redis/go-redis · error

failed to authenticate: %w

Error message

failed to authenticate: %w

What it means

Error "failed to authenticate: %w" thrown in redis/go-redis.

Source

Thrown at redis.go:928

		// the server does not support the HELLO command.
		// The server may be a redis-server that does not support the HELLO command,
		// or it could be DragonflyDB or a third-party redis-proxy. They all respond
		// with different error string results for unsupported commands, making it
		// difficult to rely on error strings to determine all results.
		cn.GetStateMachine().Transition(pool.StateClosed)
		return initErr
	} else {
		helloFallbackToRESP2 = c.opt.Protocol == 3
		if password != "" {
			// Try legacy AUTH command if HELLO failed.
			if username != "" {
				initErr = conn.AuthACL(ctx, username, password).Err()
			} else {
				initErr = conn.Auth(ctx, password).Err()
			}
			if initErr != nil {
				cn.GetStateMachine().Transition(pool.StateClosed)
				return fmt.Errorf("failed to authenticate: %w", initErr)
			}
		}
	}
	if helloFallbackToRESP2 {
		c.disableCSCServing(ctx, "HELLO 3 was rejected and the connection negotiated RESP2")
	}

	// trackingEnabled reports whether THIS pool connection must issue
	// CLIENT TRACKING ON during init. True when CSC (SharedTracking) is enabled:
	// the shared cache is fed by per-connection tracking + the background
	// drainer. Once CSC serving stops (owner Close, GC cleanup, or drainer
	// damping), new and re-inited conns skip tracking — nothing consumes the
	// pushes into the cache anymore.
	// Pipeline-pool connections are excluded from CLIENT TRACKING: pipelined
	// commands never consult or populate the client-side cache (only the
	// single-command cached path on main-pool connections does), so tracking
	// reads made on pipeline connections would only grow the server's tracking
	// table and produce invalidation pushes for keys the cache does not hold.

View on GitHub (pinned to c5cad058c7)

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at redis.go:928 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

Understand the failure class

• Authentication and authorization failures — expired tokens, bad credentials, and missing scopes.

AI-assisted analysis of redis/go-redis@c5cad058c7 (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/8847f0393ae65057. Report an issue: GitHub.