"etcdctl auth status" shows error when run etcd in the foreground

[Eric Del Sesto]

On an Apple M1 MacBookPro with etcd 3.6.5, when I start etcd in the foreground and then run `etcdctl auth status` in another shell I get this error:

{"level":"warn","ts":"2025-10-03T13:14:24.908616-0700","logger":"etcd-client","caller":"v...@v3.6.5/retry_interceptor.go:65","msg":"retrying of unary invoker failed","target":"etcd-endpoints://0x140000ba5a0/127.0.0.1:2379","method":"/etcdserverpb.Auth/AuthStatus","attempt":0,"error":"rpc error: code = InvalidArgument desc = etcdserver: user name is empty"}
Error: etcdserver: user name is empty

I verified that another etcd process is not running.

I ran this ahead of time to reset the etcd database:
rm -rf ~/default.etcd/*

I am running it in the foreground for use during local development. Would prefer to not run it in the background (via brew) -- setting up logging is more complicated.

I'm using this "etcctl auth status" command because right after starting etcd, this command gives the same error and I want to verify that auth is defaulting to disabled: 

etcdctl user add root --new-user-password=myrootpasswordexample

Any suggestions? Thanks