Troubleshooting · Cline
Cline API Request Failed — Diagnosing the Real Error
Cline's API Request Failed banner is a wrapper around the provider's response. How to read the status and error.type underneath and route yourself to the actual fix.
What you see
API Request FailedWhy it happens
- The banner is generic: Cline shows it for any failed provider call. The diagnosis is the status code and error body underneath, not the banner text.
- 401 underneath — key/endpoint mismatch or a revoked key.
- 429 underneath — the key's per-minute budget, amplified by Cline's automatic retries.
- 400 with a context message underneath — the conversation plus max_tokens no longer fits the model's window.
How to fix it
- Expand the error and read the JSON body. Every body maps to a specific page: 401 to the invalid-key fix, 429 to the rate-limit fix, context 400 to the context-limit fix.
- If the body is a connection failure rather than JSON, treat it as a network/base-URL problem and verify the endpoint with curl.
- Do not toggle unrelated settings on repeat failures — reproduce outside Cline first, then change exactly one thing.
Related searches
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FAQ
What does API Request Failed actually mean in Cline?+
Only that the provider call did not succeed. The real error is the status and body shown with it — read those first.
Cline retries and fails repeatedly — should I keep clicking retry?+
No. For 401 and 400 the same request will fail forever; fix the cause. Retrying only helps transient 429/5xx conditions, and Cline already does that itself.
How do I take Cline out of the equation?+
Send the same request with curl using the base URL and key from Cline's settings. The curl result tells you whether the problem is the setup or the tool.