Deploy failing with "registry.depot.dev 401 Unauthorized" — likely Docker Hub anonymous-pull rate limit

[coachlensllc]

Provide environment information

  System:
    OS: Windows 11 10.0.26200
    CPU: (16) x64 Intel(R) Core(TM) Ultra 9 285H
    Memory: 36.55 GB / 63.46 GB
  Binaries:
    Node: 24.15.0 - C:\Program Files\nodejs\node.EXE
    npm: 11.12.1 - C:\Program Files\nodejs\npm.CMD

Describe the bug

This has occurred on 6+ deploy attempts across May 23-24, 2026. Trigger.dev's official status page shows all systems operational throughout this window.

Likely Root Cause

The error references registry.depot.dev attempting to fetch an anonymous token and receiving 401. This is consistent with Docker Hub's pull rate limit changes that took effect April 1, 2025 (see https://docs.docker.com/docker-hub/usage/pulls/), which cap unauthenticated container pulls at 100 per 6-hour window per IPv4 address or IPv6 /64 subnet.

Container build services that share IP ranges across many customers (such as Depot.dev, which Trigger.dev appears to use for worker image builds) hit these limits during peak usage. When Docker Hub's rate limit triggers, anonymous token issuance fails, which surfaces as a 401 at the Depot layer.

Suggested Fix

Authenticate Depot's Docker Hub pulls using a Docker Hub Pro, Team, or Business account (unlimited pulls) rather than relying on anonymous tokens. This would resolve the rate-limit exposure for all Trigger.dev customers using the managed deploy flow, not just my account.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Run npx trigger.dev@latest deploy from any project
2. Observe build failure at the Depot push step with the 401 error

Operator-Side Troubleshooting Attempted

All of the following were attempted with no resolution, consistent with this being an upstream Docker Hub rate limit issue rather than account or auth state:

• CLI version match and upgrade to latest
• Fresh logout / login cycle
• Account upgrade to paid tier
• Fresh API key generation
• Deploy attempts at multiple times of day across two consecutive days

Production Impact

My worker continues running pre-deploy code from April 30, 2026. No production regression because defaults preserve current behavior, but new platform features that depend on worker pickup are blocked from activation. Customer-facing implications next week if this is not resolved.

Account Reference

Trigger.dev Cloud (cloud.trigger.dev), paid tier. Happy to provide account email and project ID privately if helpful.

Reproduction repo

N/A — infrastructure-layer failure. The deploy pipeline fails before user code is bundled or pushed, so no project-specific reproduction repo applies. Any Trigger.dev project attempting deploy during the affected window will exhibit the same failure at the Depot push step.

To reproduce

1. From any Trigger.dev project directory, run: npx trigger.dev@latest deploy
2. Observe build failure during the Depot push step with error:
   failed to push registry.depot.dev to fetch anonymous token unexpected status 401 Unauthorized
   The failure occurs before user code is bundled or pushed, so the specific project content does not affect reproduction. Failure rate during the affected window (May 23-24, 2026): approximately 100% across 6+ attempts at different times of day on different days.

Project being deployed: standard Trigger.dev v3 setup with five tasks (daily-cleanup, generate-recap, send-reminder, weekly-executive-digest, weekly-rvp-digest). Production environment. No unusual configuration. Prior deploys from this project succeeded on April 30, 2026 — the worker currently running production was deployed then.

Additional information

Supporting evidence for the Docker Hub rate limit diagnosis:

• Trigger.dev's official status page (https://status.trigger.dev/) showed "All Systems Operational" throughout the affected window. This suggests the issue is not a known Trigger.dev infrastructure incident.

• Depot.dev's own troubleshooting documentation (https://depot.dev/docs/container-builds/troubleshooting) describes 401 errors from registry.depot.dev as typically indicating Docker Hub anonymous-pull rate limiting.

• Docker Hub's pull rate limit changes (effective April 1, 2025) cap unauthenticated pulls at 100 per 6-hour window per IPv4 address or IPv6 /64 subnet: https://docs.docker.com/docker-hub/usage/pulls/

• The CI/CD industry has been adapting to these limits over the past year (see GitLab, Bitbucket, and Sonatype Nexus all publishing guidance on the same issue) but the impact on container build services like Depot.dev that pull anonymously appears to still be active.

No customer-facing production regression at this time — my worker runs prior code from the April 30, 2026 deploy and platform defaults preserve current behavior. However, new platform features that require worker pickup (added in PRs over the past two weeks) are blocked from activation until deploy succeeds.

[saieswar237]

I can pick this up! My implementation plan is to update the Depot build configuration to pass authenticated Docker Hub credentials (via secrets/environment variables) instead of relying on unauthenticated pulls, which will resolve the 429/401 rate-limit errors.