Improve whoami() error messages by specifying token source

src/huggingface_hub/hf_api.py

@@ -1614,39 +1614,50 @@ def run_as_future(self, fn: Callable[..., R], *args, **kwargs) -> Future[R]:
             self._thread_pool = ThreadPoolExecutor(max_workers=1)
         self._thread_pool
         return self._thread_pool.submit(fn, *args, **kwargs)
-
+
+    from huggingface_hub.utils._auth import _get_token_from_google_colab, _get_token_from_environment, _get_token_from_file
     @validate_hf_hub_args
     def whoami(self, token: Union[bool, str, None] = None) -> Dict:
         """
         Call HF API to know "whoami".
-
         Args:
             token (Union[bool, str, None], optional):
                 A valid user access token (string). Defaults to the locally saved
                 token, which is the recommended method for authentication (see
                 https://huggingface.co/docs/huggingface_hub/quick-start#authentication).
                 To disable authentication, pass `False`.
         """
+        # Get the effective token using the helper function get_token
+        effective_token = get_token(token or self.token or True)
         r = get_session().get(
             f"{self.endpoint}/api/whoami-v2",
-            headers=self._build_hf_headers(
-                # If `token` is provided and not `None`, it will be used by default.
-                # Otherwise, the token must be retrieved from cache or env variable.
-                token=(token or self.token or True),
-            ),
+            headers=self._build_hf_headers(token=effective_token),
         )
         try:
             hf_raise_for_status(r)
         except HTTPError as e:
-            raise HTTPError(
-                "Invalid user token. If you didn't pass a user token, make sure you "
-                "are properly logged in by executing `huggingface-cli login`, and "
-                "if you did pass a user token, double-check it's correct.",
-                request=e.request,
-                response=e.response,
-            ) from e
+            error_message = "Invalid user token."
+            # Check which token is the effective one and generate the error message accordingly
+            if effective_token == _get_token_from_google_colab():
+                error_message += (
+                    " The token from Google Colab vault is invalid. "
+                    "Please update it from the UI."
+                )
+            elif effective_token == _get_token_from_environment():
+                error_message += (
+                    " The token from HF_TOKEN environment variable is invalid. "
+                    "Note that HF_TOKEN takes precedence over `huggingface-cli login`."
+                )
+            elif effective_token == _get_token_from_file():
+                error_message += (
+                    " The token stored is invalid. Please run `huggingface-cli login` to update it."
+                )
+            else:
+                error_message += (
+	                    " The token stored is invalid. Please run `huggingface-cli login` to update it."
+	                )
+            raise HTTPError(error_message, request=e.request, response=e.response) from e
         return r.json()
-
     @_deprecate_method(
         version="1.0",
         message=(