“ExplorationRuntimeNotReady” Error When Exploring S3 Data Connection in Foundry

Hello,

I’m encountering an issue when trying to explore an S3 Data Connection in Palantir Foundry. Here are the details:

  • Error Message:

    Failed to load files
    Unknown error occurred: STATUS ExplorationRuntimeReadinessService:ExplorationRuntimeNotReady
    

Here’s what I’ve tried:

  • Verified S3 bucket and IAM policies are correct.
  • Confirmed network allowlisting and VPC endpoint configuration.
  • Waited several minutes and retried, but the error persists.

Context:
I’m in the Data Connection app, attempting to browse files in an S3 bucket. The error appears immediately when I try to load the file listing.

Questions:

  • What does the “ExplorationRuntimeNotReady” error mean in this context?
  • Are there any steps I can take to resolve this, or is this an internal Foundry infrastructure issue?

Any guidance or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance.

Hello,

I am still experiencing this issue, would appreciate any support that can be provided here.

Bumping this again as I am still experiencing this issue.

Hey!

ExplorationRuntimeNotReady — cause & fix

This error means Foundry’s exploration runtime service hadn’t finished initializing when your request hit it. It’s an infrastructure issue, not a permissions or network one.

Check in this order:

  1. s3:ListBucket permission — exploration requires this separately from s3:GetObject. Confirm it’s in your IAM policy targeting the bucket ARN directly.
  2. S3 region field — make sure the Region field in your source config is explicitly set and matches the bucket’s actual region.
  3. Agent health — in the Data Connection UI, verify your agent is online. If not, restart it from the top-right corner.
  4. Wait longer — the runtime cold-start can exceed 10 minutes in some environments. Retry after a longer wait.
  5. Open a Palantir support ticket — if none of the above work, this is a platform-side issue. Include the exact timestamp of the failed attempt and your source/agent RIDs so they can pull the backend logs.

Felipe Montes
Development Advisor
Follow me @ linkedin.com/in/felipemontesl/ or GitHub: Brazillianerd