SillyTavern/SillyTavern · warning

Not Found

Error message

Not Found

What it means

HTTP 404 returned by POST /api/characters/get when the character .png file referenced by avatar_url does not exist in the user's characters directory. The server constructs the full path via path.join and checks fs.existsSync before calling processCharacter.

Source

Thrown at src/endpoints/characters.js:1485

        const pngFiles = files.filter(file => file.endsWith('.png'));
        const processingPromises = pngFiles.map(file => processCharacter(file, request.user.directories, { shallow: useShallowCharacters }));
        const data = (await Promise.all(processingPromises)).filter(c => c.name);
        return response.send(data);
    } catch (err) {
        console.error(err);
        const isRangeError = err instanceof RangeError;
        response.status(500).send({ overflow: isRangeError, error: true });
    }
});

router.post('/get', validateAvatarUrlMiddleware, async function (request, response) {
    try {
        if (!request.body) return response.sendStatus(400);
        const item = request.body.avatar_url;
        const filePath = path.join(request.user.directories.characters, item);

        if (!fs.existsSync(filePath)) {
            return response.sendStatus(404);
        }

        const data = await processCharacter(item, request.user.directories, { shallow: false });

        return response.send(data);
    } catch (err) {
        console.error(err);
        response.sendStatus(500);
    }
});

router.post('/chats', validateAvatarUrlMiddleware, async function (request, response) {
    try {
        if (!request.body) return response.sendStatus(400);

        const characterDirectory = (request.body.avatar_url).replace('.png', '');
        const chatsDirectory = path.join(request.user.directories.chats, characterDirectory);

View on GitHub (pinned to 8172dcd0ee)

Solutions

1. Refresh the character list via /api/characters/all to get current avatar_url values.
2. Handle the 404 in the client by removing the stale character from the UI.
3. Verify avatar_url matches an entry from the character list before requesting it.

// Check character existence before fetching details
async function getCharacterSafely(avatar_url) {
  const resp = await fetch('/api/characters/get', {
    method: 'POST',
    headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
    body: JSON.stringify({ avatar_url }),
  });
  if (resp.status === 404) {
    console.warn(`Character ${avatar_url} not found, may have been deleted`);
    return null;
  }
  return resp.json();
}

When it happens

Trigger: POST /api/characters/get with an avatar_url for a character that was deleted, renamed, or never existed on this server instance.

Common situations: Stale client cache referencing a deleted character; avatar_url typo or truncation; cross-environment mismatch (dev vs production character sets).

Related errors

• Not Found
• Error: character file does not exist
• Bad Request
• MiniMax key is missing.
• Azure OpenAI configuration is incomplete. Please provide Bas

AI-assisted analysis of SillyTavern/SillyTavern@8172dcd0ee (2026-08-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/dd4199763a918a8d. Report an issue: GitHub.