gocolly/colly · error

ErrNoCookieJar

ErrNoCookieJar

Error message

Cookie jar is not available

What it means

ErrNoCookieJar is returned when the collector is configured with cookies (e.g. c.SetCookies or cookie-dependent flows) but no cookie jar has been attached via c.SetCookieJar. Colly does not install a default jar; without one it cannot store or send cookies, so cookie operations fail with this error.

Source

Thrown at colly.go:238

var (
	// ErrForbiddenDomain is the error thrown if visiting
	// a domain which is not allowed in AllowedDomains
	ErrForbiddenDomain = errors.New("Forbidden domain")
	// ErrMissingURL is the error type for missing URL errors
	ErrMissingURL = errors.New("Missing URL")
	// ErrMaxDepth is the error type for exceeding max depth
	ErrMaxDepth = errors.New("Max depth limit reached")
	// ErrForbiddenURL is the error thrown if visiting
	// a URL which is not allowed by URLFilters
	ErrForbiddenURL = errors.New("ForbiddenURL")

	// ErrNoURLFiltersMatch is the error thrown if visiting
	// a URL which is not allowed by URLFilters
	ErrNoURLFiltersMatch = errors.New("No URLFilters match")
	// ErrRobotsTxtBlocked is the error type for robots.txt errors
	ErrRobotsTxtBlocked = errors.New("URL blocked by robots.txt")
	// ErrNoCookieJar is the error type for missing cookie jar
	ErrNoCookieJar = errors.New("Cookie jar is not available")
	// ErrNoPattern is the error type for LimitRules without patterns
	ErrNoPattern = errors.New("No pattern defined in LimitRule")
	// ErrEmptyProxyURL is the error type for empty Proxy URL list
	ErrEmptyProxyURL = errors.New("Proxy URL list is empty")
	// ErrAbortedAfterHeaders is the error returned when OnResponseHeaders aborts the transfer.
	ErrAbortedAfterHeaders = errors.New("Aborted after receiving response headers")
	// ErrAbortedBeforeRequest is the error returned when OnResponseHeaders aborts the transfer.
	ErrAbortedBeforeRequest = errors.New("Aborted before Do Request")
	// ErrQueueFull is the error returned when the queue is full
	ErrQueueFull = errors.New("Queue MaxSize reached")
	// ErrMaxRequests is the error returned when exceeding max requests
	ErrMaxRequests = errors.New("Max Requests limit reached")
	// ErrRetryBodyUnseekable is the error when retry with not seekable body
	ErrRetryBodyUnseekable = errors.New("Retry Body Unseekable")
)

var envMap = map[string]func(*Collector, string){
	"ALLOWED_DOMAINS": func(c *Collector, val string) {

View on GitHub (pinned to 17d1d6ca92)

Solutions

1. Attach a jar before any cookie-dependent call: c.SetCookieJar(jar)
2. Use a standard jar: jar, _ := cookiejar.New(nil); c.SetCookieJar(jar)
3. If cookies are unnecessary, avoid SetCookies/cookie APIs entirely
4. If you rely on an underlying http.Client, ensure the jar is set on that client and passed to the collector

Example fix

// before
c := colly.NewCollector()
c.SetCookies(u, cookies) // ErrNoCookieJar
// after
import "net/http/cookiejar"

c := colly.NewCollector()
jar, _ := cookiejar.New(nil)
c.SetCookieJar(jar)
c.SetCookies(u, cookies)

jar, err := cookiejar.New(nil)
if err != nil {
    return err
}
c.SetCookieJar(jar) // do this before any cookie-dependent call

if err := c.SetCookies(u, cookies); err != nil && errors.Is(err, colly.ErrNoCookieJar) {
    jar, _ := cookiejar.New(nil)
    c.SetCookieJar(jar)
    return c.SetCookies(u, cookies)
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling c.SetCookies(u, cookies) (or relying on automatic cookie persistence) before calling c.SetCookieJar(jar); creating a collector and doing authenticated multi-request flows without attaching a jar; copying collector config but dropping the jar assignment.

Common situations: Login-then-scrape flows where the session cookie must persist between requests; reusing http.Client cookie jars across collectors incorrectly; forgetting that Colly's default collector has no jar even though net/http clients often do.

Related errors

• ErrForbiddenDomain
• ErrMissingURL
• ErrMaxDepth
• ErrForbiddenURL
• ErrNoURLFiltersMatch

AI-assisted analysis of gocolly/colly@17d1d6ca92 (2026-08-30). Data as JSON: /api/errors/fe915455f435368b. Report an issue: GitHub.