ApiClient.applyEnvVariables() throws NullPointerException when CONDUCTOR_AUTH_KEY is not set

[nthmost-orkes]

Bug

ApiClient.applyEnvVariables() crashes with NullPointerException when connecting to a plain OSS Conductor server (no auth needed). Any user who sets only CONDUCTOR_SERVER_URL will hit this.

Tracked as a zero-to-one onboarding blocker in conductor-oss/getting-started#51

Steps to Reproduce

export CONDUCTOR_SERVER_URL=http://localhost:8080/api
# Note: no auth keys set — correct for OSS Conductor
java -cp <classpath> com.netflix.conductor.sdk.examples.helloworld.Main

Error

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.ExceptionInInitializerError
Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException: Cannot invoke "String.trim()" because
the return value of "java.lang.System.getenv(String)" is null
    at io.orkes.conductor.client.ApiClient$ApiClientBuilder.applyEnvVariables(ApiClient.java:186)
    at io.orkes.conductor.client.ApiClient$ApiClientBuilder.build(ApiClient.java:175)
    at io.orkes.conductor.sdk.examples.util.ClientUtil.<clinit>(ClientUtil.java:27)

Root Cause

In orkes-client/src/main/java/io/orkes/conductor/client/ApiClient.java, lines 184–196:

String conductorAuthKey = System.getenv("CONDUCTOR_AUTH_KEY");
if (conductorAuthKey == null) {
    conductorAuthKey = System.getenv("CONDUCTOR_SERVER_AUTH_KEY").trim(); // ← NPE if env var is also null
}

String conductorAuthSecret = System.getenv("CONDUCTOR_AUTH_SECRET");
if (conductorAuthSecret == null) {
    conductorAuthSecret = System.getenv("CONDUCTOR_SERVER_AUTH_SECRET").trim(); // ← NPE if env var is also null
}

When neither CONDUCTOR_AUTH_KEY nor CONDUCTOR_SERVER_AUTH_KEY is set (the OSS case), .trim() is called on null.

Fix

Null-check before .trim():

String conductorAuthKey = System.getenv("CONDUCTOR_AUTH_KEY");
if (conductorAuthKey == null) {
    String legacyKey = System.getenv("CONDUCTOR_SERVER_AUTH_KEY");
    conductorAuthKey = legacyKey != null ? legacyKey.trim() : null;
}

String conductorAuthSecret = System.getenv("CONDUCTOR_AUTH_SECRET");
if (conductorAuthSecret == null) {
    String legacySecret = System.getenv("CONDUCTOR_SERVER_AUTH_SECRET");
    conductorAuthSecret = legacySecret != null ? legacySecret.trim() : null;
}

Impact

This crash affects every example in the examples module that uses ClientUtil, including the recommended helloworld/Main.java. OSS users have no way to run any of these examples without auth keys, which defeats the zero-to-one experience.

Zero-to-one tracking: conductor-oss/getting-started#51