Tencent/WeKnora · error

failed to execute request: %w

Error message

failed to execute request: %w

What it means

The HTTP GET to the SearXNG instance failed at the transport layer: DNS failure, connection refused, TLS handshake error, or context cancellation/timeout. The provider wraps the underlying *url.Error so the root cause (e.g. 'connection refused') is preserved.

Source

Thrown at internal/infrastructure/web_search/searxng.go:126

	// Use "all" (SearXNG's documented value for "no language filter") instead
	// of "auto", which is a UI-side default and not a valid /search parameter.
	// safesearch is intentionally not set here so the value configured in the
	// instance's settings.yml is honored.
	q.Set("language", "all")

	reqURL := p.baseURL + "/search?" + q.Encode()
	logger.Infof(ctx, "[WebSearch][SearXNG] query=%q maxResults=%d url=%s", query, maxResults, p.baseURL)

	req, err := http.NewRequestWithContext(ctx, http.MethodGet, reqURL, nil)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to create request: %w", err)
	}
	req.Header.Set("Accept", "application/json")
	req.Header.Set("User-Agent", "WeKnora/1.0")

	resp, err := p.client.Do(req)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to execute request: %w", err)
	}
	defer resp.Body.Close()

	if resp.StatusCode != http.StatusOK {
		body, _ := io.ReadAll(io.LimitReader(resp.Body, 1024))
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("searxng returned status %d: %s", resp.StatusCode, string(body))
	}

	var data searxngResponse
	if err := json.NewDecoder(resp.Body).Decode(&data); err != nil {
		p.lastUnresponsive = nil
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to decode SearXNG response (ensure JSON format is enabled in settings.yml): %w", err)
	}
	p.lastUnresponsive = data.UnresponsiveEngines

	results := make([]*types.WebSearchResult, 0, maxResults)
	for _, r := range data.Results {
		if len(results) >= maxResults {

View on GitHub (pinned to 988cbb0330)

Solutions

1. Unwrap the error (errors.Unwrap or %v of the wrapped url.Error) to see the exact cause (refused vs timeout vs DNS)
2. Verify SearXNG is reachable: curl '<baseURL>/search?q=test&format=json' from the backend host
3. Fix baseURL host/port and any proxy configuration; confirm container networking (docker network) if self-hosted
4. Increase the HTTP client timeout or shorten the query workload if it is a timeout; add retry with backoff for transient network faults

Example fix

// before
results, err := provider.Search(ctx, q, 5, false)
if err != nil { return err }
// after
results, err := provider.Search(ctx, q, 5, false)
if err != nil {
    var netErr net.Error
    if errors.As(err, &netErr) && netErr.Timeout() {
        return retryWithBackoff(ctx, q) // transient timeout
    }
    return fmt.Errorf("web search unavailable: %w", err)
}

// preflight reachability check
resp, err := http.Head(baseURL)
if err != nil {
    return fmt.Errorf("searxng unreachable: %w", err)
}
resp.Body.Close()

var netErr net.Error
if errors.As(err, &netErr) && netErr.Timeout() {
    // retry with backoff
} else if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "connection refused") {
    // service down: alert / fallback to another provider
}

When it happens

Trigger: SearXNG host unreachable or down; wrong port in baseURL; network egress blocked from the backend; ctx deadline exceeded while the request was in flight.

Common situations: SearXNG container not running or on a different Docker network; firewall/egress rules blocking outbound calls; DNS name typo; slow SearXNG instance exceeding the HTTP client timeout.

Understand the failure class

Background: ECONNREFUSED and "connection refused" / "could not connect to server" errors: what they mean and how to fix them — this error's family across 44 libraries.

Related errors

• service unreachable: %w
• fetch failed: %w
• read body failed: %w
• HTTP GET: %w
• download zip: %w

AI-assisted analysis of Tencent/WeKnora@988cbb0330 (2026-09-02). Data as JSON: /api/errors/fa512bd101a5b349. Report an issue: GitHub.