What causes "Login failed. Please try again." in xai-org/grok-build?

Login failed. Please try again.

Error message

Login failed. Please try again.

What it means

In the interactive login path, the auth flow races against a stderr 'bridge' task via tokio::select!. If the bridge task completes first (meaning the stderr-forwarding machinery exited unexpectedly), the auth future is dropped and this generic error is returned. It masks the real cause, so the underlying bridge failure must be found in logs.

Source

Thrown at crates/codegen/xai-grok-shell/src/auth/flow.rs:325

                });
            }
            tokio::time::sleep(std::time::Duration::from_millis(50)).await;
        }
    };
    if force_interactive {
        let auth = run_auth_flow_interactive(
            auth_manager,
            grok_com_config,
            Some(on_stderr),
            Some(url_tx),
            Some(channels.code_rx),
            login_override,
        );
        tokio::select! {
            r = auth => r,
            _ = bridge => {
                tracing::error!("auth stderr bridge exited unexpectedly during interactive login");
                Err(anyhow::anyhow!("Login failed. Please try again."))
            },
        }
    } else {
        let auth = run_auth_flow(
            auth_manager,
            grok_com_config,
            reauth,
            Some(on_stderr),
            Some(url_tx),
            Some(channels.code_rx),
            login_override,
        );
        tokio::select! {
            r = auth => r,
            _ = bridge => {
                tracing::error!("auth stderr bridge exited unexpectedly during login");
                Err(anyhow::anyhow!("Login failed. Please try again."))
            },

View on GitHub (pinned to bc7f02eddd)

Solutions

Check application logs for the accompanying tracing::error!('auth stderr bridge exited unexpectedly during interactive login') and any panic message from the bridge task.
Restart the login from a fresh, foreground CLI session to rule out the client-side bridge.
If invoking from an IDE/plugin, keep the host process alive until login completes and ensure it doesn't close stderr.
Update the shell/client to matching versions — bridge protocol mismatches can cause early exits.

Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Try / catch

match run_auth_flow(...).await {
    Err(e) if e.to_string() == "Login failed. Please try again." => {
        eprintln!("Stderr bridge died during interactive login — see logs for 'stderr bridge exited unexpectedly' and retry in a foreground terminal");
    }
    other => other?,
}

Prevention

Keep the invoking client process alive until login completes
Don't close/redirect stderr of the parent mid-login
Check logs for bridge task panics and update to a fixed version
Retry the login once — bridge teardown is often transient

When it happens

Trigger: Calling interactive login with stderr bridging enabled and the bridge task ends before login finishes — e.g. the reading end of the stderr pipe closes, the spawning client disconnects, or the bridge task panics.

Common situations: IDE/plugin-driven logins where the client that owns the bridge exits or crashes mid-login; pipe closed by a supervisor; panic inside bridge code; user closes the invoking UI while the browser-based login is pending.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of xai-org/grok-build@bc7f02eddd (2026-08-31). Data as JSON: /api/errors/b3335ff2d8ee818d. Report an issue: GitHub.