[Bug]: Unable to login to existing user with PNPM 11

Author: SchleuseCreated May 22, 2026Updated Jul 8, 2026

Labelsissue_needs_triageissue: work-around available

What happened?

I'm trying to login to existing verdaccio user with pnpm 11, but instead of authenticating me, verdaccio / pnpm tries to create a new user, which fails because the user already exists.

The user I'm trying to login to was initially created the same way (pnpm login --registry https://verdaccio.XXXXXX.de/). The initial login/registration worked fine, but login attempts after that fail. I'm using htpasswd authentication.

I suspect it has something to do with changes pnpm made in version 11, where a lot of commands are now directly handled by pnpm instead of forwarding it to npm - PNPM 11 Changelog

Version

6.x (Stable)

Version details

6.7.1

Output server log info

bash

verdaccio  | info <-- 10.0.1.18 requested 'POST /-/v1/login'
verdaccio  | http <-- 200, user: null(10.0.1.17 via 10.0.1.18), req: 'POST /-/v1/login', bytes: 2/0
verdaccio  | http <-- 404, user: null(10.0.1.17 via 10.0.1.18), req: 'POST /-/v1/login', bytes: 2/150
verdaccio  | info <-- 10.0.1.18 requested 'PUT /-/user/org.couchdb.user:XXXXXX'
verdaccio  | http <-- 200, user: null(10.0.1.17 via 10.0.1.18), req: 'PUT /-/user/org.couchdb.user:XXXXXX', bytes: 122/0
verdaccio  | http <-- 409, user: null(10.0.1.17 via 10.0.1.18), req: 'PUT /-/user/org.couchdb.user:XXXXXX', error: username is already registered
verdaccio  | info <-- 10.0.1.18 requested 'PUT /-/user/org.couchdb.user:XXXXXX'
verdaccio  | http <-- 200, user: null(10.0.1.17 via 10.0.1.18), req: 'PUT /-/user/org.couchdb.user:XXXXXX', bytes: 122/0
verdaccio  | http <-- 409, user: null(10.0.1.17 via 10.0.1.18), req: 'PUT /-/user/org.couchdb.user:XXXXXX', error: username is already registered
verdaccio  | info <-- 10.0.1.18 requested 'PUT /-/user/org.couchdb.user:XXXXXX'
verdaccio  | http <-- 200, user: null(10.0.1.17 via 10.0.1.18), req: 'PUT /-/user/org.couchdb.user:XXXXXX', bytes: 122/0
verdaccio  | http <-- 409, user: null(10.0.1.17 via 10.0.1.18), req: 'PUT /-/user/org.couchdb.user:XXXXXX', error: username is already registered

Node.js Version

24.x.x (LTS)

Package manager

pnpm

Operating system

linux

Using reverse proxy

I am using a reverse proxy

Relevant log output

bash

pnpm login --registry https://verdaccio.XXXXXX.de/
✔ Username: · XXXXXX
✔ Password: · *******************
✔ Email (this IS public): · XXXXXX
[WARN] PUT https://verdaccio.XXXXXX.de/-/user/org.couchdb.user:XXXXXX error (409). Will retry in 10 seconds. 2 retries left.
[WARN] PUT https://verdaccio.XXXXXX.de/-/user/org.couchdb.user:XXXXXX error (409). Will retry in 1 minute. 1 retries left.
[ERR_PNPM_LOGIN_FAILED] Login failed (HTTP 409): {
  "error": "username is already registered"
}

Have I checked other issues?

I have searched existing issues

Source: verdaccio/verdaccio

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