server with basic auto on?

[hongbo-miao]

Based on https://docs.prefect.io/v3/deploy/infrastructure-concepts/deploy-via-python#deploy-flows-with-python

if __name__ == "__main__":
    my_flow.deploy(
        name="my-deployment",
        work_pool_name="hm-work-pool",
        image="ghcr.io/hongbo-miao/hm-prefect-print-platform:latest",
        push=False
    )

When I deploy, I got error

python src/deploy.py --environment=development
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Users/hongbo-miao/Clouds/Git/hongbomiao.com/data-orchestration/hm-prefect/workflows/print-platform/src/deploy.py", line 31, in <module>
    asyncio.run(deploy())
    ~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/Users/hongbo-miao/.local/share/uv/python/cpython-3.13.0-macos-aarch64-none/lib/python3.13/asyncio/runners.py", line 194, in run
    return runner.run(main)
           ~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^
  File "/Users/hongbo-miao/.local/share/uv/python/cpython-3.13.0-macos-aarch64-none/lib/python3.13/asyncio/runners.py", line 118, in run
    return self._loop.run_until_complete(task)
           ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^
  File "/Users/hongbo-miao/.local/share/uv/python/cpython-3.13.0-macos-aarch64-none/lib/python3.13/asyncio/base_events.py", line 721, in run_until_complete
    return future.result()
           ~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^
  File "/Users/hongbo-miao/Clouds/Git/hongbomiao.com/data-orchestration/hm-prefect/workflows/print-platform/src/deploy.py", line 26, in deploy
    await create_deployment(args.environment, main, image, deployment)
  File "/Users/hongbo-miao/Clouds/Git/hongbomiao.com/data-orchestration/hm-prefect/workflows/print-platform/src/workflow_deploy/utils/create_deployment.py", line 16, in create_deployment
    await workflow.deploy(
    ...<6 lines>...
    )
  File "/Users/hongbo-miao/Clouds/Git/hongbomiao.com/data-orchestration/hm-prefect/workflows/print-platform/.venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/prefect/utilities/asyncutils.py", line 341, in ctx_call
    result = await async_fn(*args, **kwargs)
             ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/Users/hongbo-miao/Clouds/Git/hongbomiao.com/data-orchestration/hm-prefect/workflows/print-platform/.venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/prefect/flows.py", line 1459, in deploy
    work_pool = await client.read_work_pool(work_pool_name)
                ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/Users/hongbo-miao/Clouds/Git/hongbomiao.com/data-orchestration/hm-prefect/workflows/print-platform/.venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/prefect/client/orchestration/_work_pools/client.py", line 416, in read_work_pool
    response = await self.request(
               ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
    ...<3 lines>...
    )
    ^
  File "/Users/hongbo-miao/Clouds/Git/hongbomiao.com/data-orchestration/hm-prefect/workflows/print-platform/.venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/prefect/client/orchestration/base.py", line 53, in request
    return await self._client.send(request)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/Users/hongbo-miao/Clouds/Git/hongbomiao.com/data-orchestration/hm-prefect/workflows/print-platform/.venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/prefect/client/base.py", line 354, in send
    response.raise_for_status()
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^
  File "/Users/hongbo-miao/Clouds/Git/hongbomiao.com/data-orchestration/hm-prefect/workflows/print-platform/.venv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/prefect/client/base.py", line 162, in raise_for_status
    raise PrefectHTTPStatusError.from_httpx_error(exc) from exc.__cause__
prefect.exceptions.PrefectHTTPStatusError: Client error '401 Unauthorized' for url 'https://prefect.hongbomiao.com/api/work_pools/hm-work-pool'
Response: {'exception_message': 'Unauthorized'}
For more information check: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Status/401

My Prefect Server has basic auth on, with admin:my_password

I do have hm-work-pool:

I tried to run export PREFECT_SERVER_API_AUTH_STRING=admin:my_password before deploy, but got same error. How to set credentials when deploy? Thanks!

[desertaxle]

Hey @hongbo-miao! You need to set the auth string setting for the client before running your deploy script. You can do that by running export PREFECT_API_AUTH_STRING=admin:my_password. You can find more info in the security settings section of the docs here.

[hongbo-miao]

Thank you @desertaxle ! I can confirm PREFECT_API_AUTH_STRING works.

I am curious what is the difference between PREFECT_SERVER_API_AUTH_STRING and PREFECT_API_AUTH_STRING? And when should use which one? The document does not mention it.

[cicdw]

• the PREFECT_SERVER_API_AUTH_STRING auth string should be set on any process that hosts the Prefect webserver, for example, when you run prefect server start; this will add auth to the API itself.
• the PREFECT_API_AUTH_STRING auth string should be set on any client process that needs to communicate with that API, for example all of your deployed flows, workers, etc.