plandex-ai/plandex · error

error writing auth: %v

Error message

error writing auth: %v

What it means

After storing the account, setAuth writes the full current auth (token etc.) to fs.HomeAuthPath via writeCurrentAuth, wrapping any failure in this error. The account was saved but the session auth file could not be written, so sign-in is not persisted. Note writeCurrentAuth also emits this prefix for "auth not loaded" and marshal failures.

Source

Thrown at app/cli/auth/state.go:48

		return nil, fmt.Errorf("error unmarshalling accounts.json: %v", err)
	}

	return accounts, nil
}

func setAuth(auth *shared.ClientAuth) error {
	err := storeAccount(&auth.ClientAccount)

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

	Current = auth

	err = writeCurrentAuth()

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

	return nil
}

func storeAccount(toStore *shared.ClientAccount) error {
	accounts, err := loadAccounts()

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

	found := false
	for i, account := range accounts {
		if account.UserId == toStore.UserId {
			accounts[i] = toStore
			found = true
			break

View on GitHub (pinned to e2d772072e)

Solutions

1. Fix ownership/permissions on ~/.plandex and the auth file (chown/chmod)
2. Ensure HOME is set to a writable directory
3. Free disk space if ENOSPC
4. Sign in again once the filesystem issue is resolved

Example fix

// before
error writing auth: open ~/.plandex/auth.json: read-only file system
// after
$ export HOME=/home/user   # point HOME at a writable dir
$ plandex-cli sign-in

// confirm the auth file location is writable before sign-in
if err := os.WriteFile(fs.HomeAuthPath+".wtest", []byte(""), 0o600); err != nil {
    return fmt.Errorf("auth file not writable: %v", err)
}
os.Remove(fs.HomeAuthPath + ".wtest")

if err := setAuth(auth); err != nil {
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "error writing auth") {
        // fix ~/.plandex permissions / HOME / disk, then sign in again
    }
    return err
}

When it happens

Trigger: setAuth calls writeCurrentAuth after setting Current; os.WriteFile(fs.HomeAuthPath, ...) fails — permission denied, read-only filesystem, disk full — or (rarely) marshal of Current fails.

Common situations: ~/.plandex/auth.json root-owned after sudo usage; read-only HOME (containers, immutable images); disk full; HOME unset or pointing somewhere unwritable.

Understand the failure class

Background: "failed to write file", "Could not save figure", "Error saving remote file" — file write failed: causes and fixes across languages and libraries — this error's family across 38 libraries.

Related errors

• error loading accounts: %v
• error setting auth: %v
• error writing auth: %v
• error writing auth: %v
• error reading accounts.json: %v

AI-assisted analysis of plandex-ai/plandex@e2d772072e (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/ec76618722ce478a. Report an issue: GitHub.