# Objective

- On every startup (and whenever the agent panel initializes), Zed
authenticates all visible language model providers in the background to
populate the model selector. For every other credential-based provider,
"not signed in yet" is reported as
`AuthenticateError::CredentialsNotFound`, which is explicitly treated as
expected and not logged. The ChatGPT Subscription provider instead
returned a generic `anyhow` error, so it logged an `ERROR [agent] Failed
to authenticate provider: ChatGPT Subscription: ...` on every launch,
even for users who have never configured or used it.
- Fixes #60237


> **AI disclosure:** I used Claude (Anthropic) to investigate this
error, write the fix, and draft this PR description, based on a `Failed
to authenticate provider: ChatGPT Subscription` line I noticed in my own
Zed logs. I reviewed the diff and the reasoning below, ran the tests
myself, and understand and take responsibility for the change, per Zed's
[AI
Policy](https://github.com/zed-industries/zed/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md#ai-policy).

## Solution

- `OpenAiSubscribedProvider::authenticate` now returns
`AuthenticateError::CredentialsNotFound` (instead of a generic
`anyhow!(...)` wrapped into `AuthenticateError::Other`) when no ChatGPT
credentials are found after the initial load, matching how every sibling
provider (e.g. Anthropic's `ApiKeyState::load_if_needed`) signals "not
configured."
- The user-facing sign-in prompt in the settings UI
(`SUBSCRIPTION_DESCRIPTION`) is unchanged — this only affects the
background authentication sweep's error handling, not what the user sees
when opening provider settings.

## Testing

- `cargo test -p language_models -p openai_subscribed` — all 108 tests
pass, including
`provider::openai_subscribed::tests::test_authenticate_awaits_initial_load`,
which exercises this exact code path.
- `cargo check -p language_models` — compiles cleanly.
- Manually confirmed the log line no longer appears when starting Zed
without ChatGPT Subscription configured.

## Self-Review Checklist:

- [x] I've reviewed my own diff for quality, security, and reliability
- [ ] Unsafe blocks (if any) have justifying comments
- [x] The content adheres to Zed's UI standards
([UX/UI](https://github.com/zed-industries/zed/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md#uiux-checklist)
and
[icon](https://github.com/zed-industries/zed/blob/main/crates/icons/README.md)
guidelines)
- [ ] Tests cover the new/changed behavior
- [x] Performance impact has been considered and is acceptable

## Showcase

Before (this fix): startup log ends with a spurious `ERROR` even though
ChatGPT Subscription was never configured.

```
2026-07-30T21:37:46+05:30 INFO  [zed] ========== starting zed version 1.15.0+dev.b90735ff317b83c4ec62ab3d73dd5385bbe1624d, sha b90735f ==========
2026-07-30T21:37:48+05:30 WARN  [zed::reliability::hang_detection] debug build, only reporting hangs longer then 5s
2026-07-30T21:37:48+05:30 WARN  [zed::reliability] Minidump endpoint not set
2026-07-30T21:37:48+05:30 INFO  [zed::reliability] memory usage: resident 98 MiB, virtual 426367 MiB
2026-07-30T21:37:48+05:30 INFO  [extension_host] extensions updated. loading 2, reloading 0, unloading 0
2026-07-30T21:37:48+05:30 INFO  [prompt_store::rules_to_skills_migration] Rules-to-skills migration already marked done; skipping startup migration
2026-07-30T21:37:49+05:30 INFO  [zed::reliability] worktree diagnostics: stores 0, slots 0, live 0, visible 0, strong 0, dead weak 0, loading 0, entries 0, visible entries 0, largest none
2026-07-30T21:37:49+05:30 INFO  [workspace] Rendered first frame
2026-07-30T21:37:50+05:30 ERROR [agent] Failed to authenticate provider: ChatGPT Subscription: Sign in with your ChatGPT Plus or Pro subscription to use this provider.
```

After this fix: the same startup sequence completes with no `ERROR`
line.

```
2026-07-30T22:11:38+05:30 INFO  [zed] ========== starting zed version 1.15.0+dev.a8491e63b54bf1881e10fe78bb3e7b1f8a5a2cac, sha a8491e6 ==========
2026-07-30T22:11:38+05:30 WARN  [zed::reliability::hang_detection] debug build, only reporting hangs longer then 5s
2026-07-30T22:11:38+05:30 WARN  [zed::reliability] Minidump endpoint not set
2026-07-30T22:11:38+05:30 INFO  [zed::reliability] memory usage: resident 104 MiB, virtual 426360 MiB
2026-07-30T22:11:38+05:30 INFO  [extension_host] extensions updated. loading 2, reloading 0, unloading 0
2026-07-30T22:11:39+05:30 INFO  [prompt_store::rules_to_skills_migration] Rules-to-skills migration already marked done; skipping startup migration
2026-07-30T22:11:39+05:30 INFO  [zed::reliability] worktree diagnostics: stores 0, slots 0, live 0, visible 0, strong 0, dead weak 0, loading 0, entries 0, visible entries 0, largest none
2026-07-30T22:11:39+05:30 INFO  [workspace] Rendered first frame
2026-07-30T22:11:40+05:30 INFO  [git::repository] opening git repository at ".../zed/.git" using git binary "/usr/bin/git"
```

Release Notes:

- Fixed a noisy "Failed to authenticate provider: ChatGPT Subscription"
error being logged on every startup for users who have not configured
the ChatGPT Subscription provider

Co-authored-by: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>