Mintplex-Labs/anything-llm · warning · Error

Search failed.

Error message

Search failed.

What it means

Thrown by System.searchLocalFiles on a non-2xx GET to /api/system/local-files/search?q={query}. The query is encodeURIComponent-escaped. The .catch() returns an empty array, so a failed search looks like a search with no matches.

Source

Thrown at frontend/src/models/system.js:101

      params.set("limit", String(limit));
    }
    const qs = params.toString();
    const url = `${API_BASE}/system/local-files${qs ? `?${qs}` : ""}`;
    return await fetch(url, { headers: baseHeaders() })
      .then((res) => {
        if (!res.ok) throw new Error("Could not fetch local files.");
        return res.json();
      })
      .then((res) => (folderName ? res : res.localFiles))
      .catch(() => null);
  },
  searchLocalFiles: async function (query = "") {
    return await fetch(
      `${API_BASE}/system/local-files/search?q=${encodeURIComponent(query)}`,
      { headers: baseHeaders() }
    )
      .then((res) => {
        if (!res.ok) throw new Error("Search failed.");
        return res.json();
      })
      .then((res) => res.results)
      .catch(() => []);
  },
  getDocumentsByDocPaths: async function (docpaths = []) {
    return await fetch(`${API_BASE}/system/local-files/by-docpaths`, {
      method: "POST",
      headers: baseHeaders(),
      body: JSON.stringify({ docpaths }),
    })
      .then((res) => {
        if (!res.ok) throw new Error("Failed to fetch documents by paths.");
        return res.json();
      })
      .then((res) => res.documents)
      .catch(() => []);
  },

View on GitHub (pinned to 526360e320)

Solutions

1. Run the same q via DevTools and read the status and body.
2. Confirm the document index is built (System.totalIndexes returns > 0).
3. Keep the query short and avoid characters that some WAFs filter even after encoding.
4. Ensure baseHeaders() sends a valid token.

function validQuery(q) {
  return typeof q === "string" && q.trim().length > 0 && q.length <= 200;
}

/** @param {any} r @returns {r is Array} */
function isResultsArray(r) { return Array.isArray(r); }

const results = await System.searchLocalFiles(q);
if (!isResultsArray(results)) { setResults([]); /* could not search */ }

When it happens

Trigger: Calling searchLocalFiles("invoice") when the underlying search index is unavailable (500), when q is empty and the server rejects it, or when the auth token is rejected (401/403).

Common situations: Search runs before the document index finishes building; the storage path changed and the index points at a stale location; very large query strings exceed a proxy URI length limit.

Related errors

• Could not fetch local files.
• Failed to fetch documents by paths.
• Failed to sync Confluence page content. ${reason}
• Failed to sync GitHub file content. ${reason}
• Failed to sync GitLab file content. ${reason}

AI-assisted analysis of Mintplex-Labs/anything-llm@526360e320 (2026-08-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/f1a419b58aab889c. Report an issue: GitHub.