docker/cli · error · ErrDeviceLoginStartFail

failed to start device code flow login

Error message

failed to start device code flow login

What it means

Error "failed to start device code flow login" thrown in docker/cli.

Source

Thrown at internal/oauth/manager/manager.go:76

		browser.Stderr = io.Discard
		openBrowser = browser.OpenURL
	}

	return &OAuthManager{
		clientID: options.ClientID,
		audience: options.Audience,
		tenant:   options.Tenant,
		store:    options.Store,
		api: api.API{
			TenantURL: "https://" + options.Tenant,
			ClientID:  options.ClientID,
			Scopes:    scopes,
		},
		openBrowser: openBrowser,
	}
}

var ErrDeviceLoginStartFail = errors.New("failed to start device code flow login")

// LoginDevice launches the device authentication flow with the tenant,
// printing instructions to the provided writer and attempting to open the
// browser for the user to authenticate.
// After the user completes the browser login, LoginDevice uses the retrieved
// tokens to create a Hub PAT which is returned to the caller.
// The retrieved tokens are stored in the credentials store (under a separate
// key), and the refresh token is concatenated with the client ID.
func (m *OAuthManager) LoginDevice(ctx context.Context, w io.Writer) (*types.AuthConfig, error) {
	state, err := m.api.GetDeviceCode(ctx, m.audience)
	if err != nil {
		logrus.Debugf("failed to start device code login: %v", err)
		return nil, ErrDeviceLoginStartFail
	}

	if state.UserCode == "" {
		logrus.Debugf("failed to start device code login: missing user code")
		return nil, ErrDeviceLoginStartFail

View on GitHub (pinned to e9452d6e78)

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at internal/oauth/manager/manager.go:76 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of docker/cli@e9452d6e78 (2026-08-01). Data as JSON: /data/errors/8229dc91c27b85ec.json. Report an issue: GitHub.