The error “certificate verify failed: unable to get local issuer certificate” typically occurs when a program (e.g., Python, curl, or an API client) can’t verify the SSL certificate of the server because it doesn’t have access to a trusted root certificate authority (CA).

🔧 Common Causes

1. Missing CA certificates (your system or language runtime doesn’t have the right CA chain).

2. Outdated certificate bundle (especially in Python or macOS).

3. Behind a proxy/firewall that intercepts SSL (e.g., corporate networks).

4. The server itself has a misconfigured SSL cert chain (less common).

✅ Solutions by Environment

🐍 Python (Requests, pip, urllib)

1. Use certifi (trusted CA bundle):

   import requests
import certifiresponse = requests.get(“https://example.com”, verify=certifi.where())

2. Update CA Certs:

   • If you’re on macOS, run:

     /Applications/Python 3.x/Install Certificates.command


   • Or reinstall certifi:

     pip install --upgrade certifi


3. Disable SSL verification (not recommended for production):

   requests.get("https://example.com", verify=False)


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🧰 Curl / Command Line

• Update CA bundle on your system:

  sudo apt-get install ca-certificates # Debian/Ubuntu
sudo yum install ca-certificates # Red Hat/CentOS


• Test with curl:

  curl -v https://example.com


🌍 macOS Users (Python via Homebrew)

Run this script:

It installs the missing certs needed for HTTPS verification by Python.

🏢 Corporate or Proxy Networks

If you’re behind a firewall or proxy that uses SSL inspection, you may need to:

• Export your organization’s root cert

• Add it to the trusted CA bundle in your tool (e.g., Python, curl, browser)

🔒 Final Tip

You can test the server’s SSL certificate chain with: