diff --git a/src/services/git-service-base.ts b/src/services/git-service-base.ts
index 022d4ca..8eefab4 100644
--- a/src/services/git-service-base.ts
+++ b/src/services/git-service-base.ts
@@ -78,8 +78,20 @@ export abstract class BaseGitService {
 
             response = await requestUrl(options);
         } catch (error) {
-            // Network-level failure (DNS, offline, TLS, etc.)
+            // Network-level failure (DNS, offline, TLS, etc.) — but some Obsidian
+            // versions eagerly parse the response body as JSON inside requestUrl()
+            // itself, before `throw: false` or our own status check ever run. If a
+            // proxy/login page returns HTML instead of JSON, that eager parse
+            // throws here as a raw "Unexpected token '<' ... is not valid JSON"
+            // error rather than surfacing as a normal response we could inspect.
             if (!silent) logger.error('Git Service Request Failed:', error);
+            if (this.looksLikeJsonParseOfHtmlError(error)) {
+                throw new Error(
+                    'Expected a JSON response from the Git server but received an HTML page ' +
+                    '(likely a login, SSO redirect, or proxy/error page). ' +
+                    'Please check the server URL, your access token, and any network proxy or firewall.'
+                );
+            }
             if (error instanceof Error) throw error;
             throw new Error(`Network error or unexpected failure: ${String(error)}`);
         }
@@ -102,6 +114,17 @@ export abstract class BaseGitService {
 
     protected abstract addAuthHeader(headers: Record<string, string>): void;
 
+    /**
+     * Detects V8's JSON.parse error for a response starting with '<' (an HTML
+     * page), across its known message phrasings, e.g.:
+     *   "Unexpected token '<', "<!DOCTYPE "... is not valid JSON"
+     *   "Unexpected token < in JSON at position 0"
+     */
+    private looksLikeJsonParseOfHtmlError(error: unknown): boolean {
+        if (!(error instanceof Error)) return false;
+        return /unexpected token/i.test(error.message) && /json/i.test(error.message) && error.message.includes('<');
+    }
+
     /**
      * Safely parses a response body as JSON.
      *
diff --git a/tests/services/git-service-base.test.ts b/tests/services/git-service-base.test.ts
index e5eb8ba..e0735af 100644
--- a/tests/services/git-service-base.test.ts
+++ b/tests/services/git-service-base.test.ts
@@ -77,6 +77,30 @@ describe('BaseGitService', () => {
         });
     });
 
+    describe('safeRequest when requestUrl() itself throws a JSON-parse-of-HTML error', () => {
+        // Some Obsidian versions eagerly parse the response body as JSON inside
+        // requestUrl() itself, so a proxy/login HTML page can make the whole
+        // call reject with a raw SyntaxError — before `throw: false` or our own
+        // status/content-type checks ever get a response object to inspect.
+        it('wraps the raw "Unexpected token \'<\'... is not valid JSON" rejection with a clear message', async () => {
+            vi.mocked(requestUrl).mockRejectedValue(
+                new SyntaxError('Unexpected token \'<\', "<!DOCTYPE "... is not valid JSON')
+            );
+            await expect(service.listFiles('main')).rejects.toThrow(/received an HTML page/);
+            await expect(service.listFiles('main')).rejects.not.toThrow(/Unexpected token/);
+        });
+
+        it('wraps the older V8 phrasing ("Unexpected token < in JSON at position 0") too', async () => {
+            vi.mocked(requestUrl).mockRejectedValue(new SyntaxError('Unexpected token < in JSON at position 0'));
+            await expect(service.listFiles('main')).rejects.toThrow(/received an HTML page/);
+        });
+
+        it('does not misclassify an unrelated JSON syntax error as an HTML response', async () => {
+            vi.mocked(requestUrl).mockRejectedValue(new SyntaxError('Unexpected end of JSON input'));
+            await expect(service.listFiles('main')).rejects.toThrow('Unexpected end of JSON input');
+        });
+    });
+
     describe('parseJson with non-JSON (HTML) responses', () => {
         // Simulates Obsidian's real RequestUrlResponse.json getter, which throws
         // SyntaxError when the body is not valid JSON (e.g. an HTML page).