jackwener/OpenCLI · error · AuthRequiredError

Ctrip is asking for a captcha; complete it in your browser s

Error message

Ctrip is asking for a captcha; complete it in your browser session and retry

What it means

Thrown as AuthRequiredError when the Ctrip train page presents a captcha instead of train results (the in-page wait script reports state 'captcha'). The library drives a persistent browser session and cannot solve captchas itself, so it defers to the user's interactive browser session. It signals that the session's cookies/fingerprint are no longer trusted by trains.ctrip.com.

Source

Thrown at clis/ctrip/train.js:57

        'departureTime', 'departureStation',
        'arrivalTime', 'arrivalStation',
        'duration', 'fromPrice', 'seats',
        'url',
    ],
    func: async (page, kwargs) => {
        const fromName = parsePlaceName('from', kwargs.from);
        const toName = parsePlaceName('to', kwargs.to);
        if (fromName === toName) {
            throw new ArgumentError(`--from and --to must differ (got ${fromName})`);
        }
        const date = parseIsoDate('date', kwargs.date);
        const limit = parseListLimit(kwargs.limit);

        const searchUrl = buildTrainListUrl(fromName, toName, date);
        await page.goto(searchUrl);
        const waitResult = await page.evaluate(WAIT_FOR_TRAINS_JS);
        if (waitResult === 'captcha') {
            throw new AuthRequiredError('trains.ctrip.com', 'Ctrip is asking for a captcha; complete it in your browser session and retry');
        }
        if (waitResult !== 'content') {
            throw new CommandExecutionError(`Ctrip train page did not render train cards (state=${String(waitResult)})`);
        }
        const renderedCardCount = await page.evaluate(buildScrollUntilJs('.card-white.list-item', limit));
        const raw = await page.evaluate(buildTrainExtractJs());
        if (!Array.isArray(raw)) {
            throw new CommandExecutionError('Ctrip train DOM extraction returned malformed rows');
        }
        if (raw.length === 0) {
            if (Number(renderedCardCount) > 0) {
                throw new CommandExecutionError('Ctrip train cards rendered but parser did not find required train anchors');
            }
            throw new EmptyResultError('ctrip train', `No trains for ${fromName} to ${toName} on ${date}`);
        }
        return raw.slice(0, limit).map((r, i) => ({
            rank: i + 1,
            trainNo: r.trainNo,

View on GitHub (pinned to 49907e53dc)

Solutions

  1. Open the same browser session/user-data-dir interactively, solve the captcha on trains.ctrip.com, then retry the command.
  2. Reduce request rate and add delays between train queries.
  3. Use a residential IP or different network egress.
  4. Refresh the session by logging into Ctrip in the shared browser profile before retrying.

Example fix

// before (rapid loop)
for (const d of dates) await runTrainList({ from, to, date: d });
// after (throttled)
for (const d of dates) { await runTrainList({ from, to, date: d }); await sleep(15000); }
Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Validate before calling

null

Type guard

null

Try / catch

try { await runTrainList(opts); } catch (e) { if (e instanceof AuthRequiredError) { await promptCaptchaSolve(e.domain); return retry(); } throw e; }

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: page.goto(buildTrainListUrl(...)) followed by page.evaluate(WAIT_FOR_TRAINS_JS) returning 'captcha', typically after repeated automated requests or a stale/unauthenticated shared browser profile.

Common situations: Scraping many queries in quick succession; running from a datacenter IP; shared browser profile whose Ctrust cookies expired; Ctrip risk controls flagging headless/automated browsing.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of jackwener/OpenCLI@49907e53dc (2026-08-29). Data as JSON: /api/errors/ebdf9ebc4b5ed832. Report an issue: GitHub.