Fosowl/agenticSeek · error · AuthenticationError

Authentication failed. Please check your token.

Error message

Authentication failed. Please check your token.

What it means

dsk_deepseek (using the unofficial xtekky/deepseek4free API) catches AuthenticationError from the session/chat calls and re-raises it with a fixed message: 'Authentication failed. Please check your token.' This means the DSK_DEEPSEEK_API_KEY/token was rejected by the DeepSeek backend.

Source

Thrown at sources/llm_provider.py:498

            DeepSeekAPI,
            AuthenticationError,
            RateLimitError,
            NetworkError,
            CloudflareError,
            APIError
        )
        thought = ""
        message = '\n---\n'.join([f"{msg['role']}: {msg['content']}" for msg in history])

        try:
            api = DeepSeekAPI(self.api_key)
            chat_id = api.create_chat_session()
            for chunk in api.chat_completion(chat_id, message):
                if chunk['type'] == 'text':
                    thought += chunk['content']
            return thought
        except AuthenticationError as e:
            raise AuthenticationError("Authentication failed. Please check your token.") from e
        except RateLimitError as e:
            raise RateLimitError("Rate limit exceeded. Please wait before making more requests.") from e
        except CloudflareError as e:
            raise CloudflareError(f"Cloudflare protection encountered: {str(e)}") from e
        except NetworkError as e:
            raise NetworkError("Network error occurred. Check your internet connection.") from e
        except APIError as e:
            raise APIError(f"API error occurred: {str(e)}") from e
        return None

    def litellm_fn(self, history, verbose=False):
        """
        Use LiteLLM AI gateway for completion.
        Routes to 100+ providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, Azure, Bedrock,
        Vertex AI, Groq, Together, Ollama, etc.) based on model prefix.
        See https://docs.litellm.ai/docs/providers
        """
        try:

View on GitHub (pinned to ae57a23577)

Solutions

1. Set a valid DSK_DEEPSEEK_API_KEY in your .env and confirm load_dotenv() loads it (print os.getenv to verify)
2. Regenerate the token from the deepseek4free source if it expired
3. Strip quotes/whitespace around the token value in .env
4. Update/reinstall the deepseek4free package in case DeepSeek changed its auth scheme
5. Catch AuthenticationError in your code and prompt the user to fix their token

Example fix

// before (.env)
DSK_DEEPSEEK_API_KEY="' abc123 '"
// after (.env)
DSK_DEEPSEEK_API_KEY=abc123

import os
def deepseek_token_ready():
    tok = os.getenv('DSK_DEEPSEEK_API_KEY')
    return bool(tok and tok.strip() == tok and tok not in ('', 'None'))

try:
    out = provider.dsk_deepseek(history)
except AuthenticationError:
    log.error('DeepSeek token rejected - refresh DSK_DEEPSEEK_API_KEY in .env')
    # prompt user / reconfigure before retrying

When it happens

Trigger: Calling dsk_deepseek when api.create_chat_session() or api.chat_completion raises AuthenticationError — i.e. the token in DSK_DEEPSEEK_API_KEY is missing, expired, revoked, or malformed.

Common situations: DSK_DEEPSEEK_API_KEY not set in .env (load_dotenv didn't find it); token expired on the unofficial free API; DeepSeek changed its auth flow breaking the unofficial library; token copied with whitespace/quotes.

Understand the failure class

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

Related errors

• Invalid API token
• OpenAI API error: {str(e)}
• Anthropic API error: {str(e)}
• Deepseek (API) is not available for local use. Change config
• Deepseek API error: {str(e)}

AI-assisted analysis of Fosowl/agenticSeek@ae57a23577 (2026-08-30). Data as JSON: /api/errors/4f461eb36977e1b4. Report an issue: GitHub.