FlowiseAI/Flowise · error · Error

Failed to refresh access token: ${error instanceof Error ? e

Error message

Failed to refresh access token: ${error instanceof Error ? error.message : 'Unknown error'}. Please re-authorize the credential.

What it means

Outer catch-all in the OAuth2 refresh try block. Any exception thrown inside the refresh flow (the non-ok throw above, a network error from fetch, a JSON parse error, or getCredentialData failure) is rewrapped with this message and 'Please re-authorize the credential.' It deliberately loses the distinction between network failures and provider rejections.

Source

Thrown at packages/components/src/utils.ts:1498

                            'Content-Type': 'application/json'
                        }
                    }
                )

                if (!refreshResponse.ok) {
                    const errorData = await refreshResponse.text()
                    throw new Error(`Failed to refresh token: ${refreshResponse.status} ${refreshResponse.statusText} - ${errorData}`)
                }

                await refreshResponse.json()

                // Get the updated credential data
                const updatedCredentialData = await getCredentialData(credentialId, options)

                return updatedCredentialData
            } catch (error) {
                console.error('Failed to refresh access token:', error)
                throw new Error(
                    `Failed to refresh access token: ${
                        error instanceof Error ? error.message : 'Unknown error'
                    }. Please re-authorize the credential.`
                )
            }
        }
    }

    // Token is not expired, return original data
    return credentialData
}

export const stripHTMLFromToolInput = (input: string) => {
    const turndownService = new TurndownService()
    let cleanedInput = turndownService.turndown(input)
    // After conversion, replace any escaped underscores and square brackets with regular unescaped ones
    cleanedInput = cleanedInput.replace(/\\([_[\]])/g, '$1')
    return cleanedInput

View on GitHub (pinned to abe4a8601a)

Solutions

Distinguish transient failures (network/timeout) from permanent ones (invalid_grant) — only advise re-authorization for permanent failures.
Confirm options.baseURL resolves and the Flowise API is reachable from the process running refreshOAuth2Token.
Ensure node-fetch is installed (or switch to global fetch on Node >= 18).
Inspect the cause/inner message already embedded in the thrown string to pick the right fix.

Example fix

// before
} catch (error) {
  console.error('Failed to refresh access token:', error)
  throw new Error(`Failed to refresh access token: ${error instanceof Error ? error.message : 'Unknown error'}. Please re-authorize the credential.`)
}

// after — only demand re-auth for permanent failures; retry/propagate transient ones
} catch (error) {
  const msg = error instanceof Error ? error.message : String(error)
  const isPermanent = /invalid_grant|invalid_client|unauthorized|401|400/.test(msg)
  if (isPermanent) {
    throw new Error(`Failed to refresh access token: ${msg}. Please re-authorize the credential.`)
  }
  throw new Error(`Transient failure refreshing access token for ${credentialId}: ${msg}`, { cause: error })
}

Defensive patterns

Strategy: retry

Validate before calling

function isTransientRefreshError(msg: string): boolean {
  return /ETIMEDOUT|ECONNREFUSED|ENOTFOUND|fetch failed|network|5\d\d/i.test(msg) && !/invalid_grant/.test(msg)
}

Type guard

function isNodeFetchTypeError(e: unknown): boolean {
  return e instanceof TypeError && /fetch|network|socket/i.test(e.message)
}

Try / catch

} catch (error) {
  const msg = error instanceof Error ? error.message : String(error)
  if (isTransientRefreshError(msg)) {
    // retry with backoff, do NOT tell the user to re-authorize
    throw new Error(`Transient token refresh failure: ${msg}`, { cause: error })
  }
  throw new Error(`Failed to refresh access token: ${msg}. Please re-authorize the credential.`)
}

Prevention

Use Node >= 18 global fetch or guarantee node-fetch is installed.
Retry transient network failures before declaring the credential dead.
Separate permanent (invalid_grant) from transient (network) failures in error messages.

When it happens

Trigger: node-fetch throws TypeError (DNS failure, connection refused to the refresh endpoint); the inner throw from a non-ok response propagates here; refreshResponse.json() throws because the body isn't JSON; getCredentialData(credentialId, options) throws because the credential was concurrently deleted; the dynamic import('node-fetch') fails because the dependency isn't installed.

Common situations: Flowise API server unreachable at refresh time (wrong baseURL, server down); node-fetch not in dependencies after a refactor; concurrent credential deletion; transient network blips being treated as permanent auth failures.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of FlowiseAI/Flowise@abe4a8601a (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/9e7b1cb46db86f34. Report an issue: GitHub.