can1357/oh-my-pi · error · SearchProviderError

Google browser search failed: ${message}

Error message

Google browser search failed: ${message}

What it means

Thrown by callGoogleHtml when the browser fetch of Google Search fails with an unexpected error that is neither a SearchProviderError nor a caller abort and the timeout signal has not fired. The original error message is embedded and wrapped as status 503 (upstream failure).

Source

Thrown at packages/coding-agent/src/web/search/providers/google.ts:141

	try {
		page = await browserFetch(url, {
			fetch: params.fetch,
			signal,
			timeoutMs: params.timeoutMs,
			referer: GOOGLE_HOME_URL,
			browser: {
				homeUrl: GOOGLE_HOME_URL,
				ready: { selector: "a h3", timeoutMs: RESULT_RENDER_TIMEOUT_MS },
				shouldFallback: candidate => blockReason(candidate) !== undefined,
			},
		});
	} catch (error) {
		if (error instanceof SearchProviderError || params.signal?.aborted) throw error;
		if (signal.aborted) {
			throw new SearchProviderError("google", "Google browser search timed out.", 504);
		}
		const message = error instanceof Error ? error.message : String(error);
		throw new SearchProviderError("google", `Google browser search failed: ${message}`, 503);
	}

	const blocked = blockReason(page);
	if (blocked === "traffic") {
		throw new SearchProviderError(
			"google",
			"Google blocked the browser search with an automated-traffic challenge. Try another web search provider or retry later.",
			429,
		);
	}
	if (page.status < 200 || page.status >= 300) {
		throw new SearchProviderError("google", `Google HTML error (${page.status})`, page.status);
	}
	if (blocked === "javascript") {
		throw new SearchProviderError(
			"google",
			"Google returned its JavaScript challenge instead of rendered search results.",
			429,

View on GitHub (pinned to 9690622007)

Solutions

1. Inspect the embedded `message` for the root cause (DNS, proxy, browser launch, TLS).
2. Install/verify the headless browser runtime used by browserFetch if the fetch-first path fell back.
3. Fix network/proxy settings so google.com is reachable from the host.
4. Configure a different search provider if scraping Google is blocked in your network environment.

Example fix

# before: container without browser deps
$ omp web-search --provider google "q"  # Google browser search failed: Failed to launch browser
# after
$ npx playwright install --with-deps chromium

// check egress and browser availability before scraping
dns.lookup('www.google.com', err => { if (err) console.error('google.com unreachable'); });

function isGoogleTransportFailure(e: unknown): boolean {
  return e instanceof SearchProviderError && e.provider === 'google' && e.statusCode === 503;
}

try {
  return await search({ provider: 'google', query });
} catch (err) {
  if (isGoogleTransportFailure(err)) return await search({ provider: 'jina', query });
  throw err;
}

When it happens

Trigger: browserFetch throws during the fetch-first attempt or headless-browser fallback — e.g. browser launch failure, DNS/network errors, TLS errors, or a page-load crash — while neither params.signal nor the hard-timeout signal is aborted.

Common situations: Headless browser (Playwright/Chromium) not installed or failing to launch in CI/containers; corporate proxy blocking google.com; DNS failure; SSL inspection certificates breaking the fetch.

Related errors

• Google browser search timed out.
• Google API stream ended without a finish reason (connection
• Google API returned an empty response body
• Timed out waiting for CDP endpoint ${cdpUrl}${lastStatus !==
• tab.waitForResponse() timed out after ${timeoutMs}ms

AI-assisted analysis of can1357/oh-my-pi@9690622007 (2026-08-31). Data as JSON: /api/errors/1ab9ff7c5e72b213. Report an issue: GitHub.