docs(roadmap): file auth-provider truth pinpoint as backlog #28

Filed from live #claw-code dogfood on 2026-04-08 where two real users
hit adjacent auth confusion within minutes:

- varleg set OPENAI_API_KEY for OpenRouter but prefix routing didn't
  win because the model name wasn't prefixed with openai/; unsetting
  ANTHROPIC_API_KEY then hit MissingApiKey with no hint that the
  OpenAI path was already configured
- stanley078852 put an sk-ant-* key in ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN instead
  of ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, causing claw to send it as
  Authorization: Bearer sk-ant-..., which Anthropic rejects at the
  edge with 401 Invalid bearer token

Both fixes delivered live in #claw-code as direct replies, but the
pattern is structural: the error surface doesn't bridge HTTP-layer
symptoms back to env-var choice.

Action block spells out a single main-side PR with three
improvements: (a) MissingCredentials hint when an adjacent
provider's env var is already set, (b) 401-on-Anthropic hint when
bearer token starts with sk-ant-, (c) 'which env var goes where'
paragraph in both README matrices mapping sk-ant-* -> x-api-key and
OAuth access token -> Authorization: Bearer.

All three improvements are unit-testable against ApiError::fmt
output with no HTTP calls required.

Author: code-yeongyu

ROADMAP.md

@@ -329,6 +329,8 @@ Priority order: P0 = blocks CI/green state, P1 = blocks integration wiring, P2 =
 26. **Resumed local-command JSON parity gap** — **done**: direct `claw --output-format json` already had structured renderers for `sandbox`, `mcp`, `skills`, `version`, and `init`, but resumed `claw --output-format json --resume <session> /…` paths still fell back to prose because resumed slash dispatch only emitted JSON for `/status`. Resumed `/sandbox`, `/mcp`, `/skills`, `/version`, and `/init` now reuse the same JSON envelopes as their direct CLI counterparts, with regression coverage in `rust/crates/rusty-claude-cli/tests/resume_slash_commands.rs` and `rust/crates/rusty-claude-cli/tests/output_format_contract.rs`.
 27. **`dev/rust` `cargo test -p rusty-claude-cli` reads host `~/.claude/plugins/installed/` from real `$HOME` and fails parse-time on any half-installed user plugin** — dogfooding on 2026-04-08 (filed from gaebal-gajae's clawhip bullet at message `1491322807026454579` after the provider-matrix branch QA surfaced it) reproduced 11 deterministic failures on clean `dev/rust` HEAD of the form `panicked at crates/rusty-claude-cli/src/main.rs:3953:31: args should parse: "hook path \`/Users/yeongyu/.claude/plugins/installed/sample-hooks-bundled/./hooks/pre.sh\` does not exist; hook path \`...\post.sh\` does not exist"` covering `parses_prompt_subcommand`, `parses_permission_mode_flag`, `defaults_to_repl_when_no_args`, `parses_resume_flag_with_slash_command`, `parses_system_prompt_options`, `parses_bare_prompt_and_json_output_flag`, `rejects_unknown_allowed_tools`, `parses_resume_flag_with_multiple_slash_commands`, `resolves_model_aliases_in_args`, `parses_allowed_tools_flags_with_aliases_and_lists`, `parses_login_and_logout_subcommands`. **Same failures do NOT reproduce on `main`** (re-verified with `cargo test --release -p rusty-claude-cli` against `main` HEAD `79da4b8`, all 156 tests pass). **Root cause is two-layered.** First, on `dev/rust` `parse_args` eagerly walks user-installed plugin manifests under `~/.claude/plugins/installed/` and validates that every declared hook script exists on disk before returning a `CliAction`, so any half-installed plugin in the developer's real `$HOME` (in this case `~/.claude/plugins/installed/sample-hooks-bundled/` whose `.claude-plugin` manifest references `./hooks/pre.sh` and `./hooks/post.sh` but whose `hooks/` subdirectory was deleted) makes argv parsing itself fail. Second, the test harness on `dev/rust` does not redirect `$HOME` or `XDG_CONFIG_HOME` to a fixture for the duration of the test — there is no `env_lock`-style guard equivalent to the one `main` already uses (`grep -n env_lock rust/crates/rusty-claude-cli/src/main.rs` returns 0 hits on `dev/rust` and 30+ hits on `main`). Together those two gaps mean `dev/rust` `cargo test -p rusty-claude-cli` is non-deterministic on every clean clone whose owner happens to have any non-pristine plugin in `~/.claude/`. **Action (two parts).** (a) Backport the `env_lock`-based test isolation pattern from `main` into `dev/rust`'s `rusty-claude-cli` test module so each test runs against a temp `$HOME`/`XDG_CONFIG_HOME` and cannot read host plugin state. (b) Decouple `parse_args` from filesystem hook validation on `dev/rust` (the same decoupling already on `main`, where hook validation happens later in the lifecycle than argv parsing) so even outside tests a partially installed user plugin cannot break basic CLI invocation. **Branch scope.** This is a `dev/rust` catchup against `main`, not a `main` regression. Tracking it here so the dev/rust merge train picks it up before the next dev/rust release rather than rediscovering it in CI.
 
+28. **Auth-provider truth: error copy fails real users at the env-var-vs-header layer** — dogfooded live on 2026-04-08 in #claw-code (Sisyphus Labs guild), two separate new users hit adjacent failure modes within minutes of each other that both trace back to the same root: the `MissingApiKey` / 401 error surface does not teach users how the auth inputs map to HTTP semantics, so a user who sets a "reasonable-looking" env var still hits a hard error with no signpost. **Case 1 (varleg, Norway).** Wanted to use OpenRouter via the OpenAI-compat path. Found a comparison table claiming "provider-agnostic (Claude, OpenAI, local models)" and assumed it Just Worked. Set `OPENAI_API_KEY` to an OpenRouter `sk-or-v1-...` key and a model name without an `openai/` prefix; claw's provider detection fell through to Anthropic first because `ANTHROPIC_API_KEY` was still in the environment. Unsetting `ANTHROPIC_API_KEY` got them `ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN or ANTHROPIC_API_KEY is not set` instead of a useful hint that the OpenAI path was right there. Fix delivered live as a channel reply: use `main` branch (not `dev/rust`), export `OPENAI_BASE_URL=https://openrouter.ai/api/v1` alongside `OPENAI_API_KEY`, and prefix the model name with `openai/` so the prefix router wins over env-var presence. **Case 2 (stanley078852).** Had set `ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN="sk-ant-..."` and was getting 401 `Invalid bearer token` from Anthropic. Root cause: `sk-ant-` keys are `x-api-key`-header keys, not bearer tokens. `ANTHROPIC_API_KEY` path in `anthropic.rs` sends the value as `x-api-key`; `ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN` path sends it as `Authorization: Bearer` (for OAuth access tokens from `claw login`). Setting an `sk-ant-` key in the wrong env var makes claw send it as `Bearer sk-ant-...` which Anthropic rejects at the edge with 401 before it ever reaches the completions endpoint. The error text propagated all the way to the user (`api returned 401 Unauthorized (authentication_error) ... Invalid bearer token`) with zero signal that the problem was env-var choice, not key validity. Fix delivered live as a channel reply: move the `sk-ant-...` key to `ANTHROPIC_API_KEY` and unset `ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN`. **Pattern.** Both cases are failures at the *auth-intent translation* layer: the user chose an env var that made syntactic sense to them (`OPENAI_API_KEY` for OpenAI, `ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN` for Anthropic auth) but the actual wire-format routing requires a more specific choice. The error messages surface the HTTP-layer symptom (401, missing-key) without bridging back to "which env var should you have used and why." **Action.** Three concrete improvements, scoped for a single `main`-side PR: (a) In `ApiError::MissingCredentials` Display, when the Anthropic path is the one being reported but `OPENAI_API_KEY`, `XAI_API_KEY`, or `DASHSCOPE_API_KEY` are present in the environment, extend the message with "— but I see `$OTHER_KEY` set; if you meant to use that provider, prefix your model name with `openai/`, `grok`, or `qwen/` respectively so prefix routing selects it." (b) In the 401-from-Anthropic error path in `anthropic.rs`, when the failing auth source is `BearerToken` AND the bearer token starts with `sk-ant-`, append "— looks like you put an `sk-ant-*` API key in `ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN`, which is the Bearer-header path. Move it to `ANTHROPIC_API_KEY` instead (that env var maps to `x-api-key`, which is the correct header for `sk-ant-*` keys)." Same treatment for OAuth access tokens landing in `ANTHROPIC_API_KEY` (symmetric mis-assignment). (c) In `rust/README.md` on `main` and the matrix section on `dev/rust`, add a short "Which env var goes where" paragraph mapping `sk-ant-*` → `ANTHROPIC_API_KEY` and OAuth access token → `ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN`, with the one-line explanation of `x-api-key` vs `Authorization: Bearer`. **Verification path.** Both improvements can be tested with unit tests against `ApiError::fmt` output (the prefix-routing hint) and with a targeted integration test that feeds an `sk-ant-*`-shaped token into `BearerToken` and asserts the fmt output surfaces the correction hint (no HTTP call needed). **Source.** Live users in #claw-code at `1491328554598924389` (varleg) and `1491329840706486376` (stanley078852) on 2026-04-08.
+
 41. **Phantom completions root cause: global session store has no per-worktree isolation** —
 
     **Root cause.** The session store under `~/.local/share/opencode` is global to the host. Every `opencode serve` instance — including the parallel lane workers spawned per worktree — reads and writes the same on-disk session directory. Sessions are keyed only by id and timestamp, not by the workspace they were created in, so there is no structural barrier between a session created in worktree `/tmp/b4-phantom-diag` and one created in `/tmp/b4-omc-flat`. Whichever serve instance picks up a given session id can drive it from whatever CWD that serve happens to be running in.