What causes "invalid auth type" in AlexxIT/go2rtc?

Pass ring.RefreshTokenAuth{...} or ring.EmailAuth{...} by value, not a pointer or foreign type.

invalid auth type

Error message

invalid auth type

What it means

The Ring client factory only accepts RefreshTokenAuth or EmailAuth; any other auth type (nil, a wrong struct type, or a different interface value) falls into the default branch and is rejected with this error. It is a strict type check on the auth argument.

Solutions

Pass ring.RefreshTokenAuth{...} or ring.EmailAuth{...} by value, not a pointer or foreign type.
If you hold a pointer, dereference it before passing.
Check the exact accepted types in pkg/ring/api.go and match them.
Default to RefreshTokenAuth, the recommended auth mode.

Example fix

// before
client, err := ring.NewClient(&ring.EmailAuth{Email: e, Password: p}) // pointer rejected
// after
client, err := ring.NewClient(ring.EmailAuth{Email: e, Password: p})

Defensive patterns

Strategy: type-guard

Validate before calling

switch a := auth.(type) {
case ring.RefreshTokenAuth, ring.EmailAuth:
    // ok
default:
    return errors.New("auth must be ring.RefreshTokenAuth or ring.EmailAuth (by value)")
}

Type guard

func validRingAuth(a any) bool {
    switch a.(type) {
    case ring.RefreshTokenAuth, ring.EmailAuth:
        return true
    }
    return false
}

Try / catch

client, err := ring.NewClient(auth)
if err != nil && err.Error() == "invalid auth type" {
    return fmt.Errorf("wrong auth type %T passed to ring.NewClient: %w", auth, err)
}

Prevention

Pass auth structs by value, never pointers, into the factory
Do not pass foreign/other-library credential types
Centralize auth construction in one helper so the type is checked once
Add a compile-time usage example in tests to catch type drift

When it happens

Trigger: Passing nil as auth, a pointer to EmailAuth/RefreshTokenAuth instead of the value type (type switch is on values), or some other credential struct the factory does not know.

Common situations: Passing &ring.EmailAuth{...} (pointer) into a value-typed type switch; passing credentials from another library's auth type; calling the factory without any auth argument.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Must be a positive integer", "Invalid value", "Unsupported": the invalid-argument-value error family, when a library rejects the value you pass — this error's family across 35 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of AlexxIT/go2rtc@c245815e75 (2026-09-07). Data as JSON: /api/errors/96bb7a9d2391a13f. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at pkg/ring/api.go:172

)

func NewRestClient(auth interface{}, onTokenRefresh func(string)) (*RingApi, error) {
	var cacheKey string

	// Create cache key based on auth data
	switch a := auth.(type) {
	case RefreshTokenAuth:
		if a.RefreshToken == "" {
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("refresh token is required")
		}
		cacheKey = "refresh:" + a.RefreshToken
	case EmailAuth:
		if a.Email == "" || a.Password == "" {
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("email and password are required")
		}
		cacheKey = "email:" + a.Email + ":" + a.Password
	default:
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("invalid auth type")
	}

	cacheMutex.Lock()
	defer cacheMutex.Unlock()

	if cachedClient, ok := clientCache[cacheKey]; ok {
		// Check if token is not nil and not expired
		if cachedClient.authToken != nil && time.Now().Before(cachedClient.tokenExpiry) {
			cachedClient.onTokenRefresh = onTokenRefresh
			return cachedClient, nil
		}
	}

	client := &RingApi{
		httpClient:     &http.Client{Timeout: defaultTimeout},
		onTokenRefresh: onTokenRefresh,
		hardwareID:     generateHardwareID(),
		auth:           auth,

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