What causes "Waiting for Facebook c_user cookie" in jackwener/OpenCLI?

Keep waiting — the CLI's login-wait loop treats this as the normal in-progress state and retries until the cookie appears.

jackwener/OpenCLI · info · AuthRequiredError

Waiting for Facebook c_user cookie

Error message

Waiting for Facebook c_user cookie

What it means

This is the polling hook of the Facebook login-wait flow: while the user completes login in the browser, poll repeatedly checks for the c_user cookie. Until it appears, poll throws AuthRequiredError with the informational message 'Waiting for Facebook c_user cookie' — this is the expected, transient state during login, not a hard failure. Once the cookie shows up, poll delegates to verifyFacebookIdentity for full verification.

Source

Thrown at clis/facebook/auth.js:39

    throw new AuthRequiredError('www.facebook.com', `Facebook /me redirected to ${finalUrl} — logged out or in checkpoint`);
  }
  return {
    user_id: String(cUser),
    vanity: String(vanity),
    profile_url: `https://www.facebook.com/${vanity}/`,
  };
}

registerSiteAuthCommands({
  site: 'facebook',
  domain: 'facebook.com',
  loginUrl: 'https://www.facebook.com/login.php',
  columns: ['user_id', 'vanity', 'profile_url'],
  quickCheck: hasFacebookCUserCookie,
  verify: verifyFacebookIdentity,
  poll: async (page) => {
    if (!await hasFacebookCUserCookie(page)) {
      throw new AuthRequiredError('www.facebook.com', 'Waiting for Facebook c_user cookie');
    }
    return verifyFacebookIdentity(page);
  },
});

View on GitHub (pinned to 49907e53dc)

Solutions

Keep waiting — the CLI's login-wait loop treats this as the normal in-progress state and retries until the cookie appears.
Complete the Facebook login in the automated browser window (including 2FA) so c_user gets set.
If polling keeps failing after login succeeded, check cookies via page.getCookies({url:'https://www.facebook.com'}) for a non-empty c_user.
Restart the login flow with a clean page if the login window was closed or timed out.

Example fix

// before
await loginAndPoll(page); // surfaces AuthRequiredError while waiting

// after
try {
  await loginAndPoll(page);
} catch (err) {
  if (!(err instanceof AuthRequiredError && err.message === 'Waiting for Facebook c_user cookie')) {
    throw err; // only unexpected auth errors should propagate
  }
}

Defensive patterns

Strategy: retry

Validate before calling

const cookies = await page.getCookies({ url: 'https://www.facebook.com' });
if (!cookies.some(c => c.name === 'c_user' && c.value)) {
  // still logged out — show 'waiting for login' UI and keep polling
}

Type guard

function isWaitingForLogin(err) {
  return err instanceof AuthRequiredError && err.message === 'Waiting for Facebook c_user cookie';
}

Try / catch

while (!done) {
  try {
    result = await poll(page);
    done = true;
  } catch (err) {
    if (!(err instanceof AuthRequiredError)) throw err;
    await sleep(2000); // expected while the user completes login
  }
}

Prevention

Treat this specific AuthRequiredError message as 'keep polling', not a failure.
Set a sensible overall login timeout so abandoned logins do not poll forever.
Check that c_user appears with a non-empty value — empty strings do not count.
Surface a 'complete login in the browser' prompt so users know why it is waiting.

When it happens

Trigger: Calling the poll callback (page) while the user is on the Facebook login page and has not yet completed login: hasFacebookCUserCookie(page) returns false because no non-empty c_user cookie is set yet.

Common situations: User still typing credentials mid-login; user abandoned the login window; Facebook showed an intermediate page (2FA) that has not yet set c_user; automation started polling before the login page even loaded.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of jackwener/OpenCLI@49907e53dc (2026-08-29). Data as JSON: /api/errors/64fb12e5068d682c. Report an issue: GitHub.