jackwener/OpenCLI · error · CommandExecutionError

archive snapshots failed: HTTP ${resp.status}

Error message

archive snapshots failed: HTTP ${resp.status}

What it means

CommandExecutionError thrown when the Wayback CDX endpoint responds with a non-2xx HTTP status. The CDX service commonly returns 503 (per its docs, served on HTTP; HTTPS returns 503) or 4xx/5xx under load. The status code is embedded in the message so callers can branch on it.

Source

Thrown at clis/archive/snapshots.js:79

        apiUrl.searchParams.set('url', target);
        apiUrl.searchParams.set('output', 'json');
        apiUrl.searchParams.set('limit', String(limit));
        if (args.from) apiUrl.searchParams.set('from', String(args.from));
        if (args.to) apiUrl.searchParams.set('to', String(args.to));

        let resp;
        try {
            resp = await fetch(apiUrl, {
                headers: {
                    'Accept': 'application/json',
                    'User-Agent': 'opencli/1.0 (+https://github.com/jackwener/opencli)',
                },
            });
        } catch (error) {
            throw new CommandExecutionError(`archive snapshots request failed: ${error?.message || error}`);
        }
        if (!resp.ok) {
            throw new CommandExecutionError(`archive snapshots failed: HTTP ${resp.status}`);
        }
        let data;
        try {
            data = await resp.json();
        } catch (error) {
            throw new CommandExecutionError(`archive snapshots returned malformed JSON: ${error?.message || error}`);
        }

        // CDX returns an array of arrays; the first row is the header.
        if (!Array.isArray(data)) {
            throw new CommandExecutionError('archive snapshots returned malformed CDX payload: top-level payload must be an array');
        }
        if (data.length < 2) {
            throw new EmptyResultError('archive snapshots', `No Wayback snapshots for "${target}".`);
        }
        const [header, ...rows] = data;
        if (!Array.isArray(header)) {
            throw new CommandExecutionError('archive snapshots returned malformed CDX payload: header row must be an array');

View on GitHub (pinned to 49907e53dc)

Solutions

1. Check the status in the message: 503 usually means retry later with exponential backoff.
2. Verify the target url pattern is valid CDX syntax (e.g. example.org or example.org/* for prefix matches).
3. Slow down request rate and add caching if you query many sites — Wayback enforces rate limits.
4. Confirm you are hitting the HTTP endpoint; the HTTPS CDX endpoint is known to return 503.

Example fix

// before
opencli archive snapshots 'https://example.org/path with space'
// after
opencli archive snapshots 'example.org/*'   # valid CDX url pattern, then retry on 503

// Validate the CDX url pattern before calling
classic: pattern = pattern || 'example.org';
if (/[<>"'\s]/.test(pattern)) throw new Error(`invalid CDX url pattern: ${pattern}`);
if (!Number.isInteger(limit) || limit <= 0 || limit > 1000) throw new Error('limit must be 1..1000');

try {
  await run(['archive', 'snapshots', url]);
} catch (e) {
  const m = /HTTP (\d{3})/.exec(e.message);
  if (m) {
    const status = Number(m[1]);
    if (status === 503 || status === 429) return retryWithBackoff(url); // transient
    throw e; // 4xx: fix the url pattern/query
  }
  throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: The fetch to http://web.archive.org/cdx/search/cdx succeeds at the transport level but resp.ok is false — e.g. HTTP 503 from overload or from hitting the HTTPS endpoint, 400 for a malformed url param, 403 for blocked clients.

Common situations: Wayback rate-limiting heavy automated use; CDX under maintenance/overload; malformed CDX query parameters (bad url= pattern, invalid filters); intermediaries returning 4xx/5xx HTML pages.

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AI-assisted analysis of jackwener/OpenCLI@49907e53dc (2026-08-29). Data as JSON: /api/errors/3fdd85101edcb74c. Report an issue: GitHub.