portainer/portainer · error · httperror.HandlerError

Cannot remove the initial admin account

Error message

Cannot remove the initial admin account

What it means

Error "Cannot remove the initial admin account" thrown in portainer/portainer.

Source

Thrown at api/http/handler/users/user_delete.go:39

// @tags users
// @security ApiKeyAuth
// @security jwt
// @produce json
// @param id path int true "User identifier"
// @success 204 "Success"
// @failure 400 "Invalid request"
// @failure 403 "Permission denied"
// @failure 404 "User not found"
// @failure 500 "Server error"
// @router /users/{id} [delete]
func (handler *Handler) userDelete(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) *httperror.HandlerError {
	userID, err := request.RetrieveNumericRouteVariableValue(r, "id")
	if err != nil {
		return httperror.BadRequest("Invalid user identifier route variable", err)
	}

	if userID == 1 {
		return httperror.Forbidden("Cannot remove the initial admin account", errors.New("Cannot remove the initial admin account"))
	}

	tokenData, err := security.RetrieveTokenData(r)
	if err != nil {
		return httperror.InternalServerError("Unable to retrieve user authentication token", err)
	}

	if tokenData.ID == portainer.UserID(userID) {
		return httperror.Forbidden("Cannot remove your own user account. Contact another administrator", errAdminCannotRemoveSelf)
	}

	user, err := handler.DataStore.User().Read(portainer.UserID(userID))
	if handler.DataStore.IsErrObjectNotFound(err) {
		return httperror.NotFound("Unable to find a user with the specified identifier inside the database", err)
	} else if err != nil {
		return httperror.InternalServerError("Unable to find a user with the specified identifier inside the database", err)
	}

View on GitHub (pinned to 17e74456ff)

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at api/http/handler/users/user_delete.go:39 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of portainer/portainer@17e74456ff (2026-08-26). Data as JSON: /api/errors/29e4a54269c476bd. Report an issue: GitHub.