plandex-ai/plandex · error

error creating account credentials directory: %v

Error message

error creating account credentials directory: %v

What it means

SetAccountCredentials creates the directory <HomePlandexDir>/<UserId>/<OrgId> with 0700 permissions to hold creds.json. This error wraps os.MkdirAll failure — the credentials file cannot be stored because the per-user credentials directory could not be created.

Source

Thrown at app/cli/lib/model_credentials.go:574

// emoji for satisfied vs missing
func mark(ok bool) string {
	if ok {
		return "✅"
	}
	return "❌"
}

var cachedAccountCredentials *types.AccountCredentials

func SetAccountCredentials(creds *types.AccountCredentials) error {
	if auth.Current == nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("no authenticated user")
	}
	dir := filepath.Join(fs.HomePlandexDir, auth.Current.UserId, auth.Current.OrgId)
	err := os.MkdirAll(dir, 0700)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("error creating account credentials directory: %v", err)
	}
	path := filepath.Join(dir, "creds.json")
	bytes, err := json.MarshalIndent(creds, "", "  ")
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("error marshalling account credentials: %v", err)
	}
	err = os.WriteFile(path, bytes, 0600)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("error writing account credentials: %v", err)
	}

	cachedAccountCredentials = creds

	return nil
}

func GetAccountCredentials() (*types.AccountCredentials, error) {
	if cachedAccountCredentials != nil {

View on GitHub (pinned to e2d772072e)

Solutions

1. Check that the Plandex home directory (fs.HomePlandexDir) exists and is writable by the current user.
2. ls the path from the wrapped error: if a file occupies the directory path, remove/rename it.
3. Fix ownership/permissions (chown/chmod) on the home directory, or correct the env var pointing HomePlandexDir at a bad location.
4. Ensure the filesystem isn't full or mounted read-only.

Example fix

// before: no pre-check
// after: verify writability before storing creds
if info, err := os.Stat(fs.HomePlandexDir); err == nil && !info.IsDir() {
    return fmt.Errorf("%s exists and is not a directory", fs.HomePlandexDir)
}

if info, err := os.Stat(fs.HomePlandexDir); err == nil && !info.IsDir() {
    return fmt.Errorf("%s exists and is not a directory", fs.HomePlandexDir)
}
if f, err := os.OpenFile(fs.HomePlandexDir, os.O_RDWR, 0700); err != nil {
    return fmt.Errorf("plandex home dir not writable: %w", err)
} else {
    f.Close()
}

if err := SetAccountCredentials(creds); err != nil {
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "creating account credentials directory") {
        return fmt.Errorf("cannot create credentials dir — check ownership/permissions on your plandex home directory: %w", err)
    }
    return err
}

When it happens

Trigger: os.MkdirAll fails for HomePlandexDir or a subpath: parent directory doesn't exist and can't be created, permission denied, path is a file, disk full, or read-only filesystem.

Common situations: HOME or the Plandex home dir env var overridden to a non-writable path; a regular file occupying the directory path; running as different user than the one who created ~/.plandex with restrictive ownership; read-only container filesystem.

Understand the failure class

Background: Permission denied / not authorized / 403 Forbidden: access-control rejections when the caller lacks the required role, grant, or ownership — this error's family across 18 libraries.

Related errors

• error writing account credentials: %v
• error reading settings-v2.json: %v
• error creating convo message descriptions dir: %v
• error creating results dir: %v
• error creating applies dir: %v

AI-assisted analysis of plandex-ai/plandex@e2d772072e (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/554432a5f27367a4. Report an issue: GitHub.