[Bug]: Can't login despite setting password

[markg85]

Check for existing issues

• I have searched the existing issues and checked that my issue is not a duplicate.

What happened?

I am setting the environment variables for the password but the UI simply doesn't allow me to login. Not with admin not with sk-1234 not with anything.

I'm using whatever it is that's in the docker image (ghcr.io/berriai/litellm:main-stable)

As an aside, please provide an option to not have a login at all. I get it from a security point of view, fine. But i'm running this is a local environment on a local pc. It really makes no sense to have a login in that case. Which i'd argue is a high percentage of your users too.

Steps to Reproduce

My docker-compose:

services:
  litellm:
    image: ghcr.io/berriai/litellm:main-stable
    container_name: litellm
    ports:
      - '4400:4000'
    dns:  # ← Add explicit DNS servers
      - 8.8.8.8
      - 1.1.1.1
    env_file:
      - .env
    environment:
      - DEEPINFRA_API_KEY=${DEEPINFRA_API_KEY}
      - LITELLM_MASTER_KEY=sk-1234
      - MASTER_KEY=admin
      - LITELLM_LOG=INFO
      - UI_USERNAME=admin
      - UI_PASSWORD=admin
    volumes:
      - ./config.yaml:/app/config.yaml:ro
    command: ['--config', '/app/config.yaml', '--port', '4000']

Relevant log output

litellm  | 14:31:10 - LiteLLM Proxy:ERROR: internal_user_endpoints.py:1094 - litellm.proxy.proxy_server.user_update(): Exception occured - Not connected to DB!
litellm  | Traceback (most recent call last):
litellm  |   File "/usr/lib/python3.13/site-packages/litellm/proxy/management_endpoints/internal_user_endpoints.py", line 1088, in user_update
litellm  |     response = await _update_single_user_helper(
litellm  |                ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
litellm  |     ...<2 lines>...
litellm  |     )
litellm  |     ^
litellm  |   File "/usr/lib/python3.13/site-packages/litellm/proxy/management_endpoints/internal_user_endpoints.py", line 880, in _update_single_user_helper
litellm  |     raise Exception("Not connected to DB!")
litellm  | Exception: Not connected to DB!
litellm  | 14:31:10 - LiteLLM Proxy:ERROR: proxy_server.py:10388 - litellm.proxy.proxy_server.login_v2(): Exception occurred -
litellm  | Traceback (most recent call last):
litellm  |   File "/usr/lib/python3.13/site-packages/litellm/proxy/management_endpoints/internal_user_endpoints.py", line 1088, in user_update
litellm  |     response = await _update_single_user_helper(
litellm  |                ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
litellm  |     ...<2 lines>...
litellm  |     )
litellm  |     ^
litellm  |   File "/usr/lib/python3.13/site-packages/litellm/proxy/management_endpoints/internal_user_endpoints.py", line 880, in _update_single_user_helper
litellm  |     raise Exception("Not connected to DB!")
litellm  | Exception: Not connected to DB!
litellm  |
litellm  | During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:
litellm  |
litellm  | Traceback (most recent call last):
litellm  |   File "/usr/lib/python3.13/site-packages/litellm/proxy/proxy_server.py", line 10353, in login_v2
litellm  |     login_result = await authenticate_user(
litellm  |                    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
litellm  |     ...<4 lines>...
litellm  |     )
litellm  |     ^
litellm  |   File "/usr/lib/python3.13/site-packages/litellm/proxy/auth/login_utils.py", line 166, in authenticate_user
litellm  |     await user_update(
litellm  |     ...<7 lines>...
litellm  |     )
litellm  |   File "/usr/lib/python3.13/site-packages/litellm/proxy/management_helpers/utils.py", line 455, in wrapper
litellm  |     raise e
litellm  |   File "/usr/lib/python3.13/site-packages/litellm/proxy/management_helpers/utils.py", line 371, in wrapper
litellm  |     result = await func(*args, **kwargs)
litellm  |              ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
litellm  |   File "/usr/lib/python3.13/site-packages/litellm/proxy/management_endpoints/internal_user_endpoints.py", line 1109, in user_update
litellm  |     raise ProxyException(
litellm  |     ...<4 lines>...
litellm  |     )
litellm  | litellm.proxy._types.ProxyException
litellm  | INFO:     10.0.3.163:47046 - "POST /v2/login HTTP/1.1" 400 Bad Request
litellm  | 14:31:22 - LiteLLM Proxy:ERROR: proxy_server.py:10388 - litellm.proxy.proxy_server.login_v2(): Exception occurred -
litellm  | Traceback (most recent call last):
litellm  |   File "/usr/lib/python3.13/site-packages/litellm/proxy/proxy_server.py", line 10353, in login_v2
litellm  |     login_result = await authenticate_user(
litellm  |                    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
litellm  |     ...<4 lines>...
litellm  |     )
litellm  |     ^
litellm  |   File "/usr/lib/python3.13/site-packages/litellm/proxy/auth/login_utils.py", line 302, in authenticate_user
litellm  |     raise ProxyException(
litellm  |     ...<4 lines>...
litellm  |     )
litellm  | litellm.proxy._types.ProxyException

What part of LiteLLM is this about?

UI Dashboard

What LiteLLM version are you on ?

vx.x.xxx (The UI doesn't say, the logging doesn't say, the pull doesn't say.. How am i even supposed to know if nothing tells me it's version. Probably the latest at the time of this posting.

Twitter / LinkedIn details

No response

[markg85]

Hmm, i might have already found a cause (the log does say it too). A database.
Now i followed this guide: https://medium.com/the-guy-wire/make-all-your-llms-openai-compatible-with-docker-litellm-337a73b9b79d which had no such requirement. It's from december 2025 (~4 months ago)

But i see the current litellm requires postgresql. That's quite some nerve to still call this "lite" as this definitely isn't lite anymore.

Can we please just have a lite version that just proxies a model without all the fuzz?

[srikrishp]

Hi! I'd like to work on this issue.

It seems the login flow requires a database connection even when
UI_USERNAME and UI_PASSWORD environment variables are provided.I will try implementing a fallback authentication mechanism

[jerkstorecaller]

Wait, this is the issue? What a misleading error message! I wasted almost an hour trying to troubleshoot this and then preparing a bug report.

@ishaan-berri please, error messages should be "The web UI feature requires a deployment database, refer to our repo's docker-compose.yml" not this generic "Not connected to DB" that seems to be used for literally everything including unset master keys.

[S4GU4R0]

yeah nothing works. kind of annoying to be forced to login for a local setup.

[maxzhang2017]

I used docker compose t o deploy and can log in.

docker-compose.yml

  litellm:
    build:
      context: .
      args:
        target: runtime
    image: docker.litellm.ai/berriai/litellm:main-stable
    #########################################
    ## Uncomment these lines to start proxy with a config.yaml file ##
    volumes:
      - ./config.yaml:/app/config.yaml
    command:
      - "--config=/app/config.yaml"
    ##############################################
    ports:
      - "4000:4000" # Map the container port to the host, change the host port if necessary
    environment:
      DATABASE_URL: "postgresql://llmproxy:dbpassword9090@db:5432/litellm"
      # Optional: route read-only queries (find_*, count, group_by, query_raw/_first)
      # to a separate reader endpoint, e.g. an Aurora reader. Leave unset for
      # single-DB deployments. With IAM_TOKEN_DB_AUTH enabled, the reader URL
      # is auto-refreshed alongside the writer.
      # DATABASE_URL_READ_REPLICA: "postgresql://llmproxy:dbpassword9090@db-reader:5432/litellm"
      STORE_MODEL_IN_DB: "True" # allows adding models to proxy via UI
    env_file:
      - .env # Load local .env file
    depends_on:
      - db  # Indicates that this service depends on the 'db' service, ensuring 'db' starts first
    healthcheck:  # Defines the health check configuration for the container
      test:
        - CMD-SHELL
        - python3 -c "import urllib.request; urllib.request.urlopen('http://localhost:4000/health/liveliness')"  # Command to execute for health check
      interval: 60s  # Perform health check every 30 seconds
      timeout: 10s   # Health check command times out after 10 seconds
      retries: 30     # Retry up to 3 times if health check fails
      start_period: 40s  # Wait 40 seconds after container start before beginning health checks

  db:
    image: jfrog.foxitsoftware.com/docker-hub-proxy/postgres:16
    restart: always
    container_name: litellm_db
    environment:
      POSTGRES_DB: litellm
      POSTGRES_USER: llmproxy
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: dbpassword9090
    ports:
      - "5432:5432"
    volumes:
      - postgres_data:/var/lib/postgresql/data # Persists Postgres data across container restarts
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "pg_isready -d litellm -U llmproxy"]
      interval: 1s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 10
volumes:
  prometheus_data:
    driver: local
  postgres_data:
    name: litellm_postgres_data # Named volume for Postgres data persistence

.env

LITELLM_MASTER_KEY="sk-1234"
LITELLM_SALT_KEY="sk-1234"

config.yaml

general_settings:
  master_key: sk-1234 # 🔑 your proxy admin key (must start with sk-)
  database_url: "postgresql://llmproxy:dbpassword9090@db:5432/litellm"

[github-actions]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs.

[cnf]

So i'm not sure now... is a database a requirement? or is this an active bug? it getting marked as stale is rather confusing.

[cnf]

to answer my own question, i see a pr to fix it has already been accepted and closed.
lack of sleep is no bueno ^^;