Troubleshooting

Step-by-step debugging

Never mix authentication and authorization when troubleshooting. Test each separately:

1. Test Authentication first

Set up only authentication (full guide):

• Load the TinyAuth.Authentication component.
• Configure config/auth_allow.ini for public actions.
• Verify you can log in and log out.
• Verify non-public actions require login.
• Verify public actions are accessible without login.

Once this works, authentication is configured correctly.

2. Then test Authorization

Add authorization only after authentication works (full guide):

• Load the TinyAuth.Authorization component.
• Set up roles (database or Configure).
• Configure config/auth_acl.ini for role permissions.
• Clear cache: bin/cake cache clear_all.
• Verify role-based access works correctly.

Once this works, both authentication and authorization are configured.

Common issues

Symptom	Likely cause
Always redirected to login, even on whitelisted actions	INI file path wrong, or cache stale (run cache clear_all).
"Roles not found"	Session structure doesn't match the expected format — check the role_id column or the role-loading config.
Changed INI file but nothing happened	Cache not cleared after the edit. In debug mode this is automatic; in production you must run cache clear_all after deploy.
ACL rule appears to be ignored	Syntax error in auth_acl.ini — check the format actions = roles per line.
Multi-role user denied access	See Multi-role setup.

Use the DebugKit Auth panel

If you have DebugKit enabled in development, the AuthPanel shows per-URL: which rule matched, why a request was allowed or denied, and what role the current user has. This is usually the fastest way to find a misconfigured rule.