This article provides troubleshooting guidance for common authentication and credential-related issues when running geai migrate clone-project. It explains the most frequent error messages you may encounter, what they mean, and which API key scopes or parameters are required depending on whether you are creating a new Project, migrating Usage limits, or migrating resources into an existing Project.
Problem: Error retrieving project_id from GEAI: Authentication failed
Solution: Verify your API keys and scopes.
- Creating a new Project (--to-project-name + --admin-email) requires organization-scope API keys via --from-org-key and --to-org-key.
- Migrating usage limits (--usage-limits) requires Organization-scope API keys via --from-org-key and --to-org-key.
- Other migrations use project-scope API keys via --from-api-key and --to-api-key.
Problem: Source organization scope API key (--from-org-key) is required for project creation
Solution: Provide organization-scope API keys using --from-org-key and --to-org-key. Project-scope API keys cannot be used for Project creation or usage limit migration.
Problem: Destination project API key (--to-api-key) is required when migrating to an existing project (--to-project-id)
Solution: When you migrate to an existing Project using --to-project-id, provide --to-api-key with write access to the destination Project.
Note: When you create a new Project using --to-project-name and --admin-email, --to-api-key is optional and is automatically generated if omitted.
Problem: Discovered 0 agents
Solution: Verify that --from-project-id is correct and that the source API key has read access to the Project.
Problem: Some resources migrate successfully, while others fail.
Solution: Review the error details for failed resources and rerun the migration for the affected resource types or specific IDs.