Tencent/WeKnora · error

query is empty

Error message

query is empty

What it means

Search() validates the query string before issuing any HTTP work and refuses blank queries (whitespace-only counts as empty via strings.TrimSpace). SearXNG cannot serve a meaningful result set for an empty query, so the provider fails fast with a clear client-side error instead of a remote 4xx.

Source

Thrown at internal/infrastructure/web_search/searxng.go:99

// EmptyResultDiagnostics explains why the most recent search returned no
// usable results. Used by the settings "test connection" flow.
func (p *SearxngProvider) EmptyResultDiagnostics() string {
	if detail := formatUnresponsiveEngines(p.lastUnresponsive); detail != "" {
		return detail + "; check that upstream search engines can reach the internet"
	}
	return "verify the instance URL is reachable and JSON format is enabled in settings.yml"
}

// Search performs a metasearch query against the configured SearXNG instance.
// SearXNG must have `search.formats: [json]` enabled in settings.yml.
func (p *SearxngProvider) Search(
	ctx context.Context,
	query string,
	maxResults int,
	includeDate bool,
) ([]*types.WebSearchResult, error) {
	if strings.TrimSpace(query) == "" {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("query is empty")
	}
	if maxResults <= 0 {
		maxResults = 5
	}

	q := url.Values{}
	q.Set("q", query)
	q.Set("format", "json")
	// 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)

View on GitHub (pinned to 988cbb0330)

Solutions

1. Trim and check the query before calling Search; skip the search step entirely for blank input
2. Fix the upstream code that derives the query (e.g. keyword extraction) so it never yields empty strings
3. Return a graceful 'no results' result to the caller instead of treating it as an error path

Example fix

// before
results, err := provider.Search(ctx, query, 5, false)
// after
query = strings.TrimSpace(query)
if query == "" {
    return nil, nil // or handle empty-query case
}
results, err := provider.Search(ctx, query, 5, false)

if strings.TrimSpace(query) == "" {
    return nil, nil // skip search
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling Search(ctx, "", n, false) or Search(ctx, " \t ", n, false) on a SearxngProvider.

Common situations: Upstream pipeline produced an empty query (e.g. empty extracted keywords from a document chunk, blank user input passed through, or a template variable that never got filled).

Related errors

• query is empty
• member_limit must be >= 0
• app_id is required
• app_secret is required
• empty JSON content

AI-assisted analysis of Tencent/WeKnora@988cbb0330 (2026-09-02). Data as JSON: /api/errors/3eb170bb0166acaa. Report an issue: GitHub.