ALwrity/backend/api/content_planning/docs/AUTHENTICATION_DEBUG_STEPS.md

Authentication Debug Steps

Current Status

✅ Frontend: Token is being added to requests

• Logs show: [apiClient] ✅ Added auth token to request: /api/content-planning/enhanced-strategies

❌ Backend: Still receiving "No credentials provided"

• Logs show: 🔒 AUTHENTICATION ERROR: No credentials provided for authenticated endpoint: GET /api/content-planning/enhanced-strategies/

Root Cause Hypothesis

The Authorization header is being added in the frontend interceptor, but it's either:

1. Not reaching the backend (CORS issue?)
2. Not being extracted by FastAPI's HTTPBearer dependency
3. Being stripped by some middleware

Debugging Added

1. Enhanced Backend Logging ✅

File: backend/middleware/auth_middleware.py

Added:

• Logs auth_header_received=YES/NO to see if header reaches backend
• Logs auth_header_value=... to see the actual header value (first 50 chars)
• Logs all_headers=[...] to see all received headers
• Manual token extraction fallback - if header is present but HTTPBearer didn't extract it, manually extract and verify

2. Manual Token Extraction ✅

If the Authorization header is present but HTTPBearer doesn't extract it (bug in FastAPI dependency), the code now:

1. Manually extracts the token from the Authorization header
2. Verifies it with Clerk
3. Returns the user if valid

This should work even if HTTPBearer has an issue.

Next Steps to Debug

Step 1: Restart Backend

The enhanced logging won't show until the backend is restarted:

# Restart your backend server

Step 2: Check Backend Logs

After restarting, navigate to /content-planning and check backend logs. You should now see:

• auth_header_received=YES or NO
• auth_header_value=Bearer eyJ... or None
• all_headers=[...] showing all headers

Step 3: If Header is Present But HTTPBearer Didn't Extract

You should see:

⚠️ WARNING: Authorization header received but HTTPBearer didn't extract it. Trying manual extraction...
✅ Manual token extraction successful for endpoint: GET /api/content-planning/enhanced-strategies/

This means the manual fallback worked, and the request should succeed.

Step 4: If Header is NOT Present

If logs show auth_header_received=NO, then:

1. Check browser Network tab - does the request have Authorization: Bearer ... header?
2. Check CORS configuration - is Authorization header allowed?
3. Check if any middleware is stripping the header

CORS Configuration Check

File: backend/app.py

Current CORS config:

app.add_middleware(
    CORSMiddleware,
    allow_origins=allowed_origins,
    allow_credentials=True,
    allow_methods=["*"],
    allow_headers=["*"],  # This should allow Authorization header
)

allow_headers=["*"] should allow all headers including Authorization. This is correct.

Expected Behavior After Fix

1. Frontend adds token → [apiClient] ✅ Added auth token to request
2. Backend receives header → auth_header_received=YES
3. HTTPBearer extracts it → Request succeeds
   • OR Manual extraction kicks in → ✅ Manual token extraction successful

If Manual Extraction Works

If manual extraction works but HTTPBearer doesn't, it suggests a bug in FastAPI's HTTPBearer dependency. The manual fallback will handle this, but we should investigate why HTTPBearer isn't working.

Possible causes:

• FastAPI version incompatibility
• HTTPBearer configuration issue (auto_error=False might be causing issues)
• Case sensitivity in header name (HTTPBearer expects lowercase authorization)

Status: ⚠️ PENDING BACKEND RESTART

The fixes are in place, but need backend restart to see the enhanced logging and manual extraction in action.