error messaging for invalid macaroon could be improved
Metadata
Current evaluation
Expired legacy credentials can still yield a raw macaroon error or block login; newer 401s are actionable, but the legacy path and upstream craft-store report remain unresolved.
Suggested action: keep open
Reason: @popey reported the same macaroon-authorization-required error when pushing, and @nteodosio later had to run logout then login because login said "Cannot login with existing legacy credentials in use." Current source still contains that legacy guard, while craft-store#97 is an open, reproduced upstream report; newer 401 handling does not fully resolve the legacy path.
Evaluated by: mr-cal-bot
Impact:
40
Quick Win:
15
Complexity:
50
Confidence:
91
Actionability:
74
Issue body
Today I went to use 'snapcraft list-revisions' and was greeted with:
$ snapcraft list-revisions snappy-debug
Error fetching account information from store: The request is missing an Authorization header field containing a valid macaroon
[2]
I tried other snaps I own and they were all the same. Googling didn't help me and the error message made me think something was wrong with the store. It then occurred to me that perhaps the macaroon expired, so I did 'snapcraft login' and everything started working again. Assuming the issue was actually that the macaroon expired and I did the right thing instead of working around the problem, I suspect the error message could be improved to guide people to snapcraft login.
Evaluation history
| Date | Model | Scores | Action | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha |
Impact:
40
Quick Win:
15
Complexity:
50
Confidence:
91
Actionability:
74
|
keep open | Expired legacy credentials can still yield a raw macaroon error or block login; newer 401s are actionable, but the legacy path and upstream craft-store report remain unresolved. | |
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha |
Impact:
43
Quick Win:
13
Complexity:
58
Confidence:
82
Actionability:
72
|
keep open | Expired legacy credentials can still produce misleading macaroon errors and block login; modern 401 handling is actionable, but legacy compatibility remains and craft-store#97 is open. | |
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha |
Impact:
28
Quick Win:
15
Complexity:
33
Confidence:
90
Actionability:
82
|
close resolved | Expired macaroon made list-revisions misleadingly report a store error; re-login worked. Open craft-store#97 tracks friendlier expired-credential messaging. | |
| qwen/qwen3.8-27b |
Impact:
25
Quick Win:
19
Staleness:
85
Complexity:
25
Confidence:
55
Support Request:
25
|
needs triage | 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. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
Staleness:
95
Complexity:
10
Confidence:
85
Support Request:
10
|
close stale | Suggests improving the error message for invalid or expired macaroons in snapcraft to guide users to run snapcraft login. Unlabelled, no maintainer comments, inactive for ~3 years. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
Staleness:
95
Complexity:
10
Confidence:
85
Support Request:
10
|
close stale | Suggests improving the error message for invalid macaroons in snapcraft to guide users to run snapcraft login. Unlabelled, zero comments, inactive for ~3 years, and over 7 years old. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 |
Staleness:
95
Complexity:
10
Confidence:
75
Support Request:
10
|
close stale | Request to improve error messaging when snapcraft auth macaroons expire, suggesting guidance to run snapcraft login. Unlabelled and inactive for over three years. |
Update history
| Date | Change |
|---|---|
| created |
Related work
-
Related To:
craft-store#97
(confidence 98%)
Open, triaged, and reproduced upstream report covering the same expired-macaroon error codes.
-
Related To:
snapcraft (launchpad)#1745264
(confidence 95%)
Earlier identical report closed after PR #3562 and commit 54781044a improved diagnostics, but later comments document a remaining legacy-login edge case.
Related issues
| Issue | Project | State | Summary | Similarity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #97 Confusing error message on expired macaroon | craft-store | open | Expired macaroon yields misleading store errors (macaroon-permission-required / macaroon-authorization-required). Triaged bug; maintainer proposed a client-side expiry check; confirmed reproduced but still unfixed. | |
| #1745264 error message for expired macaroon is not helpful | snapcraft (launchpad) | closed | Expired or invalid macaroon errors were improved in PR #3907, merged as commit 8a854a8de. | |
| #1930592 Handle macaroon-authorization-required error response | snapcraft (launchpad) | open | Snapcraft whoami bypasses the 401 re-login wrapper and shows a generic store error for missing or expired credentials; the open report remains valid and is linked to an unresolved craft-store bug. | |
| #1674124 trying to push with the wrong macaroon return non user-friendly error | snapcraft (launchpad) | open | Legacy enable-ci should explain macaroon permission 403s, but the command is absent from the current codebase and the report needs reassessment against today's authentication flow. | |
| #1856502 Obscure error message from snapcraft release when not logged in correctly | snapcraft (launchpad) | open | Snapcraft exposed a raw 401 macaroon error from release; commit 8a854a8de (#3907) now gives invalid legacy credentials an actionable login or export-login resolution. |