BerriAI/litellm · error · ValueError

Invalid JSON in request body: {e}. Ensure the request body i

Error message

Invalid JSON in request body: {e}. Ensure the request body is valid JSON with Content-Type: application/json, or use multipart/form-data for file uploads.

What it means

ValueError raised when the OCR request body cannot be parsed: the body is not valid JSON (parse exception embedded), and guidance is given to either send valid JSON with the right content type or switch to multipart/form-data for file uploads. Covers malformed JSON and wrong content-type usage.

Source

Thrown at litellm/proxy/ocr_endpoints/endpoints.py:157

        # The body may be empty because the auth middleware already parsed
        # it as form data (e.g., _read_request_body called request.form()).
        # Check if form data is available.
        if getattr(request, "_form", None) is not None:
            verbose_proxy_logger.debug(
                "OCR request body is empty but form data is available from middleware — processing as multipart form."
            )
            return await _parse_multipart_form(request)

        raise ValueError(
            "Empty request body. For file uploads, use multipart/form-data content type "
            "with a file field. When using curl with --form/-F, do NOT set the Content-Type "
            "header manually."
        )

    try:
        data: Final = orjson.loads(body)
    except orjson.JSONDecodeError as e:
        raise ValueError(
            f"Invalid JSON in request body: {e}. "
            "Ensure the request body is valid JSON with Content-Type: application/json, "
            "or use multipart/form-data for file uploads."
        )

    # Security: reject type="file" documents received via JSON.
    # The "file" document type is designed for local SDK usage where the
    # caller and the process share a filesystem.  In the proxy context the
    # caller is remote, so allowing a file-path string would let an
    # authenticated user read arbitrary files from the server's filesystem.
    # File uploads must go through multipart/form-data instead.
    doc: Final = data.get("document") if isinstance(data, dict) else None
    if isinstance(doc, dict) and doc.get("type") == "file":
        raise ValueError(
            "document type 'file' is not supported through the JSON API. "
            "To upload a local file, use multipart/form-data with a 'file' field. "
            "For JSON requests, use 'document_url' or 'image_url' document types."
        )

View on GitHub (pinned to 77b7c6c40c)

Solutions

1. Send valid JSON with Content-Type: application/json, or use multipart/form-data for file uploads.

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at litellm/proxy/ocr_endpoints/endpoints.py:157 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

Understand the failure class

• Parsing and encoding errors: unexpected token, malformed input — why parsers reject input and how to find the real culprit.

AI-assisted analysis of BerriAI/litellm@77b7c6c40c (2026-08-18). Data as JSON: /api/errors/5e552c0ebf370ad9. Report an issue: GitHub.