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Aug 27, 2024 8:13 AM UTC
Question

Problem with 1Password CLI and Service Account

I am trying to use a service account to read secrets from a vault. And it did work for a few tries but now I get the following error message:


[ERROR] 2024/08/26 08:10:39 failed to re-initialize service account session - number of retries (1) exceeds max (1)

And yes that error message is 1 day old.

I have tried to rotate the token and to create a new service account but nothing has changed. I still get the same error.


$ op --version
2.30.0


1Password Version: Not Provided
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: Not Provided
Browser: Not Provided

5 replies

May 30, 2025 1:41 PM UTC

Hi, How did you solve the problem?

Jun 21, 2025 1:32 AM UTC

we hit the same issue using `op inject` in CI/CD pipelines.

for now, we're simply retrying the command a few times with a brief sleep interval. hopefully that covers it.

Jun 27, 2025 6:59 PM UTC

Hi all (@veitsanner , @Reghyna  & @jmader8-xona ),

I was just digging into this and am having trouble reproducing the error. 

Could you provide a bit more context (environment, script, number concurrent 1P actions...)?

Thanks! Phil

Jun 30, 2025 9:02 PM UTC

in my case, we're using Linux. estimate at most 10 concurrent 1Password actions using the same "service account" token across CI jobs. more likely that 10-15 operations would execute in rapid succession.

[jenkins@jenkins-builder-1 ~]$ op --version
2.30.3

 

Sep 17, 2026 2:04 AM UTC

edit: Figured it out immediately. Windows’ clock was out of sync. I think I have windows syncing to a time server at some longish interval. For the record, these error messages are extremely unhelpful.

Click on clock in system tray → Date and Time Settings → Additional Settings → Sync Now

---

I’m hitting this as well, on windows 11 pro, powershell 7.6.6.

I can’t do any `op read ...` successfully, until I wait some number of hours (not sure how long). Then I come back, and suddenly `op read` works again as expected.

Is there some manual way of initializing or kill a service account session? Or maybe this is a networking issue?

op whoami reads this way no matter the cli version:

op whoami

URL: https://my.1password.com
Integration ID: <redacted>
User Type: SERVICE_ACCOUNT

These versions are installed with mise:

op --version

2.30.3


op read "op://homelab/authorized_keys/text" --debug

3:56PM | DEBUG | Skipped loading desktop app settings file. The desktop app might not be installed: read file: CreateFile C:\Users\chris\AppData\Local\1Password\settings\settings.json: The system cannot find the path specified.
[ERROR] 2026/09/16 15:56:31 could not read secret 'op://homelab/authorized_keys/text': error initializing client: failed to re-initialize service account session - number of retries (1) exceeds max (1)
op --version

2.39.0


op read "op://homelab/authorized_keys/text" --debug
3:59PM | DEBUG | running op read
3:59PM | DEBUG | Skipped loading desktop app settings file. The desktop app might not be installed: read file: GetFileAttributesEx C:\Users\chris\AppData\Local\1Password\settings\settings.json: The system cannot find the path specified.
3:59PM | DEBUG | server request data_source=network dur=203ms method=GET path=/api/v2/overview retry=false
3:59PM | DEBUG | server request data_source=network dur=89ms method=POST path=/api/v3/auth/start retry=false
3:59PM | DEBUG | server request data_source=network dur=79ms method=POST path=/api/v1/auth retry=false
3:59PM | DEBUG | server request data_source=network dur=93ms method=POST path=/api/v2/auth/verify retry=false
3:59PM | DEBUG | server request data_source=network dur=79ms method=GET path=/api/v2/account/keysets retry=false
3:59PM | DEBUG | server request data_source=network dur=60ms method=GET path=/api/v2/overview retry=false
3:59PM | DEBUG | server request data_source=network dur=52ms method=GET path=/api/v2/account/keysets retry=false
3:59PM | DEBUG | server request data_source=network dur=75ms method=POST path=/api/v3/auth/start retry=false
3:59PM | DEBUG | server request data_source=network dur=79ms method=POST path=/api/v1/auth retry=false
3:59PM | DEBUG | server request data_source=network dur=102ms method=POST path=/api/v2/auth/verify retry=false
3:59PM | DEBUG | server request data_source=network dur=71ms method=GET path=/api/v2/account/keysets retry=false
3:59PM | DEBUG | server request data_source=network dur=52ms method=GET path=/api/v2/account/keysets retry=false
[ERROR] 2026/09/16 15:59:32 could not read secret 'op://homelab/authorized_keys/text': error initializing client: Authorization: (401) (Unauthorized), You aren't authorized to perform this action.
3:59PM | DEBUG | server requests complete requests=12 total_request_time=1033ms
3:59PM | DEBUG | command complete total_command_time=1065ms

This version installed with scoop:

op --version
2.39.0


op read "op://homelab/authorized_keys/text" --debug
4:01PM | DEBUG | running op read
4:01PM | DEBUG | Skipped loading desktop app settings file. The desktop app might not be installed: read file: GetFileAttributesEx C:\Users\chris\AppData\Local\1Password\settings\settings.json: The system cannot find the path specified.
4:01PM | DEBUG | server request data_source=network dur=217ms method=GET path=/api/v2/overview retry=false
4:01PM | DEBUG | server request data_source=network dur=81ms method=POST path=/api/v3/auth/start retry=false
4:01PM | DEBUG | server request data_source=network dur=79ms method=POST path=/api/v1/auth retry=false
4:01PM | DEBUG | server request data_source=network dur=132ms method=POST path=/api/v2/auth/verify retry=false
4:01PM | DEBUG | server request data_source=network dur=80ms method=GET path=/api/v2/account/keysets retry=false
4:01PM | DEBUG | server request data_source=network dur=58ms method=GET path=/api/v2/overview retry=false
4:01PM | DEBUG | server request data_source=network dur=56ms method=GET path=/api/v2/account/keysets retry=false
4:01PM | DEBUG | server request data_source=network dur=83ms method=POST path=/api/v3/auth/start retry=false
4:01PM | DEBUG | server request data_source=network dur=55ms method=POST path=/api/v1/auth retry=false
4:01PM | DEBUG | server request data_source=network dur=120ms method=POST path=/api/v2/auth/verify retry=false
4:01PM | DEBUG | server request data_source=network dur=78ms method=GET path=/api/v2/account/keysets retry=false
4:01PM | DEBUG | server request data_source=network dur=50ms method=GET path=/api/v2/account/keysets retry=false
[ERROR] 2026/09/16 16:01:42 could not read secret 'op://homelab/authorized_keys/text': error initializing client: Authorization: (401) (Unauthorized), You aren't authorized to perform this action.
4:01PM | DEBUG | server requests complete requests=12 total_request_time=1089ms
4:01PM | DEBUG | command complete total_command_time=1120ms