401 Error / Cannot retrieve Authorization header - Did Monarch change their auth?

[n-shay]

Container started failing with the error below a week ago.

I only had the time to take a look tonight and my initial thought was the my token expired. I noticed I was logged out of browser session as well (both web app and retail purchace sync chrome extension).

The API calls from the monarch app no longer have Authorization header, it seems like they switched to a session cookie.

Anyone else experiencing the same?

2026-05-15 03:06:29,810 ERROR studentaid_monarch_sync - Wrote debug bundle: data/debug_bundle_cri_20260515_030629.zip
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.10/dist-packages/gql/transport/aiohttp.py", line 273, in _raise_transport_server_error_if_status_more_than_400
    resp.raise_for_status()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.10/dist-packages/aiohttp/client_reqrep.py", line 636, in raise_for_status
    raise ClientResponseError(
aiohttp.client_exceptions.ClientResponseError: 401, message='Unauthorized', url='https://api.monarch.com/graphql'

The above exception was the direct cause of the following exception:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/app/src/studentaid_monarch_sync/cli.py", line 550, in _preflight_monarch
    accounts = await mc.list_accounts()  # forces an authenticated API call
  File "/app/src/studentaid_monarch_sync/monarch/client.py", line 162, in list_accounts
    resp = await self._call_with_retry("get_accounts", lambda: self._mm.get_accounts())
  File "/app/src/studentaid_monarch_sync/monarch/client.py", line 85, in _call_with_retry
    return await fn()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.10/dist-packages/monarchmoney/monarchmoney.py", line 254, in get_accounts
    return await self.gql_call(
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.10/dist-packages/monarchmoney/monarchmoney.py", line 2936, in gql_call
    return await self._get_graphql_client().execute_async(
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.10/dist-packages/gql/client.py", line 352, in execute_async
    return await session.execute(
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.10/dist-packages/gql/client.py", line 1567, in execute
    result = await self._execute(
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.10/dist-packages/gql/client.py", line 1490, in _execute
    result = await self.transport.execute(
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.10/dist-packages/gql/transport/aiohttp.py", line 381, in execute
    return await self._prepare_result(resp)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.10/dist-packages/gql/transport/aiohttp.py", line 322, in _prepare_result
    await self._raise_response_error(
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.10/dist-packages/gql/transport/aiohttp.py", line 286, in _raise_response_error
    cls._raise_transport_server_error_if_status_more_than_400(resp)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.10/dist-packages/gql/transport/aiohttp.py", line 275, in _raise_transport_server_error_if_status_more_than_400
    raise TransportServerError(str(e), e.status) from e
gql.transport.exceptions.TransportServerError: 401, message='Unauthorized', url='https://api.monarch.com/graphql'

The above exception was the direct cause of the following exception:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python3.10/runpy.py", line 196, in _run_module_as_main
    return _run_code(code, main_globals, None,
  File "/usr/lib/python3.10/runpy.py", line 86, in _run_code
    exec(code, run_globals)
  File "/app/src/studentaid_monarch_sync/__main__.py", line 5, in <module>
    raise SystemExit(main())
  File "/app/src/studentaid_monarch_sync/cli.py", line 291, in main
    asyncio.run(_preflight_monarch(cfg, check_mappings=not bool(args.auto_setup_accounts)))
  File "/usr/lib/python3.10/asyncio/runners.py", line 44, in run
    return loop.run_until_complete(main)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.10/asyncio/base_events.py", line 649, in run_until_complete
    return future.result()
  File "/app/src/studentaid_monarch_sync/cli.py", line 565, in _preflight_monarch
    raise RuntimeError(
RuntimeError: Monarch preflight failed. This often means your MONARCH_TOKEN/session is invalid/expired, or your loan account mappings are missing/wrong. Fix Monarch auth (or delete data/monarch_session.pickle), then run `studentaid_monarch_sync setup-monarch-accounts --apply` to auto-create/map accounts.

[jessenebeker]

I'm just trying to get it set up right now and I'm seeing the same problem, so yeah they must have changed it since the readme was written. I found some sort of token (I'm super new to all of this), but it was under a Bearer response header and only on the requests like "auth?s=....".

When I run the "docker compose run --rm --build studentaid-monarch-sync setup-monarch-accounts --apply" command it throws an error:

2026-05-15 14:46:59,689 WARNING studentaid_monarch_sync.monarch.client - Monarch get_accounts failed (attempt 1/3); retrying in 0.25s. (401, message='Unauthorized', url='https://api.monarch.com/graphql')
2026-05-15 14:47:00,201 WARNING studentaid_monarch_sync.monarch.client - Monarch get_accounts failed (attempt 2/3); retrying in 0.50s. (401, message='Unauthorized', url='https://api.monarch.com/graphql')
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.10/dist-packages/gql/transport/aiohttp.py", line 273, in _raise_transport_server_error_if_status_more_than_400
resp.raise_for_status()
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.10/dist-packages/aiohttp/client_reqrep.py", line 636, in raise_for_status
raise ClientResponseError(
aiohttp.client_exceptions.ClientResponseError: 401, message='Unauthorized', url='https://api.monarch.com/graphql'

The above exception was the direct cause of the following exception:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/lib/python3.10/runpy.py", line 196, in _run_module_as_main
return _run_code(code, main_globals, None,
File "/usr/lib/python3.10/runpy.py", line 86, in _run_code
exec(code, run_globals)
File "/app/src/studentaid_monarch_sync/main.py", line 5, in
raise SystemExit(main())
File "/app/src/studentaid_monarch_sync/cli.py", line 404, in main
asyncio.run(
File "/usr/lib/python3.10/asyncio/runners.py", line 44, in run
return loop.run_until_complete(main)
File "/usr/lib/python3.10/asyncio/base_events.py", line 649, in run_until_complete
return future.result()
File "/app/src/studentaid_monarch_sync/cli.py", line 1048, in _setup_monarch_accounts
_ = await _resolve_monarch_loan_group_accounts(
File "/app/src/studentaid_monarch_sync/cli.py", line 830, in _resolve_monarch_loan_group_accounts
accounts = await mc.list_accounts()
File "/app/src/studentaid_monarch_sync/monarch/client.py", line 162, in list_accounts
resp = await self._call_with_retry("get_accounts", lambda: self._mm.get_accounts())
File "/app/src/studentaid_monarch_sync/monarch/client.py", line 85, in _call_with_retry
return await fn()
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.10/dist-packages/monarchmoney/monarchmoney.py", line 254, in get_accounts
return await self.gql_call(
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.10/dist-packages/monarchmoney/monarchmoney.py", line 2936, in gql_call
return await self._get_graphql_client().execute_async(
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.10/dist-packages/gql/client.py", line 352, in execute_async
return await session.execute(
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.10/dist-packages/gql/client.py", line 1567, in execute
result = await self._execute(
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.10/dist-packages/gql/client.py", line 1490, in _execute
result = await self.transport.execute(
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.10/dist-packages/gql/transport/aiohttp.py", line 381, in execute
return await self._prepare_result(resp)
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.10/dist-packages/gql/transport/aiohttp.py", line 322, in _prepare_result
await self._raise_response_error(
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.10/dist-packages/gql/transport/aiohttp.py", line 286, in _raise_response_error
cls._raise_transport_server_error_if_status_more_than_400(resp)
File "/usr/local/lib/python3.10/dist-packages/gql/transport/aiohttp.py", line 275, in _raise_transport_server_error_if_status_more_than_400
raise TransportServerError(str(e), e.status) from e
gql.transport.exceptions.TransportServerError: 401, message='Unauthorized', url='https://api.monarch.com/graphql'

[mattebad]

Hey all,

Sorry for the delay on this. Monarch did change their auth method sadly; and I've been waiting for a downstream fix to make its way into the monarch community python library rather than implementing my own solution. This finally just got merged in a few days ago so I'll work to fix this and push out a PR this weekend

bradleyseanf/monarchmoneycommunity#41

[mattebad]

Merged in a fix to main #15

Please rebuild if you're using docker and ensure you follow the instructions to set your cookie auth variables as needed or if you're utilizing the pickle session path, run the bootstrap command also located in the updated readme and everything should work.

Please report back here if anything doesn't work as expected

[n-shay]

Much appreciated, sir. Worked like a charm.

I'm using docker. Didn't need to update any env var, just rebuild the image (with --no-cache), run sync and... voila.

Thank you 🙏

[mattebad]

Awesome, tried to make it decently seamless