What causes "Unknown type: ${contentItem.type}" in DIYgod/RSSHub?

Capture the `contentItem.type` from the error and add a `case` that renders it (commonly a link, an ` `, or an ` ` depending on the payload fields).

DIYgod/RSSHub · error

Unknown type: ${contentItem.type}

Error message

Unknown type: ${contentItem.type}

What it means

Thrown from the inner content-item switch while rendering a Zhihu "pin" (想法/short post) in the activities feed. The switch handles content item types `text`, `image`, `link`, `video`, and `link_card`; any other `contentItem.type` hits the `default` and throws, echoing the unknown type so the unhandled payload shape is visible.

Source

Thrown at lib/routes/zhihu/activities.ts:120

                            case 'link':
                                link = `<p><a href="${contentItem.url}" target="_blank">${contentItem.title}</a></p>`;

                                break;

                            case 'video':
                                link = `<p><video
                                controls="controls"
                                width="${contentItem.playlist[1].width}"
                                height="${contentItem.playlist[1].height}"
                                src="${contentItem.playlist[1].url}"></video></p>`;

                                break;
                            case 'link_card':
                                link = `<p><a href="${contentItem.url.split('?', 1)[0]}" target="_blank"></a></p>`;
                                break;

                            default:
                                throw new Error(`Unknown type: ${contentItem.type}`);
                        }
                    }
                    description = `${text}${link}${images.join('')}`;
                    url = `https://www.zhihu.com/pin/${detail.id}`;
                    break;
                case 'question':
                    title = detail.title;
                    author = detail.author.name;
                    description = processImage(detail.detail);
                    url = `https://www.zhihu.com/question/${detail.id}`;
                    break;
                case 'collection':
                    title = detail.title;
                    url = `https://www.zhihu.com/collection/${detail.id}`;
                    break;
                case 'column':
                    title = detail.title;
                    description = `<p>${detail.intro}</p><p><img src="${detail.image_url}"/></p>`;

View on GitHub (pinned to bed535e087)

Solutions

Capture the `contentItem.type` from the error and add a `case` that renders it (commonly a link, an `<img>`, or an `<iframe>` depending on the payload fields).
If the new type's rendering is unknown, make `default` skip the item (continue/break with empty HTML) instead of throwing, so the rest of the pin still renders.
Check the Zhihu web/app pin UI for the new block to infer the right HTML mapping.

Example fix

// before
default:
    throw new Error(`Unknown type: ${contentItem.type}`);
// after — graceful skip for unknown pin content types
default:
    break;

Defensive patterns

Strategy: type-guard

Validate before calling

const HANDLED_PIN_CONTENT_TYPES = new Set(['text', 'image', 'link', 'video', 'link_card']);
function filterPinContent(content) {
    return content.filter((item) => HANDLED_PIN_CONTENT_TYPES.has(item.type));
}

Type guard

type HandledPinType = 'text' | 'image' | 'link' | 'video' | 'link_card';
const HANDLED: Set<HandledPinType> = new Set(['text','image','link','video','link_card']);
function isHandledPinType(item: { type: string }): item is { type: HandledPinType } {
    return HANDLED.has(item.type as HandledPinType);
}

Try / catch

// Render only known content types; skip the rest instead of throwing
for (const contentItem of detail.content) {
    if (!isHandledPinType(contentItem)) continue;
    // ... existing switch
}

Prevention

Filter the pin content array to known types before the switch so unknown blocks are skipped, not fatal.
Log unknown content types at warn level to detect Zhihu API additions.
Add new types as explicit cases once their payload shape is understood.

When it happens

Trigger: A Zhihu pin contains a content block of a type the route has not encoded — e.g. Zhihu adds a new embed type (audio, poll, article-embed, repost) to the pin content array, or renames an existing type string.

Common situations: Zhihu rolls out a new pin content feature; the API starts returning a previously-unseen type for certain pins; a reposted/quoted pin carries a nested structure with a different type tag. Because the throw is uncaught it fails the entire activity feed for that user.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of DIYgod/RSSHub@bed535e087 (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/2473317e35f4d2c8. Report an issue: GitHub.