diff --git a/static/app/components/pipeline/index.stories.tsx b/static/app/components/pipeline/index.stories.tsx
index fe4ce271b316b0..01ac6b1553f0df 100644
--- a/static/app/components/pipeline/index.stories.tsx
+++ b/static/app/components/pipeline/index.stories.tsx
@@ -112,7 +112,7 @@ function PipelineRunner({
         </Flex>
       </Container>
 
-      {pipeline.error && <Text variant="muted">Error: {pipeline.error.message}</Text>}
+      {pipeline.error && <Text variant="muted">Error: {pipeline.error}</Text>}
 
       {pipeline.view}
 
diff --git a/static/app/components/pipeline/modal.tsx b/static/app/components/pipeline/modal.tsx
index 84140a6f65a316..1237c9ce2f6a79 100644
--- a/static/app/components/pipeline/modal.tsx
+++ b/static/app/components/pipeline/modal.tsx
@@ -114,7 +114,7 @@ function PipelineModal<
                 <Alert.Button onClick={pipeline.restart}>{t('Start over')}</Alert.Button>
               }
             >
-              {pipeline.error.message}
+              {pipeline.error}
             </Alert>
           )}
           {pipeline.view}
diff --git a/static/app/components/pipeline/pipelineIntegrationGitLab.tsx b/static/app/components/pipeline/pipelineIntegrationGitLab.tsx
index 543d60a141f594..075075c4b3d4b5 100644
--- a/static/app/components/pipeline/pipelineIntegrationGitLab.tsx
+++ b/static/app/components/pipeline/pipelineIntegrationGitLab.tsx
@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
-import {useCallback} from 'react';
+import {useCallback, useEffect} from 'react';
 import {z} from 'zod';
 
 import {CodeBlock} from '@sentry/scraps/code';
-import {defaultFormOptions, useScrapsForm} from '@sentry/scraps/form';
+import {defaultFormOptions, setFieldErrors, useScrapsForm} from '@sentry/scraps/form';
 import {Flex, Stack} from '@sentry/scraps/layout';
 import {Text} from '@sentry/scraps/text';
 
@@ -50,6 +50,7 @@ interface InstallationConfigAdvanceData {
 function InstallationConfigStep({
   stepData,
   advance,
+  advanceError,
   isAdvancing,
 }: PipelineStepProps<InstallationConfigStepData, InstallationConfigAdvanceData>) {
   const defaults = stepData.defaults ?? {};
@@ -79,6 +80,12 @@ function InstallationConfigStep({
     },
   });
 
+  useEffect(() => {
+    if (advanceError) {
+      setFieldErrors(form, advanceError);
+    }
+  }, [advanceError, form]);
+
   const configForm = (
     <form.AppForm form={form}>
       <Stack gap="lg">
diff --git a/static/app/components/pipeline/types.tsx b/static/app/components/pipeline/types.tsx
index 46cdb6f327d570..a12cc0e050e071 100644
--- a/static/app/components/pipeline/types.tsx
+++ b/static/app/components/pipeline/types.tsx
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+import {RequestError} from 'sentry/utils/requestError/requestError';
+
 const PIPELINE_NAME_MAP = {
   integration: 'integration_pipeline',
   identity: 'identity_provider',
@@ -81,7 +83,7 @@ export interface PipelineStepProps<
   A = Record<string, unknown>,
 > {
   advance: (data?: A) => void;
-  advanceError: Error | null;
+  advanceError: RequestError | null;
   isAdvancing: boolean;
   stepData: D;
   stepIndex: number;
@@ -127,7 +129,7 @@ export interface PipelineAdvanceResponse {
 export interface ApiPipeline<C = Record<string, unknown>> {
   completionData: C | null;
   definition: PipelineDefinition;
-  error: Error | null;
+  error: string | null;
   isAdvancing: boolean;
   isComplete: boolean;
   isInitializing: boolean;
diff --git a/static/app/components/pipeline/usePipeline.spec.tsx b/static/app/components/pipeline/usePipeline.spec.tsx
index e4aea329006d46..6ff170f7689fe5 100644
--- a/static/app/components/pipeline/usePipeline.spec.tsx
+++ b/static/app/components/pipeline/usePipeline.spec.tsx
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ function TestHarness({onComplete}: {onComplete?: (data: any) => void} = {}) {
       <div data-test-id="is-initializing">{String(pipeline.isInitializing)}</div>
       <div data-test-id="is-advancing">{String(pipeline.isAdvancing)}</div>
       <div data-test-id="is-complete">{String(pipeline.isComplete)}</div>
-      <div data-test-id="error">{pipeline.error?.message ?? 'none'}</div>
+      <div data-test-id="error">{pipeline.error ?? 'none'}</div>
       <div data-test-id="completion-data">
         {pipeline.completionData ? JSON.stringify(pipeline.completionData) : 'none'}
       </div>
diff --git a/static/app/components/pipeline/usePipeline.tsx b/static/app/components/pipeline/usePipeline.tsx
index d6a5a0e868b710..cb7be1e66bdd04 100644
--- a/static/app/components/pipeline/usePipeline.tsx
+++ b/static/app/components/pipeline/usePipeline.tsx
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 import {useCallback, useEffect, useMemo, useRef, useState} from 'react';
 
+import {t} from 'sentry/locale';
 import {fetchMutation, useMutation} from 'sentry/utils/queryClient';
+import {RequestError} from 'sentry/utils/requestError/requestError';
 import {useOrganization} from 'sentry/utils/useOrganization';
 
 import {getPipelineDefinition} from './registry';
@@ -139,7 +141,7 @@ export function usePipeline<
     reset: resetAdvance,
   } = useMutation<
     PipelineAdvanceResponse,
-    Error,
+    RequestError,
     Record<string, unknown>,
     {generation: number}
   >({
@@ -205,11 +207,24 @@ export function usePipeline<
           break;
       }
     },
-    onError: (error: Error, _variables, context) => {
+    onError: (error: RequestError, _variables, context) => {
       if (context?.generation !== generationRef.current) {
         return;
       }
-      setState({status: 'error', error});
+      // 404 means the pipeline session expired — unrecoverable.
+      if (error.status === 404) {
+        setState({
+          status: 'error',
+          error: new Error(t('This flow has expired. Please start over.')),
+        });
+        return;
+      }
+      // Other 4xx errors are recoverable (e.g. validation failures) and are
+      // surfaced via advanceError. Only transition to the error state for
+      // 5xx or unknown errors which are unrecoverable.
+      if (!error.status || error.status >= 500) {
+        setState({status: 'error', error});
+      }
     },
   });
 
@@ -292,10 +307,26 @@ export function usePipeline<
       ? {stepIndex: state.stepInfo.stepIndex, totalSteps: state.stepInfo.totalSteps}
       : {stepIndex: 0, totalSteps: definition.steps.length};
 
-  const error =
-    state.status === 'error'
-      ? state.error
-      : (advanceError ?? initializeRest.error ?? null);
+  // Pipeline-level error displayed by the modal as a full-width alert with a
+  // "Start over" button. When state.status is 'error', the pipeline has hit an
+  // unrecoverable failure (backend PipelineStepResult.error() response, expired
+  // session, or 5xx). Otherwise falls back to initialization errors or
+  // advanceError — but only when it carries a `detail` message (a non-field
+  // error). Field-level validation errors from advanceError are handled by step
+  // components via setFieldErrors() and don't surface here.
+  const advanceDetailError =
+    advanceError && typeof (advanceError.responseJSON as any)?.detail === 'string'
+      ? ((advanceError.responseJSON as any).detail as string)
+      : null;
+
+  const rawError =
+    state.status === 'error' ? state.error : (initializeRest.error ?? null);
+
+  const error = rawError
+    ? ((rawError instanceof RequestError
+        ? ((rawError.responseJSON as any)?.detail as string | undefined)
+        : undefined) ?? rawError.message)
+    : advanceDetailError;
 
   const completionData = state.status === 'complete' ? state.data : null;