jackwener/OpenCLI · error · CommandExecutionError

Could not load Google Scholar profile for: ${author}

Error message

Could not load Google Scholar profile for: ${author}

What it means

After navigating to a Scholar profile page (directly by user ID or after clicking a profile link), the command scrapes `#gsc_prf_in` for the author name. This error is thrown when the page evaluates but returns no `data.name`, meaning the expected profile page never rendered — typically a CAPTCHA/bot-check page, a rate-limit page, or a Scholar layout change.

Source

Thrown at clis/google-scholar/profile.js:76

                    rank: i + 1,
                    title: titleEl.textContent.trim(),
                    cited: citedEl ? citedEl.textContent.trim() : '0',
                    year: yearEl ? yearEl.textContent.trim() : '',
                });
            }

            return {
                name: name.trim(),
                affiliation: affiliation.trim(),
                citations: citations,
                hIndex: hIndex,
                i10Index: i10Index,
                papers: papers,
            };
        })()`);

        if (!data?.name) {
            throw new CommandExecutionError(`Could not load Google Scholar profile for: ${author}`);
        }

        if (!data.papers || data.papers.length === 0) {
            throw new CommandExecutionError(`No papers found for: ${data.name || author}`);
        }

        const summary = {
            rank: 0,
            title: data.name + (data.affiliation ? ' (' + data.affiliation + ')' : ''),
            cited: 'h=' + data.hIndex + ' i10=' + data.i10Index + ' total=' + data.citations,
            year: '-',
        };

        return [summary, ...data.papers];
    },
});

View on GitHub (pinned to 49907e53dc)

Solutions

1. Wait and retry with backoff — this is most often temporary bot detection/rate limiting.
2. Open https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=<ID>&hl=en in a browser to confirm the profile exists and the page renders normally.
3. Verify the 12-char user ID is correct (copy it from the profile URL).
4. Run from a residential IP or different network, and reduce request frequency.

Example fix

// before
opencli run google-scholar profile "JicYPdAAAAAJ"   // fails with CAPTCHA page
// after
sleep 30 && opencli run google-scholar profile "JicYPdAAAAAJ"  // retry after backoff

for (let attempt = 0; attempt < 3; attempt++) {
  try { return await run('google-scholar profile', author); }
  catch (e) {
    if (!/Could not load Google Scholar profile/.test(e.message)) throw e;
    await sleep(2 ** attempt * 5000);
  }
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling `google-scholar profile <author>` where navigation succeeded but `document.querySelector('#gsc_prf_in')` is null: invalid/expired user ID, CAPTCHA or 'unusual traffic' interstitial, non-profile page (e.g. redirected to error), or Scholar DOM change.

Common situations: Scraping many profiles in a row until Google rate-limits the IP; a datacenter/VPN IP flagged by Google; passing a made-up or truncated user ID; temporary Scholar outage or A/B layout test.

Related errors

• No profile found for: ${author}
• No papers found for: ${data.name || author}
• Google Scholar search returned an unexpected payload shape
• google-scholar/search
• amazon ${action} hit a robot check

AI-assisted analysis of jackwener/OpenCLI@49907e53dc (2026-08-29). Data as JSON: /api/errors/e592b839de6571fe. Report an issue: GitHub.