BerriAI/litellm · error · Exception

Unexpected error while closing WebSocket: {close_error}

Error message

Unexpected error while closing WebSocket: {close_error}

What it means

Logged-then-raised condition in the realtime websocket relay's cleanup path: after handling a streaming error, the attempt to close the websocket with code 1011 itself threw (close_error). It indicates the client socket is already dead/unreachable during teardown, so the graceful-close fallback failed too.

Source

Thrown at litellm/llms/openai/realtime/handler.py:188

                    force_transcription_model=(
                        model if (query_params or {}).get("intent") == "transcription" else None
                    ),
                    event_normalizer=self._make_event_normalizer(),
                )
                await realtime_streaming.bidirectional_forward()

        except websockets.exceptions.InvalidStatusCode as e:
            await websocket.close(code=e.status_code, reason=_redact_string(str(e)))
        except Exception as e:
            try:
                await websocket.close(code=1011, reason=_redact_string(f"Internal server error: {e}"))
            except RuntimeError as close_error:
                if "already completed" in str(close_error) or "websocket.close" in str(close_error):
                    # The WebSocket is already closed or the response is completed, so we can ignore this error
                    pass
                else:
                    # If it's a different RuntimeError, we might want to log it or handle it differently
                    raise Exception(f"Unexpected error while closing WebSocket: {close_error}")

View on GitHub (pinned to 77b7c6c40c)

Solutions

1. The realtime session already ended abnormally; inspect the close error in the message and reconnect if needed.

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at litellm/llms/openai/realtime/handler.py:188 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of BerriAI/litellm@77b7c6c40c (2026-08-18). Data as JSON: /api/errors/3d8908aa5970ea69. Report an issue: GitHub.