plandex-ai/plandex · error

error loading accounts: %v

Error message

error loading accounts: %v

What it means

SelectOrSignInOrCreate in app/cli/auth/account.go wraps any failure from loadAccounts() — reading the locally stored account/auth files — as 'error loading accounts: %v'. It means the CLI could not read or parse the on-disk account store before presenting the account selection UI, so the underlying I/O or deserialization error is preserved in the wrapped message.

Source

Thrown at app/cli/auth/account.go:18

package auth

import (
	"fmt"
	"plandex-cli/term"

	shared "plandex-shared"

	"github.com/fatih/color"
)

const AddAccountOption = "Add another account"

func SelectOrSignInOrCreate() error {
	accounts, err := loadAccounts()

	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("error loading accounts: %v", err)
	}

	if len(accounts) == 0 {
		err := promptSignInNewAccount()
		if err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("error signing in to new account: %v", err)
		}

		return nil
	}

	var options []string
	for _, account := range accounts {
		options = append(options, fmt.Sprintf("<%s> %s", account.UserName, account.Email))
	}

	options = append(options, AddAccountOption)

View on GitHub (pinned to e2d772072e)

Solutions

1. Inspect the wrapped cause (%v) in the message to identify the actual I/O or parse failure.
2. Check permissions and existence of the CLI's auth/accounts storage directory (typically under your home config dir) and fix ownership with chown/chmod.
3. If the file is corrupted, back it up and remove/rename it so the CLI re-creates it, then sign in again.
4. Ensure HOME (or XDG config path) is set correctly, especially when running under sudo, cron, or containers.

Example fix

// before
sudo plandex sign-in   # runs as root, can't read user's accounts file -> error loading accounts
// after
plandex sign-in         # run as the owning user, accounts file readable

// Before invoking auth flows, ensure the accounts store is readable
accountsPath := authStorePath() // CLI's accounts file location
if info, err := os.Stat(accountsPath); err != nil {
    if !os.IsNotExist(err) {
        log.Fatalf("accounts file exists but is inaccessible: %v", err) // fix perms first
    }
} else if info.IsDir() {
    log.Fatal("accounts path is a directory; storage is corrupted")
}

func isLoadAccountsError(err error) bool {
    return err != nil && strings.HasPrefix(err.Error(), "error loading accounts:")
}

if err := auth.SelectOrSignInOrCreate(); err != nil {
    if isLoadAccountsError(err) {
        // back up and remove the corrupted accounts file so it is re-created
        os.Rename(authStorePath(), authStorePath()+".bak")
        err = auth.SelectOrSignInOrCreate()
    }
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling SelectOrSignInOrCreate (directly or via promptInitialAuth/signIn) when loadAccounts() fails — e.g. the accounts file is missing in an unexpected way, unreadable due to permissions, corrupted JSON, or the storage directory cannot be accessed.

Common situations: HOME directory misconfigured so auth files land in a nonexistent path; permissions changed by another user or run with sudo vs. normal user; accounts file corrupted by a crashed write or manual edit; upgrading/downgrading CLI changed the storage format.

Related errors

• error signing in to new account: %v
• error selecting account: %v
• error prompting for sign in to new account: %v
• error setting auth: %v
• error writing auth: %v

AI-assisted analysis of plandex-ai/plandex@e2d772072e (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/e4644cc276f0a611. Report an issue: GitHub.