Ona Environment Starts Then Stops in Seconds (Custom CA Bundle)

How to fix it

Try these in order — the most common fix is first.

1. 1. Fix the bundle

   Copy steps
   1. Confirm S3 or HTTPS source is reachable and CustomCATrustBundle path is correct
   2. Use a bucket named gitpod-* and set CustomCATrustBundle to the S3 URL
   3. Make sure the file is valid PEM with BEGIN and END on their own lines, nothing before BEGIN
   4. Update the CloudFormation stack and check ca-trust-init exited with code 0
   Did this fix it? Yes No

2. 2. CA not trusted in devcontainer builds

   Copy steps
   1. Copy the CA certificate into your devcontainer image
   2. Run update-ca-certificates during the build
   Did this fix it? Yes No

Symptoms

The environment starts, then shuts down; also the error User data is limited to 16384 bytes appears.

Why it happens

• CA bundle unreachable from the runner VPC
• S3 bucket name does not start with gitpod-
• Invalid PEM, or extra content before BEGIN
• SSM dynamic reference embeds multi-certificate bundles over the 16 KB limit

This guide also covers

• ona environment stops immediately
• user data is limited to 16384 bytes
• gitpod custom ca

Other Gitpod errors

• Gitpod Classic Shutdown: How to Migrate to Ona Before October 15
• Gitpod / Ona Environment Disappeared or Deleted: Archive and Auto-Delete Explained
• Ona (Gitpod) Credits Running Out: How OCUs Are Used
• Gitpod Classic Billing: Usage Limit Reached, Credits and Invoices
• Ona AWS Runner Failed: ROLLBACK_COMPLETE and ECS Circuit Breaker Errors
• Ona Environment Fails: AWS account policy blocks ssm:SendCommand
• Ona GCP Runner Not Connected: Terraform, Health Check and Zone Resource Errors
• Gitpod Classic JetBrains Gateway Not Working or Workspace Won't Start