jackwener/OpenCLI · error · Error

Failed to fetch following: HTTP ' + r2.status

Error message

Failed to fetch following: HTTP ' + r2.status

What it means

In the following command's pagination loop, each page is fetched from https://www.instagram.com/api/v1/friendships/<userId>/following/?count=50(&max_id=...). A non-ok HTTP status on any page throws this error with the status code. Because it's inside the while(results.length < limit) loop, the error can fire mid-pagination even if earlier pages succeeded.

Source

Thrown at clis/instagram/following.js:36

  const limit = \${{ args.limit }};
  if (!Number.isInteger(limit) || limit < 1) throw new Error('limit must be a positive integer');
  const headers = { 'X-IG-App-ID': '936619743392459' };
  const opts = { credentials: 'include', headers };

  ${buildResolveInstagramUserIdJs()}

  const PAGE_SIZE = 50;
  const results = [];
  const seen = new Set();
  const seenCursors = new Set();
  let maxId = undefined;
  const baseUrl = 'https://www.instagram.com/api/v1/friendships/' + userId + '/following/';

  while (results.length < limit) {
    const params = new URLSearchParams({ count: String(PAGE_SIZE) });
    if (maxId) params.set('max_id', maxId);
    const r2 = await fetch(baseUrl + '?' + params.toString(), opts);
    if (!r2.ok) throw new Error('Failed to fetch following: HTTP ' + r2.status);
    const d2 = await r2.json();
    if (!d2 || typeof d2 !== 'object' || !Array.isArray(d2.users)) {
      throw new Error('Instagram following returned malformed users payload');
    }
    const users = d2.users;
    const sizeBefore = results.length;
    for (const u of users) {
      if (!u || typeof u !== 'object') {
        throw new Error('Instagram following returned malformed user row');
      }
      const pkRaw = u.pk ?? u.pk_id ?? u.id;
      const pk = typeof pkRaw === 'number' ? String(pkRaw) : (typeof pkRaw === 'string' ? pkRaw.trim() : '');
      const usernameValue = typeof u.username === 'string' ? u.username.trim() : '';
      if (!/^\\d+$/.test(pk) || !usernameValue) {
        throw new Error('Instagram following returned malformed user row');
      }
      if (!pk || seen.has(pk)) continue;
      seen.add(pk);

View on GitHub (pinned to 49907e53dc)

Solutions

1. Re-authenticate in the browser session (401/403).
2. Lower --limit to fetch fewer pages and add delays between requests to avoid 429.
3. Retry with exponential backoff; capture the HTTP status from the message to decide.
4. Verify the username resolves to a valid, accessible userId (404/403).

Example fix

// before
catch (e) { console.error(e.message); }
// after
catch (e) {
  const m = /HTTP (\d+)/.exec(e.message);
  if (m && +m[1] === 429) { await sleep(60000); return retryWithLowerLimit(); }
  if (m && (+m[1] === 401 || +m[1] === 403)) return promptRelogin();
  throw e;
}

// Pre-flight before paginating:
const authed = document.cookie.includes('ds_user_id');
const limitOk = Number.isInteger(limit) && limit >= 1;
if (!authed || !limitOk) throw new Error('Preconditions failed: session or limit invalid');

async function fetchFollowingPages(userId, limit) {
  let maxId = null;
  for (let attempt = 0; attempt < 3; attempt++) {
    try {
      const page = await fetchPage(userId, maxId);
      maxId = page.next_max_id;
      if (!maxId) break;
    } catch (e) {
      const code = +(/HTTP (\d+)/.exec(String(e.message))?.[1] ?? 0);
      if (code !== 429 && code < 500) throw e;
      await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, 2 ** attempt * 5000));
    }
  }
}

When it happens

Trigger: 401/403 (expired cookies) on page 1 or after; 429 rate limit triggered by repeated page fetches; 404 from bad userId; 5xx from Instagram; anti-bot challenge blocking subsequent paginated requests.

Common situations: Large limits causing many rapid paginated requests (429 after a few pages); session expiring between pages; following list of a private/blocked account returning 403; Instagram throttling max_id cursor requests.

Understand the failure class

Background: "API error: {status}" and "HTTP 401/403/404/429/5xx" errors: non-2xx HTTP responses explained — this error's family across 27 libraries.

Related errors

• Failed to fetch followers: HTTP ' + r2.status
• archive snapshots failed: HTTP ${resp.status}
• Instagram private publish ${stage} failed: ${response.status
• ${label} failed: HTTP ${response.status}
• ${label} failed: HTTP ${response.status}

AI-assisted analysis of jackwener/OpenCLI@49907e53dc (2026-08-29). Data as JSON: /api/errors/07a5b6d19e776051. Report an issue: GitHub.