apify/crawlee · error · NavigationSkippedError

The `body` property is not available - `skipNavigation` was

Error message

The `body` property is not available - `skipNavigation` was used

What it means

In LinkedomCrawler skipNavigation mode the `body` getter, which would normally return the parsed document HTML, is replaced by a throwing getter since no document was produced. It preserves the NavigationSkippedError as the cause for diagnosis.

Source

Thrown at packages/linkedom-crawler/src/internals/linkedom-crawler.ts:254

                get body() {
                    return document.documentElement.outerHTML;
                },
                get document() {
                    // See comment about typing in LinkeDOMCrawlingContext definition
                    return document as unknown as Document;
                },
            };
        } catch (err) {
            if (err instanceof NavigationSkippedError) {
                return {
                    get window(): Window {
                        throw new NavigationSkippedError(
                            'The `window` property is not available - `skipNavigation` was used',
                            { cause: err },
                        );
                    },
                    get body(): string {
                        throw new NavigationSkippedError(
                            'The `body` property is not available - `skipNavigation` was used',
                            { cause: err },
                        );
                    },
                    get document(): Document {
                        throw new NavigationSkippedError(
                            'The `document` property is not available - `skipNavigation` was used',
                            { cause: err },
                        );
                    },
                };
            }

            throw err;
        }
    }

    private async addHelpers(crawlingContext: InternalHttpCrawlingContext & { body: string; window: Window }) {

View on GitHub (pinned to dbe57fb09c)

Solutions

Disable skipNavigation so the linkedom document (and its `body` getter) is created.
Obtain the raw response text from the response object instead of `context.body`.
Switch these requests to CheerioCrawler if you only need raw HTML handling.
Guard DOM/body access with a check on whether navigation was skipped.

Example fix

// before (skipNavigation: true)
const html = context.body; // throws

// after
const html = context.response?.body ?? ''; // raw source, not the DOM body getter

Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Validate before calling

if (request.skipNavigation === true) {
    // use context.response for raw HTML; context.body getter throws
}

Type guard

null

Try / catch

let html: string;
try {
    html = context.body;
} catch (err) {
    if ((err as Error).message.includes('`skipNavigation` was used')) {
        html = await context.response.text();
    } else {
        throw err;
    }
}

Prevention

Don't reuse JSDOMCrawler-style `context.body` assumptions in skipNavigation linkedom handlers.
Fetch raw HTML via the response object in skipNavigation mode.
Prefer CheerioCrawler when raw HTML access is the primary need.
Note the skipNavigation contract in team docs: no window/body/document getters.

When it happens

Trigger: Reading `context.body` in a LinkedomCrawler requestHandler for a request run with `skipNavigation: true`.

Common situations: Handlers written for the default (parsing) mode reused on skipNavigation crawls; confusion with CheerioCrawler, where `context.body` is always the raw HTML string.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of apify/crawlee@dbe57fb09c (2026-08-30). Data as JSON: /api/errors/14552583f9aa4c5a. Report an issue: GitHub.