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Typo: Duplicate header name in authentication error message

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Assessment

Difficulty
1/5
Estimated time
Under an hour
Newbie friendliness
88/100
Issue type
Bug
Clarity
Clearly specified
Activity status
Active
Tech stack
python

Research direction

Start in src/openai/_client.py at the sync client around line 664 and the async client around line 1428, then compare the authentication error messages. Correct the duplicated header name and remove the unnecessary embedded quotes as described, then reproduce the missing-credentials case to confirm the resulting message.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description


name: Typo bug report
about: Typo in authentication error message (duplicate "Authorization")
title: 'Typo: Duplicate header name in authentication error message'
labels: bug, documentation
assignees: ''

Confirm this is an issue with the Python library and not an underlying OpenAI API
  • This is an issue with the Python library
Describe the bug

There is a copy-paste typo in the _validate_headers error message in both the sync and async clients. The message says:

"Authorization or Authorization headers to be explicitly omitted"

But it should mention both supported auth headers: Authorization (Bearer tokens) and api-key (API key auth).

Looking at the X.509 auth code in src/openai/auth/_x509.py:66, the SDK actually checks for api-key, x-api-key, and proxy-authorization headers as well.

Locations

File: src/openai/_client.py

  1. Sync client, line 664:
raise TypeError(
    '"Could not resolve authentication method. Expected either api_key or admin_api_key to be set. Or for one of the `Authorization` or `Authorization` headers to be explicitly omitted"'
)
  1. Async client, line 1428:
raise TypeError(
    '"Could not resolve authentication method. Expected either api_key or admin_api_key to be set. Or for one of the `Authorization` or `Authorization` headers to be explicitly omitted"'
)
Proposed fix

Change the error message to correctly list the auth headers:

raise TypeError(
    "Could not resolve authentication method. Expected either api_key or admin_api_key to be set. Or for one of the `Authorization` or `api-key` headers to be explicitly omitted"
)

(Also note the original message has extra leading/trailing double quotes inside the string which is also unnecessary.)

To Reproduce

Call any API method without setting credentials and without explicitly omitting auth headers.

Library version

v2.x latest (main branch)

Dominant language
Python
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Merged PRs (30d)
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