plandex-ai/plandex · error

error getting user

Error message

error getting user

What it means

The auth token was valid but db.GetUser(authToken.UserId) failed, so execAuthenticate logs 'error getting user' and returns HTTP 500 when raiseErr is true. This is a database/backend failure fetching the user record, not an invalid token.

Source

Thrown at app/server/handlers/auth_helpers.go:503

	authToken, err := db.ValidateAuthToken(parsed.Token)

	if err != nil {
		log.Printf("error validating auth token: %v\n", err)

		writeApiError(w, shared.ApiError{
			Type:   shared.ApiErrorTypeInvalidToken,
			Status: http.StatusUnauthorized,
			Msg:    "Invalid auth token",
		})
		return nil
	}

	user, err := db.GetUser(authToken.UserId)

	if err != nil {
		log.Printf("error getting user: %v\n", err)
		if raiseErr {
			http.Error(w, "error getting user", http.StatusInternalServerError)
		}
		return nil
	}

	if !requireOrg {
		return &types.ServerAuth{
			AuthToken: authToken,
			User:      user,
		}
	}

	if parsed.OrgId == "" {
		log.Println("no org id")
		if raiseErr {
			http.Error(w, "no org id", http.StatusUnauthorized)
		}
		return nil
	}

View on GitHub (pinned to e2d772072e)

Solutions

1. Check database health/connectivity and retry the request
2. Invalidate the client's token and force re-login (user record likely deleted)
3. Check db.GetUser query/logs for the underlying SQL error
4. Verify token cleanup removes tokens for deleted users

if err := doCall(ctx); err != nil {
	var apiErr *APIError
	if errors.As(err, &apiErr) && apiErr.StatusCode == 500 && strings.Contains(apiErr.Message, "error getting user") {
		// likely deleted user or DB issue: force re-login or retry after DB recovery
		clearTokenAndReauthenticate()
		return nil
	}
	return err
}

When it happens

Trigger: ValidateAuthToken returned a token whose UserId no longer exists in the users table, the DB is down/unreachable, or the users query errors (timeout, constraint, replication lag).

Common situations: Deleted user accounts with still-cached tokens; database outages or connection-pool exhaustion; read-replica lag right after signup.

Understand the failure class

Background: Database query failed: Internal Server Error 500s wrapping SQL, Prisma, and connection failures — what to check first — this error's family across 16 libraries.

Related errors

• error validating org membership
• error getting user: %v
• error getting org user config: %v
• error getting invite for org user
• error accepting invite

AI-assisted analysis of plandex-ai/plandex@e2d772072e (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/cf31facb623af149. Report an issue: GitHub.