From 73e3c3eb48563cafcaada84e27319400bf932935 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Sai Ram <sairam.vj@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 24 Oct 2026 00:45:18 +0530
Subject: [PATCH] Return an error when deployment create has no app config
 (#2421)

When the CLI detects a platform version below 1.0.0, create has no
--cluster-id flag and reuses the app config fetched at startup. If that
lookup failed, deployment.Create panicked on the nil config. Return
errNoAppConfig instead, as v2 does.

Co-authored-by: Sai Ram <4089996+vjsairam@users.noreply.github.com>
---
 cmd/apc/deployment.go      |  8 ++++++++
 cmd/apc/deployment_test.go | 14 ++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 22 insertions(+)

diff --git a/cmd/apc/deployment.go b/cmd/apc/deployment.go
index 6c9e71836..8c74c6569 100644
--- a/cmd/apc/deployment.go
+++ b/cmd/apc/deployment.go
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 package apc
 
 import (
+	"errors"
 	"fmt"
 	"io"
 
@@ -60,6 +61,10 @@ var (
 	clusterID               string
 	deploymentMode          string
 
+	// errNoAppConfig is a create with no platform settings to read: the
+	// lookup when the tree was built failed, and none was asked for since.
+	errNoAppConfig = errors.New("could not read this platform's settings for a new Deployment; check your login and try again")
+
 	hibernateUntil       string
 	hibernateForDuration string
 	hibernateRemove      bool
@@ -565,6 +570,9 @@ func deploymentCreate(cmd *cobra.Command, out io.Writer) error {
 			return fmt.Errorf("failed to get app config: %w", err)
 		}
 	}
+	if appConfig == nil {
+		return errNoAppConfig
+	}
 
 	// Silence Usage as we have now validated command input
 	cmd.SilenceUsage = true
diff --git a/cmd/apc/deployment_test.go b/cmd/apc/deployment_test.go
index 963a56000..b53386981 100644
--- a/cmd/apc/deployment_test.go
+++ b/cmd/apc/deployment_test.go
@@ -342,6 +342,20 @@ func (s *Suite) TestDeploymentCreateCommandAppConfigLookupFails() {
 	api.AssertNotCalled(s.T(), "CreateDeployment", mock.Anything)
 }
 
+func (s *Suite) TestDeploymentCreateCommandNoAppConfig() {
+	previousAppConfig, previousClient := appConfig, houstonClient
+	defer func() { appConfig, houstonClient = previousAppConfig, previousClient }()
+	appConfig = nil
+
+	api := new(mocks.ClientInterface)
+	api.On("GetPlatformVersion", nil).Return("0.25.0", nil)
+
+	houstonClient = api
+	_, err := execDeploymentCmd("create", "--label=new-deployment-name", "--executor=celery")
+	s.ErrorIs(err, errNoAppConfig)
+	api.AssertNotCalled(s.T(), "CreateDeployment", mock.Anything)
+}
+
 func (s *Suite) TestDeploymentCreateWithTypeDagDeploy() {
 	s.Run("user should not be prompted if deployment type is not dag_deploy", func() {
 		appConfig = &houston.AppConfig{