apify/crawlee · error · NavigationSkippedError

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

Error message

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

What it means

NavigationSkippedError thrown by the getter for `json` on the crawling context. There is no response body to JSON-parse for `skipNavigation` requests, so the getter throws to make the misuse explicit.

Source

Thrown at packages/http-crawler/src/internals/http-crawler.ts:567

    private async processHttpResponse(
        crawlingContext: CrawlingContextWithResponse,
    ): Promise<
        Omit<InternalHttpCrawlingContext, keyof CrawlingContextWithResponse> & Partial<InternalHttpCrawlingContext>
    > {
        if (crawlingContext.request.skipNavigation) {
            return {
                get contentType(): InternalHttpCrawlingContext['contentType'] {
                    throw new NavigationSkippedError(
                        'The `contentType` property is not available - `skipNavigation` was used',
                    );
                },
                get body(): InternalHttpCrawlingContext['body'] {
                    throw new NavigationSkippedError(
                        'The `body` property is not available - `skipNavigation` was used',
                    );
                },
                get json(): InternalHttpCrawlingContext['json'] {
                    throw new NavigationSkippedError(
                        'The `json` property is not available - `skipNavigation` was used',
                    );
                },
                get waitForSelector(): InternalHttpCrawlingContext['waitForSelector'] {
                    throw new NavigationSkippedError(
                        'The `waitForSelector` method is not available - `skipNavigation` was used',
                    );
                },
                get parseWithCheerio(): InternalHttpCrawlingContext['parseWithCheerio'] {
                    throw new NavigationSkippedError(
                        'The `parseWithCheerio` method is not available - `skipNavigation` was used',
                    );
                },
            };
        }

        tryCancel();

View on GitHub (pinned to dbe57fb09c)

Solutions

Only call `context.json` when navigation actually happened.
Attach the JSON payload to `userData` at queue time if skipped requests need data.
Route skipped requests to a dedicated handler.

Example fix

// before
const data = await context.json;
// after
const data = context.request.skipNavigation ? context.request.userData.payload : await context.json;

Defensive patterns

Strategy: type-guard

Validate before calling

if (request.skipNavigation) { data = request.userData.payload; } else { data = await ctx.json; }

Type guard

function canParseJson(ctx: CrawlingContext): boolean { return !(ctx.request as any).skipNavigation; }

Try / catch

try { const data = await ctx.json; } catch (err) { if (err instanceof NavigationSkippedError) { /* fallback to request.userData */ } else throw err; }

Prevention

Only await ctx.json after real navigation.
Serialize needed JSON into userData at enqueue time.
Avoid generic handlers over mixed request types.
Use label-based routing.

When it happens

Trigger: Calling `await context.json` in a request handler for a request created with `skipNavigation: true`.

Common situations: API-crawling handlers reused for seed/skip requests; generic data-extraction handlers applied to all queued requests.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of apify/crawlee@dbe57fb09c (2026-08-30). Data as JSON: /api/errors/29e6f957bcf27e36. Report an issue: GitHub.