What Is HTTP 401 Unauthorized?

HTTP 401 Unauthorized explained, and what it means when you see it in CI/CD and deployments.

HTTP 401 means the request lacks valid authentication credentials.

What it means

Despite the name, 401 is about authentication (who you are), not authorization. It means no credentials, expired credentials, or a bad token.

When you see it in CI/CD

A 401 in CI almost always means a missing or wrong secret/token. Check the secret is set, not empty, and has not expired. Retrying will not fix a bad credential.

Key takeaways

• 401 means authentication failed.
• Usually a missing/wrong token in CI.
• Retrying will not fix it.

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