Netbird docker compose client not accepting valid URI as environment variables

[WarmWelcome]

Before posting

• I searched existing discussions and issues, including closed ones, and checked the relevant docs.
• I believe this is a product bug rather than a configuration or setup question.
• I can reproduce this issue, or for intermittent issues I've included trigger, frequency, and timing details below.
• I removed or anonymized sensitive data from logs, screenshots, and configuration.

Affected area

Client / Agent

Deployment type

Self-hosted - quickstart script

Operating system or environment

Docker

NetBird version and upgrade status

Netbird version: 0.72.4
Client: 0.72.4

Did this work before?

Not sure

Regression details

No response

Summary

Quotes are not supported for the NB_MANAGEMENT_URL environment variable. Examples of it in use can be found here: https://docs.docker.com/compose/how-tos/environment-variables/set-environment-variables

Current behavior

Including quotes (forcing docker to interpret the section as a string), set the NB_MANAGEMENT_URL environment variable.

Example:
`NB_MANAGEMENT_URL="https://netbird.example.domain:443"

will yield the following error:

netbird-client  | 2026-06-14T00:01:22.411Z INFO client/internal/profilemanager/config.go:259: new Management URL provided, updated to "\"https://netbird.example.domain:443\"" (old value "https://api.netbird.io:443")
netbird-client  | 2026-06-14T00:01:22.411Z ERRO client/internal/profilemanager/config.go:622: failed parsing Management URL URL "https://netbird.example.domain:443": [parse "\"https://netbird.example.domain:443\"": invalid URI for request]
netbird-client  | 2026-06-14T00:01:22.412Z ERRO client/server/server.go:407: failed to update profile config: parse "\"https://netbird.example.domain:443\"": invalid URI for request
netbird-client  | Error: call service setConfig method: rpc error: code = Unknown desc = failed to update profile config: parse "\"https://netbird.example.domain:443\"": invalid URI for request

Expected behavior

Netbird should not recognize the quotes as part of the URL, as they are used to force docker to recognize that section as a string and not interpret it.

Steps to reproduce

Using the docker compose client, add your custom management URL using quotes with any format of url contained within the quotes. This will trigger an error that it is an invalid URI, as it interprets the quotes literally.

Environment and topology

Official Netbird docker compose
Docker Compose version v5.1.3
Self hosted netbird

Self-hosted details, if available

No response

Logs, status output, or debug evidence

netbird-client  | 2026-06-14T00:01:22.411Z INFO client/internal/profilemanager/config.go:259: new Management URL provided, updated to "\"https://netbird.example.domain:443\"" (old value "https://api.netbird.io:443")
netbird-client  | 2026-06-14T00:01:22.411Z ERRO client/internal/profilemanager/config.go:622: failed parsing Management URL URL "https://netbird.example.domain:443": [parse "\"https://netbird.example.domain:443\"": invalid URI for request]
netbird-client  | 2026-06-14T00:01:22.412Z ERRO client/server/server.go:407: failed to update profile config: parse "\"https://netbird.example.domain:443\"": invalid URI for request
netbird-client  | Error: call service setConfig method: rpc error: code = Unknown desc = failed to update profile config: parse "\"https://netbird.example.domain:443\"": invalid URI for request

Related issues or discussions

No response

Impact

Caused immense frustration as a sysad debugging for over an hour after having set up the netbird server

Additional context

No response

[ther12k]

This is a Docker Compose / shell quirk, not really a netbird config bug. When you write in docker-compose.yml:

environment:
  NB_MANAGEMENT_URL: "https://netbird.example.domain:443"

Docker Compose passes the literal string "https://netbird.example.domain:443" (with the quote characters preserved as part of the value) into the container's environment. netbird then does:

// client/internal/profilemanager/config.go
input.ManagementURL = os.Getenv("NB_MANAGEMENT_URL")
// ...
URL, err := parseURL("Management URL", input.ManagementURL)   // url.ParseRequestURI

url.ParseRequestURI rejects the value because "https://...:443" (literal quote + URL + literal quote) isn't a valid URI — that's exactly what you're seeing in the log line:

INFO ... new Management URL provided, updated to ""https://netbird.example.domain:443""

The Docker docs section you linked (set-environment-variables) covers two forms, and only one preserves quotes:

• KEY=value — quotes are stripped, value is https://...:443 ✅
• KEY="value" — quotes are kept, value is "https://...:443" ❌
• KEY='value' — same as double quotes

So the fix in your docker-compose.yml is just to drop the quotes:

environment:
  NB_MANAGEMENT_URL: https://netbird.example.domain:443

Or use the interpolation form (which also resolves .env lookup), still without literal quotes:

environment:
  NB_MANAGEMENT_URL: ${NB_MANAGEMENT_URL}

If you specifically want to harden netbird against this user error, the cleanest fix in client/internal/profilemanager/config.go is to strings.Trim(input.ManagementURL, """) (or TrimFunc for any whitespace + quote combo) right before the parseURL call. The literal quote makes it through as a normal byte today because Go's os.Getenv returns the raw value as-is.

Happy to send a small PR with the trim if the maintainers agree with the defensive fix.

[WarmWelcome]

Didn't see this earlier, sorry.

Glad to know I'm just using yaml wrong. If you can get this implemented, that would be pretty great. I didn't know this was a thing until now, so I very much appreciate the explanations!

Thank you!

[Silex]

Just a small clarification for anyone who finds this later 🙂

The quotes don't actually leak in the mapping form you showed — there the quotes are just YAML delimiters, so Compose strips them before the value reaches the container:

environment:
  NB_MANAGEMENT_URL: "https://netbird.example.domain:443"
# container sees: https://netbird.example.domain:443   (no quotes)

I checked with docker compose run ... env and the value comes through clean. An env_file: behaves the same way — Compose strips surrounding quotes there too, so both are safe.

The one Compose spot where quotes do stick is the list form, because the whole KEY="value" is a single YAML scalar and Compose only splits on the first =:

environment:
  - NB_MANAGEMENT_URL="https://netbird.example.domain:443"
# container sees: "https://netbird.example.domain:443"   (quotes kept)

So in Compose:

• mapping form or env_file: → quoted or not, both fine
• list form → leave the value unquoted. (Plain docker run --env-file does keep the quotes, but that's a different tool, not Compose.)

Either way, the defensive strings.Trim(..., "\"") is a nice safety net 👍