{"record":{"id":"7ee2d276aab4724b","repo":"crewAIInc/crewAI","slug":"empty-response-from-serper-api","errorCode":null,"errorMessage":"Empty response from Serper API","messagePattern":"Empty response from Serper API","errorType":"exception","errorClass":"ValueError","httpStatus":null,"severity":"error","filePath":"lib/crewai-tools/src/crewai_tools/tools/serper_dev_tool/serper_dev_tool.py","lineNumber":264,"sourceCode":"            payload[\"location\"] = self.location\n        if self.locale != \"\":\n            payload[\"hl\"] = self.locale\n\n        headers = {\n            \"X-API-KEY\": os.environ[\"SERPER_API_KEY\"],\n            \"content-type\": \"application/json\",\n        }\n\n        response = None\n        try:\n            response = requests.post(\n                search_url, headers=headers, json=payload, timeout=10\n            )\n            response.raise_for_status()\n            results = response.json()\n            if not results:\n                logger.error(\"Empty response from Serper API\")\n                raise ValueError(\"Empty response from Serper API\")\n            return dict(results)\n        except requests.exceptions.RequestException as e:\n            error_msg = f\"Error making request to Serper API: {e}\"\n            if response is not None and hasattr(response, \"content\"):\n                error_msg += f\"\\nResponse content: {response.content.decode('utf-8', errors='replace')}\"\n            logger.error(error_msg)\n            raise\n        except json.JSONDecodeError as e:\n            if response is not None and hasattr(response, \"content\"):\n                logger.error(f\"Error decoding JSON response: {e}\")\n                logger.error(\n                    f\"Response content: {response.content.decode('utf-8', errors='replace')}\"\n                )\n            else:\n                logger.error(\n                    f\"Error decoding JSON response: {e} (No response content available)\"\n                )\n            raise","sourceCodeStart":246,"sourceCodeEnd":282,"githubUrl":"https://github.com/crewAIInc/crewAI/blob/754d7323beb2fd042e33444a115ea2d5a47193f0/lib/crewai-tools/src/crewai_tools/tools/serper_dev_tool/serper_dev_tool.py#L246-L282","documentation":"SerperDevTool raises ValueError(\"Empty response from Serper API\") in _make_api_request when requests.post succeeds (HTTP 2xx) and response.json() parses to an empty object. The tool treats a 200 with a falsy JSON body as a terminal error rather than returning empty results.","triggerScenarios":"A POST to https://google.serper.dev/search or /news returns HTTP 200 with an empty JSON body ({}). This is rare but can happen with malformed payloads the API silently accepts, or transient API-side glitches.","commonSituations":"Usually transient Serper-side behavior or an edge-case payload (e.g. num=0 or an unsupported parameter combination). Most users who see this hit it intermittently during high-volume runs.","solutions":["Retry the tool call — a 200-with-empty-body is typically transient.","Inspect the payload your code sends (the dict built from search_query/search_type and options) for parameters that could suppress results.","Check Serper status (https://serper.dev) and your account quota; if it persists, capture the raw request and report to Serper support."],"exampleFix":null,"handlingStrategy":"retry","validationCode":null,"typeGuard":null,"tryCatchPattern":"import time\nfor attempt in range(3):\n    try:\n        return serper_tool._run(search_query=q)\n    except ValueError as e:\n        if \"Empty response\" not in str(e) or attempt == 2:\n            raise\n        time.sleep(2 ** attempt)","preventionTips":["Treat an empty 200 from Serper as transient and retry with backoff.","Log the raw payload sent when it happens repeatedly to identify suppressive parameters."],"tags":["serper","api","empty-response","network"],"backgroundTag":null,"analyzedSha":"754d7323beb2fd042e33444a115ea2d5a47193f0","analyzedAt":"2026-08-15T04:06:56.746Z","schemaVersion":2},"datasetVersion":"2026-08-15T17:31:12.345Z"}