badges/shields · error · InvalidResponse

Maximum response size exceeded

Error message

Maximum response size exceeded

What it means

sendRequest wraps got; when got aborts the transfer because the response exceeded the configured maximum body size, the request fails with code 'ERR_ABORTED', and sendRequest converts that into InvalidResponse with underlyingError 'Maximum response size exceeded'. This guards against accidentally downloading huge bodies from upstream endpoints.

Source

Thrown at core/base-service/got.js:21

import {
  fetchLimitBytes as fetchLimitBytesDefault,
  getUserAgent,
} from './got-config.js'

const userAgent = getUserAgent()

async function sendRequest(gotWrapper, url, options = {}, systemErrors = {}) {
  const gotOptions = Object.assign({}, options)
  gotOptions.throwHttpErrors = false
  gotOptions.retry = { limit: 0 }
  gotOptions.headers = gotOptions.headers || {}
  gotOptions.headers['User-Agent'] = userAgent
  try {
    const resp = await gotWrapper(url, gotOptions)
    return { res: resp, buffer: resp.body }
  } catch (err) {
    if (err.code === 'ERR_ABORTED') {
      throw new InvalidResponse({
        underlyingError: new Error('Maximum response size exceeded'),
      })
    }
    if (err.code in systemErrors) {
      throw new Inaccessible({
        ...systemErrors[err.code],
        underlyingError: err,
      })
    }
    throw new Inaccessible({ underlyingError: err })
  }
}

function _fetchFactory(fetchLimitBytes = fetchLimitBytesDefault) {
  const gotWithLimit = got.extend({
    handlers: [
      (options, next) => {
        const abortController = new AbortController()

View on GitHub (pinned to 766fd8bc89)

Solutions

1. Narrow the request so the response is small (add filters, query params, pagination, or point at a lighter endpoint)
2. Check that the URL targets the metadata/API route, not a large download or raw artifact
3. If larger responses are genuinely required, raise the service's max response size option where supported
4. Cache or pre-filter server-side if you control the upstream

Example fix

// before
const { buffer } = await sendRequest('https://registry.example.org/api/v1/all') // full registry dump -> exceeds max size
// after
const { buffer } = await sendRequest(`https://registry.example.org/api/v1/package/${encodeURIComponent(name)}`)

// server-side pre-check to keep responses small
const head = await fetch(url, { method: 'HEAD' })
const size = Number(head.headers.get('content-length') || 0)
if (size > 2 * 1024 * 1024) throw new Error(`response of ${size} bytes exceeds max size; narrow the query`)

try {
  const { buffer } = await sendRequest(url)
} catch (err) {
  if (err.underlyingError?.message === 'Maximum response size exceeded') {
    // narrow query params / paginate / use a lighter endpoint, then retry
  } else throw err
}

When it happens

Trigger: The requested endpoint returns a body larger than the maxResponseSize configured for got (e.g. a huge JSON/XML export, a large file mistakenly pointed at, or a proxy ignoring size limits), causing got to abort with ERR_ABORTED.

Common situations: Querying an API without filters so it returns thousands of records; endpoints serving big reports/logs; misconfigured URL hitting a binary/download route instead of a metadata API; intentionally larger upstream payloads after an upstream upgrade.

Related errors

• invalid response data from auth endpoint
• unparseable svg response
• unparseable toml response
• unparseable xml response
• unparseable yaml response

AI-assisted analysis of badges/shields@766fd8bc89 (2026-08-30). Data as JSON: /api/errors/56c216c2775ada38. Report an issue: GitHub.