License activation fails — /v1 endpoint returns HTTP 404 despite successful connectivity

[rvardy-citco]

Description

LocalStack container exits immediately with code 55 ("License activation failed") because it cannot successfully validate the auth token. However, outbound HTTPS connectivity to api.localstack.cloud is confirmed working — the issue appears to be that the licensing endpoint is returning HTTP 404.

Environment

Component	Version
LocalStack	2026.7.5 (build date: 2026-08-19, git hash: beafe195a)
Image	localstack/localstack:latest
Docker Compose	v2
Host OS	macOS
Terraform AWS provider	~> 6.0
Node.js runtime (Lambda)	nodejs20.x

docker-compose.yml (relevant section)

services:
  localstack:
    image: localstack/localstack:latest
    ports:
      - '4566:4566'
    environment:
      - LOCALSTACK_AUTH_TOKEN=${LOCALSTACK_AUTH_TOKEN}
      - SERVICES=lambda,sqs,stepfunctions,iam,s3,logs,sts,cloudwatch
      - LAMBDA_EXECUTOR=docker-reuse
      - DOCKER_HOST=unix:///var/run/docker.sock
      - SSL_NO_VERIFY=1
    entrypoint: /etc/localstack/entrypoint.sh
    volumes:
      - '/var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock'
      - './localstack-data:/var/lib/localstack'

Steps to reproduce

1. Run docker compose up with a valid LOCALSTACK_AUTH_TOKEN set in .env
2. Container exits immediately with code 55

Observed behavior

Updating certificates in /etc/ssl/certs...1 added, 0 removed; done.
Running hooks in /etc/ca-certificates/update.d...done.
LocalStack version: 2026.7.5
LocalStack build date: 2026-08-19
LocalStack build git hash: beafe195a
Localstack returning with exit code 55. Reason:
===============================================
License activation failed! 🔑❌
Reason: Could not reach the LocalStack licensing server at https://api.localstack.cloud/v1.
Please make sure outbound HTTPS traffic is allowed

Connectivity verification

Per the LocalStack FAQ on outbound connectivity, I ran:

curl -v https://api.localstack.cloud/v1/health

Result: The TLS handshake and connection succeed (no network or certificate errors), but the endpoint returns HTTP 404. This suggests the server is reachable but the licensing API route is not responding as expected.

Expected behavior

The /v1 licensing endpoint should return a valid response (e.g., 200 or 401 for bad tokens) rather than 404. The container should start normally with a valid auth token.

[ryan-berke]

Hi @rvardy-citco, I will continue discussing and working through this issue with you via your support ticket.