Handle macaroon-authorization-required error response
Metadata
Current evaluation
snapcraft whoami shows a generic 'Store Error: whoami failed.' instead of prompting re-authentication when credentials are missing/expired (401 macaroon-authorization-required). Open since 2021, zero comments, no maintainer activity or labels.
Suggested action: needs triage
Reason: The issue has 0 comments, no labels, no assignee, and no maintainer response in ~5 years (last activity 1887 days ago), so it has never been triaged. It is a genuine bug with a full debug traceback (401 'macaroon-authorization-required' from the dashboard whoami endpoint), not a support question, and the underlying UX problem (generic error instead of re-auth prompt) is likely still relevant in the current craft-store-based implementation, so it should not be closed as stale without verification. Confidence is moderate because repo code inspection was unavailable (pinned SHA errors), so I could not confirm whether the 401 handling was already improved in the current snapcraft/store code.
Impact:
35
Quick Win:
21.0
Staleness:
95
Complexity:
40
Confidence:
65
Support Request:
10
Issue body
When issuing snapcraft whoami on a system without credentials or with expired ones, as a user I get an error instead of a prompt to re-authenticate:
nessita@dali:~$ snapcraft whoami
Store Error: whoami failed.
nessita@dali:~$ export SNAPCRAFT_ENABLE_DEVELOPER_DEBUG=1
nessita@dali:~$ snapcraft whoami
Starting snapcraft 4.8 from /snap/snapcraft/6512/lib/python3.6/site-packages/snapcraft/cli.
configure_requests_ca: using '/etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt' for certificate verification
Candid forced: False. Candid crendendials: False.
Calling https://dashboard.snapcraft.io/api/v2/tokens/whoami with params None and headers {'Content-Type': 'application/json', 'Accept': 'application/json', 'Authorization': None, 'User-Agent': 'snapcraft/4.8 Ubuntu/20.04 (amd64)'}
Store error response: {'_content': b'{"error-list": [{"message": "The request is missing an Authorization header field containing a valid macaroon", "code": "macaroon-authorization-required", "extra": {"realm": "Developer Portal"}}]}', '_content_consumed': True, '_next': None, 'status_code': 401, 'headers': {'Date': 'Wed, 02 Jun 2021 13:32:10 GMT', 'Server': 'gunicorn/19.7.0', 'Content-Type': 'application/json', 'WWW-Authenticate': 'Macaroon realm="Developer Portal"', 'Expires': 'Wed, 02 Jun 2021 13:32:10 GMT', 'Cache-Control': 'max-age=0, no-cache, no-store, must-revalidate', 'X-View-Name': 'api-tokens-whoami', 'Vary': 'Accept-Language,Cookie', 'Content-Language': 'en', 'Content-Length': '196', 'X-VCS-Revision': 'b143b7791b', 'X-Request-Id': 'YLeIWn8AAQEAADi5H34AAAPd1', 'X-Cache': 'MISS from juju-08138e-prod-scasnap-xenial-4', 'X-Cache-Lookup': 'MISS from juju-08138e-prod-scasnap-xenial-4:3128', 'Via': '1.1 juju-08138e-prod-scasnap-xenial-4 (squid/3.5.12)', 'Strict-Transport-Security': 'max-age=2592000', 'Keep-Alive': 'timeout=5, max=100', 'Connection': 'Keep-Alive'}, 'raw': <urllib3.response.HTTPResponse object at 0x7f8439ce8f60>, 'url': 'https://dashboard.snapcraft.io/api/v2/tokens/whoami', 'encoding': 'utf-8', 'history': [], 'reason': 'Unauthorized', 'cookies': <RequestsCookieJar[]>, 'elapsed': datetime.timedelta(0, 0, 932062), 'request': <PreparedRequest [GET]>, 'connection': <requests.adapters.HTTPAdapter object at 0x7f8439ce82b0>}
Sorry, an error occurred in Snapcraft:
Store Error: whoami failed.
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/snap/snapcraft/6512/bin/snapcraft", line 33, in <module>
sys.exit(load_entry_point('snapcraft==4.8', 'console_scripts', 'snapcraft')())
File "/snap/snapcraft/6512/lib/python3.6/site-packages/click/core.py", line 829, in __call__
return self.main(*args, **kwargs)
File "/snap/snapcraft/6512/lib/python3.6/site-packages/click/core.py", line 782, in main
rv = self.invoke(ctx)
File "/snap/snapcraft/6512/lib/python3.6/site-packages/click/core.py", line 1259, in invoke
return _process_result(sub_ctx.command.invoke(sub_ctx))
File "/snap/snapcraft/6512/lib/python3.6/site-packages/click/core.py", line 1066, in invoke
return ctx.invoke(self.callback, **ctx.params)
File "/snap/snapcraft/6512/lib/python3.6/site-packages/click/core.py", line 610, in invoke
return callback(*args, **kwargs)
File "/snap/snapcraft/6512/lib/python3.6/site-packages/snapcraft/cli/store.py", line 840, in whoami
account = StoreClientCLI().whoami().account
File "/snap/snapcraft/6512/lib/python3.6/site-packages/snapcraft/storeapi/_store_client.py", line 97, in whoami
return self.dashboard.whoami()
File "/snap/snapcraft/6512/lib/python3.6/site-packages/snapcraft/storeapi/_dashboard_api.py", line 367, in whoami
raise errors.GeneralStoreError(message="whoami failed.", response=response)
snapcraft.storeapi.errors.GeneralStoreError: Store Error: whoami failed.
You can find the traceback in file '/tmp/tmpsgqh5y34/trace.txt'.
Evaluation history
| Date | Model | Scores | Action | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| qwen/qwen3.8-27b |
Impact:
35
Quick Win:
21.0
Staleness:
95
Complexity:
40
Confidence:
65
Support Request:
10
|
needs triage | snapcraft whoami shows a generic 'Store Error: whoami failed.' instead of prompting re-authentication when credentials are missing/expired (401 macaroon-authorization-required). Open since 2021, zero comments, no maintainer activity or labels. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
Staleness:
95
Complexity:
35
Confidence:
85
Support Request:
10
|
needs triage | snapcraft whoami fails with a generic error instead of prompting re-authentication when credentials are missing or expired. Open for over 5 years with no maintainer response or triage. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
Staleness:
95
Complexity:
25
Confidence:
85
Support Request:
15
|
close stale | Unhandled macaroon-authorization-required API error causes generic failure instead of re-auth prompt. Issue is over 5 years old with no maintainer response. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 |
Staleness:
95
Complexity:
20
Confidence:
85
Support Request:
10
|
close stale | Snapcraft fails with a generic error when credentials are missing or expired instead of prompting for re-authentication. Untriaged, inactive for over 5 years. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 |
Staleness:
95
Complexity:
20
Confidence:
85
Support Request:
10
|
close stale | Reports a generic Store Error instead of prompting re-authentication when macaroon credentials are missing or expired. Unassessed for over five years. |
Update history
No update history recorded yet.
Related work
-
Related To:
craft-store#97
(confidence 70%)
craft-store#97 reports the same class of problem: confusing macaroon error on expired credentials instead of a re-login prompt; triaged there with Jira CRAFT-3385 but still open.
Related issues
| Issue | Project | State | Summary | Similarity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1834469 error messaging for invalid macaroon could be improved | snapcraft (launchpad) | open | Snapcraft shows a confusing 'missing a valid macaroon' error when the store macaroon expires; suggests guiding users to snapcraft login. 7 years old, no labels, no comments, no maintainer response. Related craft-store#97 tracks the same problem class. | |
| #97 Confusing error message on expired macaroon | craft-store | open | craft-store shows a confusing 'macaroon-permission-required' error when store credentials expire instead of telling users to re-login. Triaged by a maintainer with a Jira ticket (CRAFT-3385), but no code work; last activity ~11 months ago. | |
| #1856502 Obscure error message from snapcraft release when not logged in correctly | snapcraft (launchpad) | open | snapcraft release prints an obscure 401 macaroon error when not logged in; user suggests a friendlier message pointing to 'snapcraft login'. No labels, no comments, ~6.5 years inactive. Same problem class tracked in craft-store#97 and LP 1834469. | |
| #1674124 trying to push with the wrong macaroon return non user-friendly error | snapcraft (launchpad) | open | Snapcraft push with a macaroon attenuated to a different snap returns a raw 403 JSON blob instead of a user-friendly error. Opened by maintainer elopio ~9.4 years ago, zero comments, no labels beyond bitesize/store/ui, no recorded fix. | |
| #1745264 error message for expired macaroon is not helpful | snapcraft (launchpad) | closed | Closed without discussion or a formal fix. The report highlighted an unhelpful 401 error for an expired Travis CI macaroon during snap uploads, likely resolved by updating credentials or abandoned. | |
| #1843404 snapcraft export-login doesn't provide meaningful error messages when an argument is wrong | snapcraft (launchpad) | open | snapcraft export-login returns a generic 'Authentication error: Failed to get macaroon' instead of a meaningful message when an argument (e.g. snap name) is wrong. Unlabelled, zero comments, no maintainer interaction for ~7 years. |