huggingface/smolagents · warning · Exception

No results found for query: '{query}'. Use a less restrictiv

Error message

No results found for query: '{query}'. Use a less restrictive query.

What it means

Raised by the search tool's forward when the provider response has no organic-results key and no year filter was applied — i.e. the query returned zero organic results. Note the sibling branch: when the key exists but is empty, the tool returns a message instead of raising, so only the complete absence of organic results raises.

Source

Thrown at src/smolagents/default_tools.py:223

            }
            base_url = "https://google.serper.dev/search"
        if filter_year is not None:
            params["tbs"] = f"cdr:1,cd_min:01/01/{filter_year},cd_max:12/31/{filter_year}"

        response = requests.get(base_url, params=params)

        if response.status_code == 200:
            results = response.json()
        else:
            raise ValueError(response.json())

        if self.organic_key not in results.keys():
            if filter_year is not None:
                raise Exception(
                    f"No results found for query: '{query}' with filtering on year={filter_year}. Use a less restrictive query or do not filter on year."
                )
            else:
                raise Exception(f"No results found for query: '{query}'. Use a less restrictive query.")
        if len(results[self.organic_key]) == 0:
            year_filter_message = f" with filter year={filter_year}" if filter_year is not None else ""
            return f"No results found for '{query}'{year_filter_message}. Try with a more general query, or remove the year filter."

        web_snippets = []
        if self.organic_key in results:
            for idx, page in enumerate(results[self.organic_key]):
                date_published = ""
                if "date" in page:
                    date_published = "\nDate published: " + page["date"]

                source = ""
                if "source" in page:
                    source = "\nSource: " + page["source"]

                snippet = ""
                if "snippet" in page:
                    snippet = "\n" + page["snippet"]

View on GitHub (pinned to 30bb116109)

Solutions

Use a shorter, more general query.
Check the provider dashboard for quota/billing errors — an error payload often lacks the organic key too.
Wrap in try/except and return a retry hint to the calling agent.

Example fix

# before
tool.run('"zxy impossible exact phrase"')
# after
tool.run('related broader topic')

Defensive patterns

Strategy: retry

Validate before calling

null

Try / catch

try:
    res = tool.run(q)
except Exception as e:
    if 'No results found' in str(e): res = tool.run(generalize(q))
    else: raise

Prevention

Prefer broader queries; refine only when results are noisy.
Monitor provider quota — error payloads also lack the organic key.

When it happens

Trigger: Calling run(query) without filter_year on a query for which the Serper/SerpAPI response omits the organic key entirely.

Common situations: Overly restrictive queries, provider API quota/billing issues returning error payloads without organic results, or region/language settings that yield no results.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of huggingface/smolagents@30bb116109 (2026-08-28). Data as JSON: /api/errors/9ef32c849e39f6fa. Report an issue: GitHub.