influxdata/influxdb · error · Error

Authentication error

Error message

Authentication error: {0}

What it means

Wraps `AuthenticatorError` via `#[from]` into the server HTTP error enum. Authentication itself failed: the request could not be tied to a valid identity — missing, malformed, expired, or invalid credentials (token), or the authenticator backend could not validate them. Unlike error 603, identity resolution failed, so authorization was never evaluated.

Solutions

1. Check that the request includes a valid `Authorization: Bearer <token>` header.
2. Re-create the token (`influxdb3 create token`) and replace any expired/revoked value in your client config.
3. Verify the token against the server's current catalog — a reset or migration can invalidate old tokens.
4. If auth should be off (local dev), start the server without the auth-enabling flag instead of sending bad credentials.

Example fix

// before
// curl http://localhost:8181/api/v3/query_sql?db=metrics
// after
// curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $INFLUXDB3_TOKEN" http://localhost:8181/api/v3/query_sql?db=metrics

// Fail fast with a clear message before sending requests
if (!process.env.INFLUXDB3_TOKEN) {
  throw new Error('INFLUXDB3_TOKEN is not set; cannot authenticate to InfluxDB 3');
}

function hasAuthHeaders(headers) {
  const h = headers['authorization'] ?? headers['Authorization'];
  return typeof h === 'string' && /^Bearer\s+\S+$/.test(h.trim());
}

try {
  return await api.query(sql);
} catch (e) {
  if (/Authentication error:/.test(e.message)) {
    // refresh token once, then retry
    const token = await fetchNewToken();
    return await api.query(sql, { token });
  }
  throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Sending a request with no `Authorization` header, a malformed bearer token, a revoked/expired token, or hitting an endpoint while the server's auth provider cannot validate the token; also occurs when auth is required server-side but the client sends no credentials.

Common situations: Token copy-paste errors (whitespace/truncation), tokens rotated on the server but cached in clients, running the server with auth enabled while local dev scripts omit credentials, tokens deleted after a catalog reset.

Understand the failure class

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

Related errors

• Authorization error
• authorization failure
• duration not to overflow
• missing token to authenticate
• The request does not have valid authentication credentials

AI-assisted analysis of influxdata/influxdb@06200ef96b (2026-09-19). Data as JSON: /api/errors/7e6c1084e5c1d720. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at influxdb3_server/src/http.rs:370

    #[error(transparent)]
    Catalog(#[from] CatalogError),

    #[error("Python plugins not enabled on this server")]
    PythonPluginsNotEnabled,

    #[error("Plugin error: {0}")]
    Plugin(#[from] influxdb3_processing_engine::plugins::PluginError),

    #[error("Processing engine error: {0}")]
    ProcessingEngine(#[from] influxdb3_processing_engine::manager::ProcessingEngineError),

    #[error(transparent)]
    Influxdb3TypesHttp(#[from] influxdb3_types::http::Error),

    #[error("Authorization error: {0}")]
    ResourceAuthorization(#[from] ResourceAuthorizationError),

    #[error("Authentication error: {0}")]
    Authentication(#[from] AuthenticatorError),

    #[error("The following Database does not exist: {0}")]
    MissingDb(String),

    #[error("The following Database Table does not exist: {0}")]
    MissingTable(String),

    #[error("Cannot parse the given human time: {0}")]
    ParsingHumanTime(#[source] humantime::DurationError),

    #[error("Cannot parse the timestamp: {0}")]
    ParsingTimestamp(#[from] chrono::ParseError),

    #[error("Timestamp is out of range")]
    TimestampOutOfRange,

    #[error("Current node mode does not use the processing engine")]

View on GitHub (pinned to 06200ef96b)