What causes "User not found" in plandex-ai/plandex?

Verify the userId exists in the users table (SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = ?) and correct any stale value on the client.

plandex-ai/plandex · warning · http

User not found

Error message

User not found

What it means

CreateEmailVerificationHandler returns HTTP 404 'User not found' when the request supplies a UserId but db.GetUser finds no user row for that ID. The endpoint treats a non-empty UserId as proof the caller already has an account, so an unknown ID is a hard stop before any verification pin is generated. This prevents issuing verification pins against nonexistent accounts.

Source

Thrown at app/server/handlers/sessions.go:62

			http.Error(w, "Error getting user: "+err.Error(), http.StatusInternalServerError)
			return
		}

		hasAccount = user != nil
	} else {
		hasAccount = true

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

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

		if user == nil {
			log.Printf("User not found for id: %v\n", req.UserId)
			http.Error(w, "User not found", http.StatusNotFound)
			return
		}

		if user.Email != req.Email {
			log.Printf("User email does not match for id: %v\n", req.UserId)
			http.Error(w, "User email does not match", http.StatusBadRequest)
			return
		}
	}

	if req.RequireUser && !hasAccount {
		log.Printf("User not found for email: %v\n", req.Email)
		http.Error(w, "User not found", http.StatusNotFound)
		return
	} else if req.RequireNoUser && hasAccount {
		log.Printf("User already exists for email: %v\n", req.Email)
		http.Error(w, "User already exists", http.StatusConflict)
		return

View on GitHub (pinned to e2d772072e)

Solutions

Verify the userId exists in the users table (SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = ?) and correct any stale value on the client.
Clear the cached/stored userId on the client so the request is sent with an empty UserId, which routes lookup through email instead (db.GetUserByEmail).
If the account should exist, re-run the signup/registration flow to recreate the user, then retry verification.
Confirm the server is pointed at the intended database (DATABASE_URL/connection config) - the user may exist in another environment.
Check for ID truncation or formatting mistakes (whitespace, truncated string) in the client payload before sending.

Example fix

// before
req := shared.CreateEmailVerificationRequest{ UserId: staleUserID, Email: email }
// after
// only send UserId if the local session still has a valid account;
// otherwise fall back to email-only lookup
req := shared.CreateEmailVerificationRequest{ Email: email }
if accountStillExists(staleUserID) {
    req.UserId = staleUserID
}

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

// before calling the API, confirm the stored userId is non-empty
if strings.TrimSpace(userSession.UserId) == "" {
    // no stored account: send email-only request instead of a stale UserId
    req.UserId = ""
}

Type guard

func hasUserId(req shared.CreateEmailVerificationRequest) bool {
    return strings.TrimSpace(req.UserId) != ""
}

Try / catch

// Go HTTP: check status before decoding
resp, err := http.Post(url, "application/json", body)
if err != nil { return err }
if resp.StatusCode == http.StatusNotFound {
    // treat as 'stale account': clear local session and fall back to email-only flow
    clearStoredUser()
    return retryWithEmailOnly()
}

Prevention

Never persist userId across database resets; re-validate it on app start via a session-check endpoint.
Send an empty UserId unless the client holds an active, confirmed session.
Include environment (staging/prod) in your config to avoid cross-environment ID reuse.
Handle 404 from this endpoint by falling back to email-based lookup instead of failing hard.

When it happens

Trigger: POSTing a body with a non-empty userId (CreateEmailVerificationRequest.UserId) for an account that was deleted, never created, or whose ID is stale/typo'd; also reusing an ID from a different database or after a DB reset.

Common situations: Client cached an old userId after a database wipe or staging reset; signed-up user's account was deleted by an admin; copying a userId from another environment (prod vs staging) or hardcoding a placeholder ID; case/whitespace differences are not the issue here since the ID is exact-match.

Understand the failure class

Background: "User not found", "Invalid user", and "does not exist": what missing-user lookup errors mean across Rocket.Chat, LiteLLM, Phabricator, rustfs, and pnpm — this error's family across 10 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of plandex-ai/plandex@e2d772072e (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/28c957168b5af8db. Report an issue: GitHub.