infiniflow/ragflow · error · RuntimeError

unexpected response content-type: {content_type or 'unknown'

Error message

unexpected response content-type: {content_type or 'unknown'}, response: {text[:200]}

What it means

Error "unexpected response content-type: {content_type or 'unknown'}, response: {text[:200]}" thrown in infiniflow/ragflow.

Source

Thrown at api/channels/whatsapp/channel.py:129

        path: str,
        payload: dict[str, Any] | None = None,
    ) -> dict[str, Any]:
        session = await self._ensure_http_session()
        url = self._gateway_url(path)
        async with session.request(
            method,
            url,
            json=payload,
            headers=self._gateway_headers(),
        ) as resp:
            text = await resp.text()
            if resp.status >= 400:
                raise RuntimeError(f"status: {resp.status}, response: {text}")
            if not text.strip():
                return {}
            content_type = resp.headers.get("content-type", "")
            if "application/json" not in content_type.lower():
                raise RuntimeError(f"unexpected response content-type: {content_type or 'unknown'}, response: {text[:200]}")
            try:
                return await resp.json()
            except Exception as ex:
                raise RuntimeError(f"invalid json response: {text[:200]}") from ex

    async def _request_json_with_retry(
        self,
        method: str,
        path: str,
        payload: dict[str, Any] | None = None,
    ) -> dict[str, Any]:
        deadline = time.time() + WHATSAPP_GATEWAY_START_RETRY_SECS
        last_error: Exception | None = None
        while time.time() < deadline and not self._stop_event.is_set():
            try:
                return await self._request_json(method, path, payload)
            except (aiohttp.ClientError, asyncio.TimeoutError, OSError) as ex:
                last_error = ex

View on GitHub (pinned to 554fb1133a)

Solutions

1. Ensure the gateway returns application/json responses.
2. Check for proxy or error pages returning HTML instead of JSON.

Example fix

content_type = resp.headers.get('content-type', '')
if 'application/json' not in content_type:
    raise Exception(f'unexpected response content-type: {content_type}')

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at api/channels/whatsapp/channel.py:129 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: The gateway or an intermediate proxy responds with HTML or plain text (e.g. an error page) instead of JSON; verifying the gateway endpoint prevents this error.

AI-assisted analysis of infiniflow/ragflow@554fb1133a (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d1d532619bdb9404. Report an issue: GitHub.