diff --git a/App/project.yml b/App/project.yml
index 2e5fb9a..4f2e2d5 100644
--- a/App/project.yml
+++ b/App/project.yml
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ targets:
         PRODUCT_BUNDLE_IDENTIFIER: io.gnosis.tinyforge.app
         PRODUCT_NAME: TinyForge
         ASSETCATALOG_COMPILER_APPICON_NAME: AppIcon
-        MARKETING_VERSION: "0.1.1"
+        MARKETING_VERSION: "0.1.2"
         CURRENT_PROJECT_VERSION: "1"
         INFOPLIST_KEY_LSApplicationCategoryType: "public.app-category.developer-tools"
         INFOPLIST_KEY_NSHumanReadableCopyright: "Copyright © 2026 Sandipan Kundu"
diff --git a/backend/pyproject.toml b/backend/pyproject.toml
index 0973180..ca0d9b4 100644
--- a/backend/pyproject.toml
+++ b/backend/pyproject.toml
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 [project]
 name = "tinyforge"
-version = "0.1.1"
+version = "0.1.2"
 description = "TinyForge ML backend — FastAPI orchestrator for training/finetuning tiny models on Apple Silicon"
 readme = "../README.md"
 requires-python = ">=3.12"
diff --git a/backend/tests/test_hub_downloads.py b/backend/tests/test_hub_downloads.py
index ad51698..1ed78a3 100644
--- a/backend/tests/test_hub_downloads.py
+++ b/backend/tests/test_hub_downloads.py
@@ -84,3 +84,59 @@ def test_progress_unknown_job_raises() -> None:
     mgr = DownloadManager(plan_fn=lambda r, t: [])
     with pytest.raises(KeyError):
         mgr.progress("nope")
+
+
+class _FakeResponse:
+    """Minimal stand-in for the requests.Response carried by HfHubHTTPError."""
+
+    def __init__(self, status_code: int) -> None:
+        self.status_code = status_code
+        self.headers: dict = {}
+        self.request = None
+
+
+def test_start_surfaces_friendly_message_when_model_is_gated() -> None:
+    from huggingface_hub.errors import GatedRepoError
+
+    def plan_fn(repo_id, repo_type):
+        raise GatedRepoError(
+            "401 Client Error. Cannot access gated repo", response=_FakeResponse(401)
+        )
+
+    mgr = DownloadManager(plan_fn=plan_fn, id_factory=lambda: "job1")
+    # A gated repo must not crash the request handler with a bare 500: start()
+    # records the failure as an error job instead of raising.
+    job_id = mgr.start("meta-llama/Llama-3.2-1B-Instruct")
+
+    progress = mgr.progress(job_id)
+    assert progress.state == "error"
+    assert progress.error is not None
+    assert "gated" in progress.error.lower()
+    assert "token" in progress.error.lower()
+
+
+def test_start_surfaces_friendly_message_when_repo_missing() -> None:
+    from huggingface_hub.errors import RepositoryNotFoundError
+
+    def plan_fn(repo_id, repo_type):
+        raise RepositoryNotFoundError("404 Client Error", response=_FakeResponse(404))
+
+    mgr = DownloadManager(plan_fn=plan_fn, id_factory=lambda: "job1")
+    job_id = mgr.start("nope/does-not-exist")
+
+    progress = mgr.progress(job_id)
+    assert progress.state == "error"
+    assert progress.error is not None
+    assert "not found" in progress.error.lower()
+
+
+def test_start_preserves_message_for_unknown_planning_failure() -> None:
+    def plan_fn(repo_id, repo_type):
+        raise RuntimeError("disk full")
+
+    mgr = DownloadManager(plan_fn=plan_fn, id_factory=lambda: "job1")
+    job_id = mgr.start("meta/x")
+
+    progress = mgr.progress(job_id)
+    assert progress.state == "error"
+    assert progress.error is not None and "disk full" in progress.error
diff --git a/backend/tests/test_hub_routes.py b/backend/tests/test_hub_routes.py
index 57a9371..b46363f 100644
--- a/backend/tests/test_hub_routes.py
+++ b/backend/tests/test_hub_routes.py
@@ -122,6 +122,41 @@ def test_start_then_get_download_progress(client_and_services) -> None:
     assert progress.json()["fraction"] == 1.0
 
 
+def test_start_download_returns_friendly_error_for_gated_repo() -> None:
+    # Regression: a gated repo used to escape planning as a bare HTTP 500
+    # (surfaced in the app as "unexpectedStatus(500)"). The route must now
+    # respond 200 with an error-state job carrying an actionable message.
+    from huggingface_hub.errors import GatedRepoError
+
+    from tinyforge.hub.downloads import DownloadManager
+
+    class _Resp:
+        status_code = 401
+        headers: dict = {}
+        request = None
+
+    def plan_fn(repo_id, repo_type):
+        raise GatedRepoError("401 Client Error. Cannot access gated repo", response=_Resp())
+
+    services = Services(
+        auth=FakeAuth(), hub=FakeHub(),
+        downloads=DownloadManager(plan_fn=plan_fn, id_factory=lambda: "job1"),
+        cache=FakeCache(), datasets=None, training=None, inference=None, exports=None,
+    )
+    client = TestClient(create_app(token=TOKEN, services=services))
+
+    resp = client.post(
+        "/v1/hub/downloads",
+        json={"repo_id": "meta-llama/Llama-3.2-1B-Instruct"},
+        headers=headers(),
+    )
+
+    assert resp.status_code == 200
+    body = resp.json()
+    assert body["state"] == "error"
+    assert "gated" in body["error"].lower()
+
+
 def test_cache_info_and_delete(client_and_services) -> None:
     client, _ = client_and_services
     assert client.get("/v1/hub/cache", headers=headers()).json()["size_on_disk"] == 2000
diff --git a/backend/tinyforge/hub/downloads.py b/backend/tinyforge/hub/downloads.py
index 43dc2a7..6db50ad 100644
--- a/backend/tinyforge/hub/downloads.py
+++ b/backend/tinyforge/hub/downloads.py
@@ -24,6 +24,30 @@
 DownloadFn = Callable[[str, str, Callable[[int], None]], str]
 
 
+def _friendly_download_error(exc: Exception) -> str:
+    """Translate a planning/transfer failure into an actionable message.
+
+    Planning runs synchronously in the request handler, so an uncaught failure
+    surfaces to the client as an opaque HTTP 500. The two most common causes —
+    a gated/private repo with no token, and a mistyped repo id — are worth
+    spelling out; everything else passes through verbatim.
+    """
+    class_names = {cls.__name__ for cls in type(exc).__mro__}
+    status = getattr(getattr(exc, "response", None), "status_code", None)
+    # Check gated before not-found: GatedRepoError subclasses RepositoryNotFoundError.
+    if "GatedRepoError" in class_names or status in (401, 403):
+        return (
+            "This model is gated. Request access on its Hugging Face page, then "
+            "sign in with a Hugging Face token in Settings to download it."
+        )
+    if "RepositoryNotFoundError" in class_names or status == 404:
+        return (
+            "Model not found on Hugging Face. Check the repository id — if it is "
+            "private, sign in with a Hugging Face token in Settings."
+        )
+    return str(exc)
+
+
 @dataclass
 class _Job:
     id: str
@@ -92,9 +116,22 @@ def plan(self, repo_id: str, repo_type: str = "model") -> DownloadPlan:
         )
 
     def start(self, repo_id: str, repo_type: str = "model") -> str:
-        plan = self.plan(repo_id, repo_type)
+        job_id = self._id_factory()
+        try:
+            plan = self.plan(repo_id, repo_type)
+        except Exception as exc:  # noqa: BLE001 - recorded as an error job, not raised
+            # Planning happens in the request handler; surfacing the failure as an
+            # error job (rather than letting it escape as a bare HTTP 500) lets the
+            # client show why the download could not start.
+            job = _Job(
+                id=job_id, repo_id=repo_id, repo_type=repo_type,
+                total_bytes=0, state="error", error=_friendly_download_error(exc),
+            )
+            with self._lock:
+                self._jobs[job_id] = job
+            return job_id
         job = _Job(
-            id=self._id_factory(), repo_id=repo_id, repo_type=repo_type,
+            id=job_id, repo_id=repo_id, repo_type=repo_type,
             total_bytes=plan.total_bytes,
         )
         with self._lock:
@@ -116,7 +153,7 @@ def on_progress(delta: int) -> None:
         except Exception as exc:  # noqa: BLE001 - surfaced to the client
             with self._lock:
                 job.state = "error"
-                job.error = str(exc)
+                job.error = _friendly_download_error(exc)
             return
 
         with self._lock:
diff --git a/backend/uv.lock b/backend/uv.lock
index c384651..db36812 100644
--- a/backend/uv.lock
+++ b/backend/uv.lock
@@ -1850,7 +1850,7 @@ wheels = [
 
 [[package]]
 name = "tinyforge"
-version = "0.1.1"
+version = "0.1.2"
 source = { editable = "." }
 dependencies = [
     { name = "accelerate" },