diff --git a/app/src/services/__tests__/coreRpcClient.test.ts b/app/src/services/__tests__/coreRpcClient.test.ts
index 6b9bc67c4..166b367b1 100644
--- a/app/src/services/__tests__/coreRpcClient.test.ts
+++ b/app/src/services/__tests__/coreRpcClient.test.ts
@@ -666,6 +666,14 @@ describe('classifyRpcError', () => {
       undefined,
       'transport',
     ],
+    // Issue #2286: downstream provider 401s must NOT clear the user session.
+    [
+      'Discord API error: Discord list guilds failed (401): Unauthorized',
+      undefined,
+      'provider_auth',
+    ],
+    ['OpenAI API error (401 Unauthorized): invalid api key', undefined, 'provider_auth'],
+    ['Anthropic API error (401 Unauthorized): auth error', undefined, 'provider_auth'],
     ['some random message', undefined, 'unknown'],
   ] as const)('%s => %s', (message, status, expected) => {
     expect(classifyRpcError(message, status)).toBe(expected);
diff --git a/app/src/services/coreRpcClient.ts b/app/src/services/coreRpcClient.ts
index dfc1e7124..610b3fecb 100644
--- a/app/src/services/coreRpcClient.ts
+++ b/app/src/services/coreRpcClient.ts
@@ -71,6 +71,7 @@ let resolvingCoreRpcToken: Promise<string | null> | null = null;
  */
 export type CoreRpcErrorKind =
   | 'auth_expired'
+  | 'provider_auth' // downstream provider 401 — NOT user session expiry
   | 'transport'
   | 'timeout'
   | 'rate_limited'
@@ -107,13 +108,41 @@ export function classifyRpcError(
   if (isThreadNotFoundRpcData(data)) return 'thread_not_found';
   if (httpStatus === 401) return 'auth_expired';
   if (httpStatus === 429) return 'rate_limited';
-  if (/\(401\b.*Unauthorized\)|Session expired/i.test(message)) return 'auth_expired';
+  // Confirmed OpenHuman session expiry — explicit markers from the backend/core.
+  if (/Session expired|SESSION_EXPIRED/i.test(message)) return 'auth_expired';
   // Core-side "no backend session token" → the auth profile is gone but the
   // frontend may still hold a stale sessionToken from an optimistic post-login
   // patch. Treat as auth-expired so `CoreStateProvider` clears the session and
   // `ProtectedRoute` bounces the user back to `/` (login) instead of trapping
   // them on an onboarding step that polls a failing RPC every 5 s.
   if (/no backend session token/i.test(message)) return 'auth_expired';
+  // "session JWT required" covers the case where a prior 401 already cleared
+  // the token and the very next RPC call finds no JWT in the store.
+  if (/session jwt required/i.test(message)) return 'auth_expired';
+  // OpenHuman backend path 401s (via authed_json): "{METHOD} /path failed (401 Unauthorized)"
+  // The HTTP method prefix distinguishes these from downstream provider 401s.
+  // Fix for issue #2286: only match when the message starts with an HTTP verb
+  // followed by a path — this excludes "Discord API error:", "OpenAI API error:", etc.
+  // HEAD and OPTIONS intentionally excluded — authed_json only uses these five verbs.
+  // Aligned with Rust is_session_expired_error: starts-with-verb check + separate
+  // contains checks for "401" and "unauthorized" (case-insensitive).
+  if (
+    /^(GET|POST|PUT|DELETE|PATCH)\s+\//.test(message) &&
+    /401/.test(message) &&
+    /unauthorized/i.test(message)
+  )
+    return 'auth_expired';
+  // Downstream provider/integration 401 — NOT user session expiry.
+  // e.g. "Discord API error: Discord list guilds failed (401): Unauthorized"
+  // e.g. "OpenAI API error (401 Unauthorized): invalid api key"
+  // e.g. "Composio v3 API error: HTTP 401: Unauthorized"
+  // Note: Discord uses "(401): Unauthorized" format (colon after status, reason outside parens),
+  // so we test for 401 and "unauthorized" independently rather than requiring both inside parens.
+  if (
+    (/401/.test(message) && /unauthorized/i.test(message)) ||
+    /invalid token|bad token/i.test(message)
+  )
+    return 'provider_auth';
   if (/429.*rate.?limit/i.test(message)) return 'rate_limited';
   if (/Budget exceeded|Insufficient budget/i.test(message)) return 'budget_exceeded';
   // Local AbortController hit `CORE_RPC_TIMEOUT_MS` — distinct from backend
diff --git a/src/core/jsonrpc.rs b/src/core/jsonrpc.rs
index 25956784c..1cfb93a74 100644
--- a/src/core/jsonrpc.rs
+++ b/src/core/jsonrpc.rs
@@ -182,7 +182,7 @@ pub async fn invoke_method(state: AppState, method: &str, params: Value) -> Resu
         let sanitized_reason = crate::openhuman::inference::provider::ops::sanitize_api_error(msg);
         if is_session_expired_error(msg) {
             log::warn!(
-                "[jsonrpc] confirmed session expiry for method '{}' — publishing SessionExpired: {}",
+                "[jsonrpc] confirmed session expiry for method='{}' — publishing SessionExpired: {}",
                 method,
                 sanitized_reason
             );
@@ -196,8 +196,8 @@ pub async fn invoke_method(state: AppState, method: &str, params: Value) -> Resu
                 },
             );
         } else if is_unconfirmed_unauthorized_error(msg) {
-            log::warn!(
-                "[jsonrpc] unauthorized error for method '{}' did not match OpenHuman session expiry — leaving session intact: {}",
+            log::info!(
+                "[jsonrpc] unconfirmed unauthorized error for method='{}' (not session expiry) — leaving session intact: {}",
                 method,
                 sanitized_reason
             );
@@ -207,35 +207,76 @@ pub async fn invoke_method(state: AppState, method: &str, params: Value) -> Resu
     result
 }
 
-/// Helper to determine if an error message indicates an expired or invalid session.
+/// Helper to determine if an error message indicates an expired or invalid
+/// OpenHuman backend session.
 ///
-/// Uses the same strict classifier as observability so only explicit
-/// OpenHuman auth-session failures clear the app session. A generic
-/// `"401 Unauthorized"` or `"invalid token"` can come from BYO-key
-/// providers, Composio, channels, or other scoped downstream calls; those
-/// must surface as recoverable errors rather than publishing
-/// `DomainEvent::SessionExpired`.
+/// **Narrower than the previous implementation** (fixed in issue #2286):
 ///
-/// "No backend session token" is also treated as a session-expired signal: the
-/// auth profile is missing entirely (the user was never signed in, or their
-/// stored profile was wiped between login and the next RPC). The frontend may
-/// still believe it holds a session token from an optimistic post-login patch,
-/// so we want the same auto-cleanup + UI-level re-auth path to fire instead of
-/// repeatedly reporting this as a hard error to Sentry. See #1465-ish: users
-/// stuck on the onboarding `SkillsStep` would spam `composio_list_connections`
-/// failures every 5 s without ever being bounced back to the login screen.
+/// The old predicate matched ANY `"401 + unauthorized"` pattern, which caused
+/// downstream provider 401s (Discord bot token failures, BYO-key OpenAI /
+/// Anthropic failures, Composio direct-mode errors) to clear the user's session
+/// and log them out. The fix distinguishes between:
 ///
-/// "session JWT required" covers the case where a prior 401 already cleared the
-/// token and the very next RPC call (e.g. `channels_telegram_login_start`) finds
-/// no JWT in the store. This is the same auth-boundary condition, just surfaced
-/// as a local guard rather than a backend response.
+/// - **OpenHuman backend 401s** (`authed_json` in `src/api/rest.rs`): formatted
+///   as `"{METHOD} /path failed (401 Unauthorized): {body}"`, e.g.
+///   `"GET /teams failed (401 Unauthorized): {"success":false}"`. These always
+///   start with an HTTP method verb followed by a space and a forward slash.
+/// - **Provider / downstream 401s** (`api_error` in
+///   `src/openhuman/inference/provider/ops.rs`): formatted as
+///   `"{ProviderName} API error (401 Unauthorized): {body}"` or
+///   `"Discord API error: ... (401): Unauthorized"`. These start with a
+///   provider name, NOT an HTTP method verb.
+///
+/// **What still triggers session expiry:**
+/// - `"Session expired"` — explicit body text from the OpenHuman backend.
+/// - `"no backend session token"` — pre-flight guard; auth profile is missing.
+/// - `"session jwt required"` — local guard; JWT already cleared by a prior 401.
+/// - `"SESSION_EXPIRED"` — scheduler-gate sentinel (exact case).
+/// - HTTP-method-prefixed 401s (`GET /`, `POST /`, etc.) — backend path format.
+///
+/// **What no longer triggers session expiry (fixed in #2286):**
+/// - Provider-prefixed 401s (`"Discord API error: ..."`, `"OpenAI API error ..."`)
+/// - `"invalid token"` — too broad; also matches Discord / OAuth provider tokens.
+///
+/// Note: for inference-path OpenHuman backend 401s, `api_error` (in
+/// `inference/provider/ops.rs` lines 479–497) ALREADY publishes `SessionExpired`
+/// directly, so there is no regression if this predicate misses them — the
+/// subscriber is idempotent and a harmless double-publish would still be correct.
 fn is_session_expired_error(msg: &str) -> bool {
-    crate::core::observability::is_session_expired_message(msg)
+    // Explicit session-expired markers from the OpenHuman backend / local
+    // guards — delegated to the shared observability classifier so both the
+    // Sentry expected-error pipeline and the JSON-RPC publish boundary stay
+    // in lock-step.
+    if crate::core::observability::is_session_expired_message(msg) {
+        return true;
+    }
+    // OpenHuman backend path 401s via `authed_json`:
+    // format is "{METHOD} /path failed (401 Unauthorized): {body}"
+    // The HTTP-method prefix distinguishes these from provider-prefixed errors.
+    // HEAD and OPTIONS are intentionally excluded — `authed_json` only issues
+    // the five listed verbs (GET/POST/PUT/DELETE/PATCH) for REST JSON endpoints.
+    let lower = msg.to_ascii_lowercase();
+    if (lower.contains("401") && lower.contains("unauthorized"))
+        && (msg.starts_with("GET /")
+            || msg.starts_with("POST /")
+            || msg.starts_with("PUT /")
+            || msg.starts_with("DELETE /")
+            || msg.starts_with("PATCH /"))
+    {
+        return true;
+    }
+    false
 }
 
 /// Detect auth-looking failures that are not specific enough to clear the
 /// OpenHuman session. This is only for diagnostics; it must not feed the
 /// `SessionExpired` publish path.
+///
+/// Matches a generic `401 Unauthorized` OR a bare `"invalid token"` string,
+/// either of which can come from BYO-key providers, Composio, channels, or
+/// other scoped downstream calls. Used exclusively for diagnostic logging
+/// at the `invoke_method` call site so provider auth failures are visible
+/// in the logs without being misclassified as session expiry.
 fn is_unconfirmed_unauthorized_error(msg: &str) -> bool {
     let lower = msg.to_ascii_lowercase();
     (lower.contains("401") && lower.contains("unauthorized")) || lower.contains("invalid token")
diff --git a/src/core/jsonrpc_tests.rs b/src/core/jsonrpc_tests.rs
index 623116196..d404d83fc 100644
--- a/src/core/jsonrpc_tests.rs
+++ b/src/core/jsonrpc_tests.rs
@@ -564,8 +564,24 @@ fn parse_json_params_reports_error_message() {
     assert!(err.contains("invalid JSON params"));
 }
 
+#[test]
+fn is_session_expired_error_matches_backend_path_401() {
+    // Issue #2286: only OpenHuman backend path 401s (HTTP-method prefix) should
+    // match, not generic 401/Unauthorized strings.
+    assert!(is_session_expired_error(
+        "GET /teams failed (401 Unauthorized): {\"success\":false}"
+    ));
+    assert!(is_session_expired_error(
+        "POST /auth/token failed (401 Unauthorized): session expired"
+    ));
+    assert!(is_session_expired_error(
+        "DELETE /sessions/abc failed (401 Unauthorized): unauthorized"
+    ));
+}
+
 #[test]
 fn is_session_expired_error_does_not_match_generic_401_unauthorized() {
+    // Generic 401+unauthorized strings without HTTP-method prefix must NOT match.
     assert!(!is_session_expired_error(
         "backend returned 401 Unauthorized"
     ));
@@ -575,6 +591,8 @@ fn is_session_expired_error_does_not_match_generic_401_unauthorized() {
 
 #[test]
 fn unconfirmed_unauthorized_error_matches_generic_401_for_diagnostics_only() {
+    // Generic 401+unauthorized text feeds the diagnostic-only branch — never
+    // SessionExpired publication.
     assert!(is_unconfirmed_unauthorized_error(
         "backend returned 401 Unauthorized"
     ));
@@ -586,12 +604,64 @@ fn unconfirmed_unauthorized_error_matches_generic_401_for_diagnostics_only() {
 
 #[test]
 fn is_session_expired_error_does_not_match_partial_auth_text() {
+    // 401 alone is not sufficient — could be HTTP/3.01 nonsense or
+    // unrelated text. We require the string "unauthorized" too, plus an
+    // HTTP-method prefix for the 401 path.
     assert!(!is_session_expired_error("server returned 401"));
     assert!(!is_session_expired_error("unauthorized without code"));
 }
 
+#[test]
+fn is_session_expired_error_matches_openhuman_backend_path_401() {
+    // OpenHuman backend calls via authed_json use the format:
+    // "{METHOD} /path failed (401 Unauthorized): {body}"
+    assert!(is_session_expired_error(
+        "GET /teams failed (401 Unauthorized): {\"success\":false}"
+    ));
+    assert!(is_session_expired_error(
+        "POST /auth/token failed (401 Unauthorized): session expired"
+    ));
+    assert!(is_session_expired_error(
+        "GET /teams/me/usage failed (401 Unauthorized): unauthorized"
+    ));
+    assert!(is_session_expired_error(
+        "PUT /profile failed (401 Unauthorized): token expired"
+    ));
+    assert!(is_session_expired_error(
+        "PATCH /settings failed (401 Unauthorized): unauthorized"
+    ));
+}
+
+#[test]
+fn is_session_expired_error_does_not_match_discord_api_error() {
+    // Issue #2286: Discord bot token 401 must not clear the user session.
+    assert!(!is_session_expired_error(
+        "Discord API error: Discord list guilds failed (401): Unauthorized"
+    ));
+    assert!(!is_session_expired_error(
+        "Discord API error: Discord get bot user failed (401): bad token"
+    ));
+}
+
+#[test]
+fn is_session_expired_error_does_not_match_byo_key_provider_401() {
+    // BYO-key provider 401 should not clear the user session.
+    assert!(!is_session_expired_error(
+        "OpenAI API error (401 Unauthorized): invalid api key"
+    ));
+    assert!(!is_session_expired_error(
+        "Anthropic API error (401 Unauthorized): authentication error"
+    ));
+    assert!(!is_session_expired_error(
+        "Composio v3 API error: HTTP 401: Unauthorized"
+    ));
+}
+
 #[test]
 fn is_session_expired_error_does_not_match_invalid_token_case_insensitive() {
+    // "invalid token" is no longer a session-expiry trigger (issue #2286):
+    // it was too broad and caught Discord/OAuth provider token errors. It is
+    // still surfaced via the diagnostic-only `is_unconfirmed_unauthorized_error`.
     assert!(!is_session_expired_error("Invalid Token"));
     assert!(!is_session_expired_error("got an invalid token here"));
     assert!(is_unconfirmed_unauthorized_error("Invalid Token"));
@@ -602,6 +672,8 @@ fn is_session_expired_error_does_not_match_invalid_token_case_insensitive() {
 
 #[test]
 fn is_session_expired_error_matches_openhuman_session_expired_body() {
+    // Even without an HTTP-method prefix, an explicit "Session expired" body
+    // text triggers session expiry via the shared observability classifier.
     assert!(is_session_expired_error(
         r#"OpenHuman API error (401 Unauthorized): {"success":false,"error":"Session expired. Please log in again."}"#
     ));