What causes "Unexpected data format. Expected dict, got: {type(data).__name__}" in OpenBB-finance/OpenBB?

Inspect type(data) and the raw response (log it) to see the actual payload shape from your network path.

OpenBB-finance/OpenBB · error · OpenBBError

Unexpected data format. Expected dict, got: {type(data).__na

Error message

Unexpected data format. Expected dict, got: {type(data).__name__}

What it means

The final type check in analyst_search.py:436: after ruling out the expected dict shape, any non-dict payload (typically a list or a str HTML error page that response_callback decoded) raises OpenBBError("Unexpected data format. Expected dict, got: {type(data).__name__}"). It fires only when the earlier emptiness and key checks passed shape-wise impossible paths — i.e. the callback returned a list that was non-empty, or a scalar.

Source

Thrown at openbb_platform/providers/benzinga/openbb_benzinga/models/analyst_search.py:436

        from openbb_core.provider.utils.helpers import amake_request, get_querystring

        token = credentials.get("benzinga_api_key") if credentials else ""
        querystring = get_querystring(query.model_dump(by_alias=True), [])
        url = f"https://api.benzinga.com/api/v2.1/calendar/ratings/analysts?{querystring}&token={token}"
        data = await amake_request(url, response_callback=response_callback, **kwargs)

        if (isinstance(data, list) and not data) or (
            isinstance(data, dict) and not data.get("analyst_ratings_analyst")
        ):
            raise EmptyDataError("No ratings data returned.")

        if isinstance(data, dict) and "analyst_ratings_analyst" not in data:
            raise OpenBBError(
                f"Unexpected data format. Expected 'analyst_ratings_analyst' key, got: {list(data.keys())}"
            )

        if not isinstance(data, dict):
            raise OpenBBError(
                f"Unexpected data format. Expected dict, got: {type(data).__name__}"
            )

        return data["analyst_ratings_analyst"]

    @staticmethod
    def transform_data(
        query: BenzingaAnalystSearchQueryParams,
        data: list[dict],
        **kwargs: Any,
    ) -> list[BenzingaAnalystSearchData]:
        """Transform the data."""
        results: list[BenzingaAnalystSearchData] = []
        for item in data:
            if item.get("firm_id"):
                result = {
                    "updated": item.get("updated", None),
                    "firm_id": item.get("firm_id", None),

View on GitHub (pinned to 3e071fcc2c)

Solutions

Inspect type(data) and the raw response (log it) to see the actual payload shape from your network path.
Upgrade openbb-benzinga — schema handling for this endpoint is maintained in the package's response_callback.
If you control the callback, normalize to dict before returning it.
Treat OpenBBError here as a provider-contract break: report it, don't retry blindly.

Example fix

# before
raise OpenBBError(f"Unexpected data format. Expected dict, got: {type(data).__name__}")

# after
if isinstance(data, list):
    rows = data  # Benzinga occasionally returns a bare array
else:
    rows = data["analyst_ratings_analyst"]

Defensive patterns

Strategy: type-guard

Validate before calling

assert isinstance(data, dict), f"expected dict payload, got {type(data).__name__}"
assert "analyst_ratings_analyst" in data, f"unexpected keys: {list(data.keys())}"

Type guard

def is_analyst_payload(data) -> bool:
    return isinstance(data, dict) and "analyst_ratings_analyst" in data

Try / catch

from openbb_core.app.model.abstract.error import OpenBBError
try:
    rows = data["analyst_ratings_analyst"]
except (OpenBBError, TypeError):
    logger.error("unexpected Benzinga payload type: %s", type(data).__name__)

Prevention

In tests, mock amake_request to return {"analyst_ratings_analyst": [...]}.
Log raw payload types when integrating through proxies.
Update openbb-benzinga after Benzinga API changes.

When it happens

Trigger: response_callback returning a parsed list (e.g. Benzinga serving a bare JSON array on some error paths), or a string, making `data` neither the guarded empty list nor a dict.

Common situations: Benothinga API revisions returning top-level arrays; proxies/interceptors returning HTML that decodes to str; mocked responses in tests that return lists.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of OpenBB-finance/OpenBB@3e071fcc2c (2026-08-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/82649dbbb43b4052. Report an issue: GitHub.