BerriAI/litellm · error · HTTPException

Cannot create a memory entry without a user_id or team_id. A

Error message

Cannot create a memory entry without a user_id or team_id. Authenticate with a key that has a user_id or team_id, or call as a proxy admin.

What it means

HTTPException raised when creating a memory entry would produce an identity-less row: the caller has no user_id/team_id on their key and did not (or cannot, as non-admin) supply either in the body. Such orphan rows would be invisible to every visibility filter, so creation is refused.

Source

Thrown at litellm/proxy/memory/memory_endpoints.py:295

        team_id = requested_team_id if requested_team_id is not None else user_api_key_dict.team_id
        return user_id, team_id

    if requested_user_id is not None and requested_user_id != user_api_key_dict.user_id:
        raise HTTPException(
            status_code=403,
            detail="Only proxy admins may set user_id to a different user.",
        )
    if requested_team_id is not None and requested_team_id != user_api_key_dict.team_id:
        raise HTTPException(
            status_code=403,
            detail="Only proxy admins may set team_id to a different team.",
        )
    user_id = user_api_key_dict.user_id
    team_id = user_api_key_dict.team_id
    if not user_id and not team_id:
        # Orphan row: no user_id and no team_id means no non-admin can ever
        # see it again via the visibility filter. Reject up front.
        raise HTTPException(
            status_code=400,
            detail=(
                "Cannot create a memory entry without a user_id or team_id. "
                "Authenticate with a key that has a user_id or team_id, or call "
                "as a proxy admin."
            ),
        )
    return user_id, team_id


@router.post(
    "/v1/memory",
    tags=["memory management"],
    dependencies=[Depends(user_api_key_auth)],
    response_model=LiteLLM_MemoryRow,
)
async def create_memory(
    body: MemoryCreateRequest,

View on GitHub (pinned to 77b7c6c40c)

Solutions

Authenticate with a key that has a user_id or team_id, or call as a proxy admin with an explicit scope.

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at litellm/proxy/memory/memory_endpoints.py:295 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

Understand the failure class

Authentication and authorization failures — expired tokens, bad credentials, and missing scopes.

AI-assisted analysis of BerriAI/litellm@77b7c6c40c (2026-08-18). Data as JSON: /api/errors/db9d18c8c3ae467b. Report an issue: GitHub.