jackwener/OpenCLI · error · CommandExecutionError

LinkedIn company extraction returned a malformed current URL

Error message

LinkedIn company extraction returned a malformed current URL

What it means

normalizeCompanyOutputUrl parses the current URL reported by the in-page extraction script (or the fallback targetUrl). If the string cannot be parsed as a URL even relative to https://linkedin.com, the library assumes the extraction result is corrupt and throws rather than continuing with garbage.

Source

Thrown at clis/linkedin/company.js:83

      industry: facts['industry'] || '',
      size: facts['company size'] || '',
      headquarters: facts['headquarters'] || '',
      founded: facts['founded'] || '',
      website: facts['website'] || '',
      specialties: facts['specialties'] || '',
      followers: followersMatch ? followersMatch[1].replace(/,/g, '') : '',
      about: about.slice(0, 2000),
    };
  })()`;
}

function normalizeCompanyOutputUrl(value, fallbackUrl) {
    const raw = normalizeWhitespace(value || fallbackUrl);
    let parsed;
    try {
        parsed = new URL(raw, `https://${LINKEDIN_DOMAIN}`);
    } catch {
        throw new CommandExecutionError('LinkedIn company extraction returned a malformed current URL');
    }
    if (parsed.protocol !== 'https:' || parsed.username || parsed.password || parsed.port || !LINKEDIN_COMPANY_HOSTS.has(parsed.hostname.toLowerCase())) {
        throw new CommandExecutionError('LinkedIn company extraction ended on a non-LinkedIn page');
    }
    const match = parsed.pathname.match(COMPANY_URL_RE);
    if (!match?.[1]) {
        throw new CommandExecutionError('LinkedIn company extraction ended outside a company page');
    }
    let slug;
    try {
        slug = decodeURIComponent(match[1]);
    } catch {
        throw new CommandExecutionError('LinkedIn company extraction returned a malformed company slug');
    }
    return `https://${LINKEDIN_DOMAIN}/company/${encodeURIComponent(slug)}/about/`;
}

function normalizeCompanyInfo(info, targetUrl) {

View on GitHub (pinned to 49907e53dc)

Solutions

Verify the scraper session actually reached the LinkedIn company page (not a login/captcha interstitial)
Update the library in case the extractor script was fixed for a newer LinkedIn layout
Retry with an explicit valid fallbackUrl so normalization has a sane base
Log the raw extraction value to confirm what the in-page script returned

Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Type guard

function isPlainObject(v) { return v !== null && typeof v === 'object' && !Array.isArray(v); }

Try / catch

try {
  const info = await company({ url: target });
} catch (err) {
  if (String(err.message).includes('malformed current URL')) {
    // inspect raw extractor output / retry with a fresh session
    return retryWithFallback(target);
  }
  throw err;
}

Prevention

Keep the library updated so the injected extractor matches current LinkedIn DOM
Ensure the scraping session reaches the page fully before extraction
Log raw extraction values in a debug mode to catch corrupt output early

When it happens

Trigger: The page-extraction script returned a non-URL string for the current location (empty garbage, JSON fragments, or whitespace-only after normalization) and fallbackUrl was also unusable; page script executed in an unexpected context returning undefined coerced to 'undefined'.

Common situations: LinkedIn layout drift or a bot-check/login interstitial causing the extractor to grab wrong text; DOM APIs failing in the scraping context so location is read incorrectly; very old extractor output format after a library update.

Understand the failure class

Parsing and encoding errors: unexpected token, malformed input — why parsers reject input and how to find the real culprit.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of jackwener/OpenCLI@49907e53dc (2026-08-29). Data as JSON: /api/errors/e657e560bf317954. Report an issue: GitHub.