Starting local network requires internet connection

[timohanke]

When running

icp network start -d

with internet connection turned off I get this error:

Error: network launcher at /Users/user/Library/Application Support/org.dfinity.icp-cli/pkg/network-launcher/v12.0.0/icp-cli-network-launcher exited prematurely with status exit status: 101

I suppose an internet connection shouldn't be required?

[raymondk]

My repro attempts:

# Disconnected and the network launcher is not present on the machine
❯ icp network start -d
Error: failed to fetch latest network launcher version from GitHub

Caused by:
    0: error sending request for url (https://api.github.com/repos/dfinity/icp-cli-network-launcher/releases/latest)
    1: client error (Connect)
    2: dns error
    3: failed to lookup address information: nodename nor servname provided, or not known

After connecting to wifi and starting up the network it downloaded the network launcher.
Then disconnect from wifi and try to start again:

icp-cli/examples/icp-empty on  rk/recipe-error-message [$?]
❯ icp network start -d
For background mode, network output will be redirected:
  stdout: /Users/raymond/dev/dfinity/icp-cli/examples/icp-empty/.icp/cache/networks/local/network-launcher/stdout.log
  stderr: /Users/raymond/dev/dfinity/icp-cli/examples/icp-empty/.icp/cache/networks/local/network-launcher/stderr.log
Error: network launcher at /Users/raymond/Library/Application Support/org.dfinity.icp-cli/pkg/network-launcher/v12.0.0-2026-01-29-23-28/icp-cli-network-launcher exited prematurely with status exit status: 101

icp-cli/examples/icp-empty on  rk/recipe-error-message [$?]
❯ ps aux | grep pocket
raymond          81265   0.0  0.0 410060112     32 s009  S+   12:50PM   0:00.00 grep pocket
raymond          81174   0.0  0.4 435610064 137664 s009  S    12:49PM   0:01.00 /Users/raymond/Library/Application Support/org.dfinity.icp-cli/pkg/network-launcher/v12.0.0-2026-01-29-23-28/pocket-ic --ttl 2592000 --port-file /var/folders/8c/7v4l_03n23bdtxn2h89269kr0000gn/T/.tmpTlIF8y/pocketic.port --log-levels error


###
# Trying to start the network launcher
###

pkg/network-launcher/v12.0.0-2026-01-29-23-28
❯ ./icp-cli-network-launcher

thread 'main' panicked at /Users/runner/.cargo/git/checkouts/ic-a5a9adfef36c4712/dec2250/packages/pocket-ic/src/nonblocking.rs:224:58:
error: upstream_error (An error happened during communication with the replica: error sending request for url (http://localhost:62726/instances/0/api/v2/status))
note: run with `RUST_BACKTRACE=1` environment variable to display a backtrace

pkg/network-launcher/v12.0.0-2026-01-29-23-28 took 3s
❯ echo $?
101

[raymondk]

@adamspofford-dfinity found the root cause to be in the requests pocket-ic-server is making to itself. It differs because of the hickory-dns feature in reqwest.