When desktop Todoist Authenticate never opens a browser

Official Todoist plugin on Grok Bot desktop can stay on Needs auth with 0 tools. Clicking Authenticate shows a toast instead of an OAuth window: “Couldn’t start sign-in for Todoist. The connector reported no details.” From the agent, AuthenticateMcpServer may report the server unreachable before any browser opens.

Staff on forum 171183 (kevinn, Sep 9, 2026; ticket T-F50688): a known tracked issue. Your local setup did not cause the toast.

What not to do

Action	Why skip it
Uninstall / reinstall the Todoist plugin	Staff: will not change the toast
Delete the extra Needs-auth account row	Side effect of failed Authenticate attempts — leave it
Reset or Recover the Agent Computer	OAuth never starts on the client — Reset/Recover targets the computer, not this toast

What to do while it is open

1. Confirm other connectors on the same desktop still Authenticate (GitHub, Linear, Calendar, and so on). If they work, this matches the known Todoist-only failure.
2. Keep Grok Bot updated; watch the forum thread for the staff follow-up.
3. If you need Todoist tasks today, use a path that already works for you (another device if OAuth opens there, or a custom MCP you already trust) — do not invent a new OAuth workaround.
4. Email hi@cursor.com with ticket T-F50688 only if you need account-specific follow-up beyond the public thread.

Related

• iOS Todoist that reaches the browser but fails once with code_challenge required is a different cluster — retry often succeeds there; desktop never starts OAuth.
• GitHub “didn’t provide a sign-in link” is a different plugin failure.
• Plugin discovery in general: Settings → Plugins per Skills and routines.

Pitfalls

• Treating “unreachable” on Authenticate as a network or VPN problem when no browser ever opened.
• Burning support cycles on uninstall loops after staff already marked the toast as product-side.