What causes "The Copilot sign-in code expired. Please try again." in zed-industries/zed?

Restart the Copilot sign-in flow to obtain a fresh device code

The Copilot sign-in code expired. Please try again.

Error message

The Copilot sign-in code expired. Please try again.

What it means

Part of Zed's GitHub OAuth device-code flow (copilot_oauth.rs): after the user is shown a code at github.com/login/device, Zed polls the access-token endpoint; GitHub's error field 'expired_token' maps to this bail. GitHub device codes are valid for a short window (typically 15 minutes), after which the flow must be restarted from a new device code.

Source

Thrown at crates/copilot_chat/src/copilot_oauth.rs:132

            .header("Content-Type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded")
            .body(AsyncBody::from(body.clone()))?;

        let mut response = client.send(request).await?;
        let mut response_body = Vec::new();
        response.body_mut().read_to_end(&mut response_body).await?;

        let parsed: AccessTokenResponse = serde_json::from_slice(&response_body)
            .context("Failed to parse GitHub access-token response")?;

        if let Some(token) = parsed.access_token {
            return Ok(token);
        }

        match parsed.error.as_deref() {
            Some("authorization_pending") => continue,
            // GitHub asks us to back off; increase the interval and keep polling.
            Some("slow_down") => interval += 5,
            Some("expired_token") => bail!("The Copilot sign-in code expired. Please try again."),
            Some("access_denied") => bail!("Copilot sign-in was cancelled."),
            Some(other) => bail!("Copilot sign-in failed: {other}"),
            None => bail!("Copilot sign-in failed: unexpected response from GitHub"),
        }
    }
}

fn form_encode(fields: &[(&str, &str)]) -> String {
    fields
        .iter()
        .map(|(key, value)| format!("{}={}", url_encode(key), url_encode(value)))
        .collect::<Vec<_>>()
        .join("&")
}

fn url_encode(value: &str) -> String {
    let mut encoded = String::with_capacity(value.len());
    for byte in value.bytes() {

View on GitHub (pinned to f4178619ac)

Solutions

Restart the Copilot sign-in flow to obtain a fresh device code
Complete authorization at github.com/login/device promptly after the code is displayed
Keep the machine/network awake during sign-in

Defensive patterns

Strategy: retry

Validate before calling

// Fail with a clearer message before GitHub does: device codes live ~15 min
let flow_started = std::time::Instant::now();
if flow_started.elapsed() > Duration::from_secs(14 * 60) {
    anyhow::bail!("sign-in window nearly expired; restart the flow");
}

Try / catch

match poll_for_token(/* .. */).await {
    Ok(token) => { /* signed in */ }
    Err(err) if err.to_string().contains("expired") => {
        // restart device flow from scratch with a new code
    }
    Err(err) => return Err(err),
}

Prevention

Show the expiry window next to the device code so users hurry
Restart the whole flow (new device code) on retry - a dead code can never be revived
Avoid machine sleep or long awaits between starting the flow and user authorization

When it happens

Trigger: The polling loop receives error='expired_token': more than the validity window elapsed between displaying the user code and the user completing authorization, or polling was paused (machine slept, process suspended) past expiry.

Common situations: User leaves the sign-in dialog open and comes back later; laptop sleep during sign-in; user copies the code but completes verification too late.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of zed-industries/zed@f4178619ac (2026-08-20). Data as JSON: /api/errors/f984497fb89607c2. Report an issue: GitHub.