TryGhost/Ghost · warning · Error

Failed to fetch recommendations

Error message

Failed to fetch recommendations

What it means

Thrown in api.site.recommendations() when GET {apiUrl}/recommendations/?limit=... returns non-ok. Message 'Failed to fetch recommendations'. Portal uses recommendations to render the recommended-sites UI.

Source

Thrown at apps/portal/src/utils/api.js:133

                } else {
                    throw new Error('Failed to fetch offer data');
                }
            });
        },

        recommendations({limit = 100} = {limit: 100}) {
            const url = contentEndpointFor({resource: 'recommendations', params: {limit}});
            return makeRequest({
                url,
                method: 'GET',
                headers: {
                    'Content-Type': 'application/json'
                }
            }).then(function (res) {
                if (res.ok) {
                    return res.json();
                } else {
                    throw new Error('Failed to fetch recommendations');
                }
            });
        }
    };

    api.feedback = {
        async add({uuid, key, postId, score}) {
            let url = endpointFor({type: 'members', resource: 'feedback'});
            if (uuid && key) { // only necessary if not logged in, and both are required if so
                url = url + `?uuid=${uuid}&key=${key}`;
            }
            const body = {
                feedback: [
                    {
                        post_id: postId,
                        score
                    }
                ]

View on GitHub (pinned to 47d8b0e2ad)

Solutions

1. Verify the Ghost server version exposes /api/content/recommendations/.
2. Check the Content API key in the Portal data attributes.
3. Confirm apiUrl and CORS allow the page origin.
4. If unused, consider not rendering the recommendations block to avoid the call entirely.

Example fix

// before
throw new Error('Failed to fetch recommendations');

// after
throw new Error(`Failed to fetch recommendations (${res.status} ${res.statusText})`);

// skip the call entirely when recommendations are not shown
function shouldFetchRecommendations(state) {
    return state.features?.recommendations && state.showRecommendations;
}

try {
    return await api.site.recommendations();
} catch (err) {
    // non-critical — render empty recommendations
    return [];
}

When it happens

Trigger: Portal loads the recommendations content endpoint; non-ok response — no recommendations configured, invalid API key, endpoint not present in older Ghost.

Common situations: Older Ghost version that predates the recommendations content endpoint; rotated/stale Content API key; CORS / apiUrl misconfiguration; recommendations feature disabled in labs on the server.

Related errors

• Failed to fetch site data
• Could not create Stripe checkout session
• Failed to fetch site data
• Failed to fetch offer data
• fallbackMessage

AI-assisted analysis of TryGhost/Ghost@47d8b0e2ad (2026-08-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/0cd2dc1176721bbf. Report an issue: GitHub.