What causes "acct ${acct} not found" in DIYgod/RSSHub?

Verify the account exists by searching for it directly on .

DIYgod/RSSHub · error · Error

acct ${acct} not found

Error message

acct ${acct} not found

What it means

Plain Error thrown inside the cache.tryGet callback of getAccountIdByAcct when the /api/v2/search response contains no account whose acct field matches the computed acctOnServer string. The match is strict (exact equality after normalizing local-vs-remote host), so a near-match or an empty search result triggers this.

Source

Thrown at lib/routes/mastodon/utils.ts:128

            headers: apiHeaders(site),
            searchParams: {
                q: acct,
                type: 'accounts',
            },
        });
        const [acctUser, acctHost] = acct.split('@').filter(Boolean);
        let acctOnServer;

        if (acctHost) {
            acctOnServer = acctHost === acctDomain ? acctUser : acctUser + '@' + acctHost;
        } else {
            acctOnServer = acctUser;
        }

        const accountData = search_response.data.accounts.filter((item) => item.acct === acctOnServer);

        if (accountData.length === 0) {
            throw new Error(`acct ${acct} not found`);
        }
        return accountData[0].id;
    });
    return { site, account_id };
}

export default { apiHeaders, parseStatuses, getAccountStatuses, getAccountIdByAcct, allowSiteList };

View on GitHub (pinned to bed535e087)

Solutions

Verify the account exists by searching for it directly on <site>.
Set MASTODON_ACCT_DOMAIN to match the instance's web domain when it differs from the API host (some instances split api vs web domains).
Clear the cache key mastodon_acct_id/<site>/<acct> to force a fresh search.
Supply the fully-qualified acct 'user@example.social' to remove ambiguity.

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

function normalizeAcct(acct: string, acctDomain: string) {
    const [user, host] = acct.split('@').filter(Boolean);
    if (!user) {
        throw new Error(`Invalid acct: ${acct}`);
    }
    return host && host !== acctDomain ? `${user}@${host}` : user;
}

Type guard

interface MastodonAccount { id: string; acct: string; }
const isAccountArray = (v: unknown): v is MastodonAccount[] =>
    Array.isArray(v) && v.every((a) => typeof a?.id === 'string' && typeof a?.acct === 'string');

Try / catch

try {
    ({ account_id } = await getAccountIdByAcct(acct));
} catch (e) {
    if (/not found/i.test((e as Error).message)) {
        // clear cached negative result and surface a clear 404 to the consumer
        throw new Error(`Mastodon account not found: ${acct}. Verify the instance and username.`);
    }
    throw e;
}

Prevention

Always pass the fully-qualified acct (user@instance) to remove normalization ambiguity.
Set MASTODON_ACCT_DOMAIN when the web domain differs from the API host.
Clear the mastodon_acct_id cache key if a stale negative result persists.

When it happens

Trigger: GET https://<site>/api/v2/search?q=<acct>&type=accounts returns accounts, but none with acct === acctOnServer (e.g. the user exists on a different instance, the search was rate-limited to partial results, the account is suspended/deleted, or the acctDomain normalization produced the wrong acctOnServer).

Common situations: Wrong username in the route; account is remote but the configured acctDomain makes acctOnServer compare against the wrong string; search endpoint returned 0 results due to instance search-index lag or rate limiting; MASTODON_ACCT_DOMAIN mismatch with the actual web domain.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of DIYgod/RSSHub@bed535e087 (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/153daf7d78360a09. Report an issue: GitHub.