What causes "Failed to fetch list of base images" in warpdotdev/warp?

Log in / refresh credentials and retry

Failed to fetch list of base images

Error message

Failed to fetch list of base images

What it means

Reported by report_fatal_error inside prompt_for_docker_image — the image fetch performed when `warp environment create` runs without --docker-image. The GraphQL request transport succeeded but response.list_warp_dev_images came back as UserFacingError or Unknown instead of ListWarpDevImagesOutput, so there is no image list to prompt with. Structurally identical to error 101 but on the create path.

Solutions

Log in / refresh credentials and retry
Pass --docker-image to skip the fetch entirely and create directly
Update the Warp client to eliminate schema/enum Unknown mismatches
For local server setups, verify the endpoint and that listWarpDevImages is served

Example fix

# before
warp environment create --name dev --repo owner/repo

# after
warp environment create --name dev --repo owner/repo --docker-image warpdotdev/base:latest

Defensive patterns

Strategy: retry

Validate before calling

// Verify auth + catalog before an interactive create:
// warp environment image list || echo "catalog unavailable — pass --docker-image"

Try / catch

match response.list_warp_dev_images {
    ListWarpDevImagesResult::ListWarpDevImagesOutput(output) => { /* prompt with output.images */ },
    ListWarpDevImagesResult::UserFacingError(e) | ListWarpDevImagesResult::Unknown => { /* retry or fall back to --docker-image */ },
}

Prevention

Refresh login before running create commands that need the image list
Pass --docker-image in all unattended create flows
Keep client and server versions aligned to avoid Unknown enum decoding
Retry once after auth refresh before treating it as a hard failure

When it happens

Trigger: Creating an environment without --docker-image while logged out, with an expired token, against a server that returns a user-facing error for listWarpDevImages, or with a client whose generated GraphQL enums cannot decode a newer server response (Unknown variant).

Common situations: Logged-out token expiry between commands; version skew between old client and new server API; local warp-server without the resolver; server-side incident returning error payloads.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of warpdotdev/warp@e72fd7aacb (2026-08-16). Data as JSON: /api/errors/a668979930ef050f. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at app/src/ai/agent_sdk/environment.rs:411

                            Err(err) => {
                                if !Self::handle_inquire_error(err, ctx) {
                                    super::report_fatal_error(
                                        anyhow::anyhow!("Error entering custom image"),
                                        ctx,
                                    );
                                }
                                return;
                            }
                        }
                    } else {
                        selected_image
                    };

                    continuation(final_image, ctx);
                }
                ListWarpDevImagesResult::UserFacingError(_) | ListWarpDevImagesResult::Unknown => {
                    super::report_fatal_error(
                        anyhow::anyhow!("Failed to fetch list of base images"),
                        ctx,
                    );
                }
            },
            Err(err) => {
                super::report_fatal_error(anyhow::anyhow!("Failed to fetch images: {err}"), ctx);
            }
        });
    }

    #[allow(clippy::too_many_arguments)]
    fn create(
        &mut self,
        name: String,
        description: Option<String>,
        docker_image: Option<String>,
        github_repos: Vec<GithubRepo>,
        setup_commands: Vec<String>,

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