@azure/identity error output doesn't show you the real error but gives you some nebulous message.

• Package Name: @azure/identity
• Package Version: 2.0.4
• Operating system: Debian
• nodejs
  • version: v17.8.0
• browser
  • name/version:
• typescript
  • version:
• Is the bug related to documentation in
  • README.md
  • source code documentation
  • SDK API docs on https://docs.microsoft.com

Describe the bug Running credential.getToken("https://database.windows.net/.default"); using the CLI path gets unhelpful error messages while the real error isn’t reflected. This is what I get:

/root/app/node_modules/@azure/identity/dist/index.js:1572
            const error = new Error(err.message || "Unknown error while trying to retrieve the access token");
                          ^

Error: Please run 'az login' from a command prompt to authenticate before using this credential.
    at AzureCliCredential.getToken (/root/app/node_modules/@azure/identity/dist/index.js:1572:27)
    at processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:96:5)
    at async DefaultAzureCredential.getToken (/root/app/node_modules/@azure/identity/dist/index.js:1401:25)
    at async /root/app/app.js:18:25

When I went into /node_modules/@azure/identity/dist/index.js to manually output to console the entire output object from const obj = await cliCredentialInternals.getAzureCliAccessToken(resource, tenantId); (line 1542), I get this:

{
  stdout: '',
  stderr: "ERROR: AADSTS50005: User tried to log in to a device from a platform (Unknown) that's currently not supported through Conditional Access policy. Supported device platforms are: iOS, Android, Mac, and Windows flavors.\r\n" +
    'Trace ID: bb1647d8-1ddc-4f2c-a41b-7c5527f21000\r\n' +
    'Correlation ID: 83b46477-c9bf-4548-aade-309f072fc59f\r\n' +
    'Timestamp: 2022-03-31 11:12:50Z\n' +
    'To re-authenticate, please run:\n' +
    'az login --scope https://database.windows.net//.default\n',
  error: Error: Command failed: az account get-access-token --output json --resource https://database.windows.net/
  ERROR: AADSTS50005: User tried to log in to a device from a platform (Unknown) that's currently not supported through Conditional Access policy. Supported device platforms are: iOS, Android, Mac, and Windows flavors.
  Trace ID: bb1647d8-1ddc-4f2c-a41b-7c5527f21000
  Correlation ID: 83b46477-c9bf-4548-aade-309f072fc59f
  Timestamp: 2022-03-31 11:12:50Z
  To re-authenticate, please run:
  az login --scope https://database.windows.net//.default
  
      at ChildProcess.exithandler (node:child_process:398:12)
      at ChildProcess.emit (node:events:527:28)
      at maybeClose (node:internal/child_process:1090:16)
      at Process.ChildProcess._handle.onexit (node:internal/child_process:302:5) {
    code: 1,
    killed: false,
    signal: null,
    cmd: 'az account get-access-token --output json --resource https://database.windows.net/'
  }
}
/root/app/node_modules/@azure/identity/dist/index.js:1573
            const error = new Error(err.message || "Unknown error while trying to retrieve the access token");
                          ^

Error: Please run 'az login' from a command prompt to authenticate before using this credential.
    at AzureCliCredential.getToken (/root/app/node_modules/@azure/identity/dist/index.js:1573:27)
    at processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:96:5)
    at async DefaultAzureCredential.getToken (/root/app/node_modules/@azure/identity/dist/index.js:1401:25)
    at async /root/app/app.js:18:25

Expected behavior The actual error should be included in the error output.

Additional context Add any other context about the problem here.

[cephalin]

@sadasant apart from manually inserting logging code into node_modules/@azure/identity/dist/index.js as I mentioned above, all I did was just following the error messages to enroll my device into InTune, etc. Which makes being able to see the error messages all the more important. There were other errors after the AADSTS50005 one, but it was pretty straightforward to fix one after another as long as I could see the error message.

[sadasant]

We have also made an issue to investigate supporting more error messages in the best way we can: https://github.com/Azure/azure-sdk-for-js/issues/21532