gastownhall/beads · error

credential command output is not a bare token (contains whit

Error message

credential command output is not a bare token (contains whitespace); expected a token or a JSON {token,expirationTimestamp} envelope

What it means

Bare (non-JSON) credential output is accepted only as a single-line token. If the trimmed output contains any whitespace, it is rejected because multi-word output is almost always an error message that would fail confusingly when used as a credential.

Source

Thrown at internal/creds/command.go:175

			token = c.AccessToken
		}
		if token == "" {
			return "", "", time.Time{}, fmt.Errorf("credential command JSON has no token/access_token field")
		}
		switch {
		case c.ExpirationTimestamp != "":
			if t, perr := time.Parse(time.RFC3339, c.ExpirationTimestamp); perr == nil {
				expiry = t
			}
		case c.ExpiresIn > 0:
			expiry = time.Now().Add(time.Duration(c.ExpiresIn) * time.Second)
		}
		return token, c.Username, expiry, nil
	}

	bare := string(trimmed)
	if strings.ContainsAny(bare, " \t\r\n") {
		return "", "", time.Time{}, fmt.Errorf("credential command output is not a bare token (contains whitespace); expected a token or a JSON {token,expirationTimestamp} envelope")
	}
	return bare, "", time.Time{}, nil
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 71377f2769)

Solutions

1. Run the credential command manually and look at its stdout — it is printing an error message, not a token.
2. Fix the helper to send human-readable messages to stderr and write only the token to stdout.
3. Re-authenticate if the message is an instruction to log in.
4. Ensure no echo/logging statements in the helper script write to stdout.

Example fix

// before
echo "Warning: token expires soon"
echo "$TOKEN"
// after
echo "Warning: token expires soon" >&2
printf '%s' "$TOKEN"

trimmed := bytes.TrimSpace(raw)
if len(trimmed) > 0 && trimmed[0] != '{' && strings.ContainsAny(string(trimmed), " \t\r\n") {
    // multi-word output: helper is printing prose, not a token; fix first
}

When it happens

Trigger: The helper prints a human-readable message on stdout instead of a token — e.g. 'Please run gh auth login', multi-line logs, or a token followed by a trailing explanation sentence.

Common situations: Helper writing warnings/prompt text to stdout instead of stderr; a script echoing instructions and then the token on separate lines; ANSI-colored or padded output from a wrapper.

Related errors

• credential command produced no output
• credential command returned unparseable JSON: %w
• dolt version output is unparseable
• parsing batch input: %w
• line %d: %w

AI-assisted analysis of gastownhall/beads@71377f2769 (2026-08-30). Data as JSON: /api/errors/fa8e1bd8954febaa. Report an issue: GitHub.