coleam00/Archon · error

Subscription login failed to start.

Error message

Subscription login failed to start.

What it means

Generic failure in startOAuth (oauth-bridge.ts:388): the login chain rejected before producing a URL/user-code and the failure was not classified as port-busy. The bridge throws session.detail (the sanitized, truncated underlying error) or this fallback string when detail is missing. It signals the subscription login could not even begin.

Source

Thrown at packages/core/src/credentials/oauth-bridge.ts:388

    });

  // Wait for the first callback so the URL / user-code is available to return.
  await Promise.race([session.firstSignal.promise, sleep(START_FIRST_SIGNAL_MS)]);

  // An early login() failure → throw (route returns 500, CLI prints the message)
  // rather than returning a misleading { mode:'manual', url:undefined } (I1).
  if (session.status === 'error') {
    sessions.delete(sessionId);
    if (session.portBusy) {
      // Retryable: the cancel above releases the port as soon as the previous
      // login unwinds (microtasks for pi flows), so "retry shortly" is honest
      // advice — and a restart always clears it (#1963).
      throw new OAuthCallbackPortBusyError(
        `A previous '${provider}' login attempt is still holding the OAuth callback port. ` +
          'Wait a few seconds and retry; if it persists, restart the Archon server.'
      );
    }
    throw new Error(session.detail ?? 'Subscription login failed to start.');
  }

  // Superseded (or cancelled) while still waiting for the first signal — the
  // session is already gone from the map, so a 200 here would hand back a
  // url-less session the first poll immediately reports as "not found".
  // Throw the honest answer instead (S4).
  if (!sessions.has(sessionId)) {
    throw new Error('Login attempt was superseded by a newer one. Retry to start a fresh login.');
  }

  return {
    sessionId,
    mode: externalMode(session),
    url: session.url,
    userCode: session.userCode,
    verificationUri: session.verificationUri,
    expiresIn: Math.round(SESSION_TTL_MS / 1000),
  };

View on GitHub (pinned to 0773b97458)

Solutions

  1. Inspect the thrown message — if it equals this fallback, check server logs (oauth_bridge.login_failed warn) for the sanitized underlying error.
  2. Verify network/proxy access to the provider's OAuth endpoints.
  3. Retry the login; if consistent, check provider configuration and package versions.
  4. Restart the Archon server to clear any stuck in-flight login state.
Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Validate before calling

// Pre-check basic reachability of the provider auth endpoint before starting a login
const ok = await fetch('https://anthropic.com', { method: 'HEAD' }).then(r => r.ok).catch(() => false);
if (!ok) throw new Error('Network unreachable; fix connectivity before login.');

Try / catch

try {
  await startOAuth(userId, providerId);
} catch (e) {
  const msg = e instanceof Error ? e.message : '';
  if (msg === 'Subscription login failed to start.' || !msg) {
    // Detail was missing: consult server logs (oauth_bridge.login_failed)
    getLog().error({ userId, providerId }, 'subscription_login_failed_opaque');
  }
  throw e;
}

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Calling startOAuth when the underlying pi login() (or the openai manual flow) rejects before the first auth callback — e.g. network failure reaching the authorization endpoint, provider misconfiguration, or any early error without session.detail set.

Common situations: Corporate proxy or DNS blocking the provider's auth endpoint; expired/invalid provider configuration; pi-ai login throwing on startup; offline environment; the rare case where the underlying error message was empty or sanitized to nothing.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of coleam00/Archon@0773b97458 (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/97c07f6ad27e227c. Report an issue: GitHub.