windmill-labs/windmill · error

Unauthorized: Could not authenticate with the provided crede

Error message

Unauthorized: Could not authenticate with the provided credentials

What it means

requireLogin got an HTTP 401/403-class response from the whoami call: the token (--token, stored login, or workspace token) is invalid, expired, or scoped to the wrong instance, so authentication cannot proceed and the CLI exits.

Source

Thrown at cli/src/core/auth.ts:130

            `Could not authenticate with the provided credentials. Please check your --token and --base-url and try again.${bodyStr ? `\n${bodyStr}` : ""}`
          ));
        } else {
          log.infoStderr(colors.red(
            `Request failed (${status ?? "unknown"}): ${bodyStr}`
          ));
        }
        return process.exit(1);
      }
      log.infoStderr(colors.red("Could not authenticate with the provided credentials. Please check your --token and --base-url and try again."));
      return process.exit(1);
    }

    log.infoStderr(
      "! Could not reach API given existing credentials. Attempting to reauth..."
    );
    const newToken = await loginInteractive(workspace.remote);
    if (!newToken) {
      throw new Error("Unauthorized: Could not authenticate with the provided credentials");
    }

    // Update workspace token
    const { removeWorkspace, addWorkspace } = await import("../commands/workspace/workspace.ts");
    removeWorkspace(workspace.name, false, opts);
    workspace.token = newToken;
    addWorkspace(workspace, opts);

    setClient(
      newToken,
      workspace.remote.substring(0, workspace.remote.length - 1)
    );
    return await fetchWhoami(workspace.workspaceId);
  }
}

View on GitHub (pinned to e474e8803c)

Solutions

1. Regenerate the token in the Windmill UI and pass it via --token.
2. Re-run `wmill login` to refresh stored credentials.
3. Confirm --base-url points at the instance the token was issued for.

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at cli/src/core/auth.ts:130 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 windmill-labs/windmill@e474e8803c (2026-09-03). Data as JSON: /api/errors/65ae64168b4c9e85. Report an issue: GitHub.