jackwener/OpenCLI · error · CommandExecutionError

LinkedIn people search returned malformed extraction payload

Error message

LinkedIn people search returned malformed extraction payload

What it means

After a successful evaluate, the command requires result to be a non-null object before validating its numeric fields. If result is null/undefined or a primitive, the extraction produced nothing usable and it throws CommandExecutionError 'LinkedIn people search returned malformed extraction payload'.

Source

Thrown at clis/linkedin/people-search.js:231

            throw new AuthRequiredError(LINKEDIN_DOMAIN, 'LinkedIn JSESSIONID cookie not found. Please sign in to LinkedIn in the browser.');
        }

        let result;
        try {
            result = unwrapEvaluateResult(await page.evaluate(extractionScript()));
        } catch (error) {
            throw new CommandExecutionError(`LinkedIn people search extraction failed: ${error?.message || error}`);
        }
        if (result?.error) {
            if (looksLinkedInAuthWall(`${result.url || ''} ${result.error || ''}`)) {
                throw new AuthRequiredError(LINKEDIN_DOMAIN, 'LinkedIn people search requires an active signed-in browser session.');
            }
            // If LinkedIn redirected away from the search page that
            // usually means CUL was reached or the account is gated.
            throw new CommandExecutionError(`LinkedIn redirected away from the search page (${result.error}). Likely Commercial Use Limit reached - the limit resets on the 1st of next month.`);
        }
        if (!result || typeof result !== 'object') {
            throw new CommandExecutionError('LinkedIn people search returned malformed extraction payload');
        }
        const candidateCount = parseNonNegativeCount(result.candidate_count, 'candidate_count');
        parseNonNegativeCount(result.person_entries_count, 'person_entries_count');
        const resolvedCount = parseNonNegativeCount(result.resolved_count, 'resolved_count');
        const rows = normalizePeopleRows(result.rows);
        if (rows.length === 0 && (candidateCount > 0 || resolvedCount > 0)) {
            throw new CommandExecutionError('LinkedIn people search found profile candidates but could not parse stable result rows');
        }
        if (rows.length === 0) {
            throw new EmptyResultError(`No people found on the rendered page for "${keywords}". The search may have returned zero results, or the DOM markup may have changed.`);
        }
        return rows.slice(0, limit).map((p, i) => ({ rank: i + 1, ...p }));
    },
});

export const __test__ = {
    parseLimit,
    buildSearchUrl,

View on GitHub (pinned to 49907e53dc)

Solutions

Update/fix the automation client so page.evaluate returns the object produced by the script
Ensure unwrapEvaluateResult is used/behaves as intended and doesn't drop object payloads
Log the raw evaluate result to see what the page actually returned
Re-run in a signed-in session so the real results page produces a full payload
If you own the script, guarantee every code path returns the result object

Example fix

// before: script path returns undefined
function extractionScript() { return `() => { if (!document.querySelector('.results')) return; return {...}; }`; }
// after: always return a payload
function extractionScript() { return `() => ({ error: null, rows: [], candidate_count: 0, person_entries_count: 0, resolved_count: 0, ...collect() })`; }

Defensive patterns

Strategy: type-guard

Validate before calling

const raw = unwrapEvaluateResult(await page.evaluate(extractionScript()));
if (raw == null || typeof raw !== 'object') throw new Error('extraction returned no object payload');

Type guard

const isExtractionPayload = (v) => v != null && typeof v === 'object' && !Array.isArray(v);

Try / catch

try { const rows = normalizePeopleRows(result.rows); }
catch (e) { if (/malformed extraction payload/.test(e.message)) { return { rows: [], degraded: true }; } throw e; }

Prevention

Guarantee the extraction script always returns an object on every path
Verify your evaluate wrapper preserves object return values
Test page adapters/mocks against the real payload contract
Log raw results when payload shape deviates to catch adapter regressions early

When it happens

Trigger: unwrapEvaluateResult(page.evaluate(extractionScript())) resolves to null, undefined, a string, or a number — e.g. the script returned undefined, the evaluate wrapper stripped the value, or serialization dropped the object.

Common situations: Custom automation client whose evaluate returns undefined for object results; extraction script exiting early and returning undefined; test stubs returning wrong shape; JSON serialization of circular/unserializable data collapsing the result.

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/9f3618145558d1b7. Report an issue: GitHub.