jackwener/OpenCLI · error · TimeoutError

No finished image appeared before timeout. Re-run with a hig

Error message

No finished image appeared before timeout. Re-run with a higher --timeout if it is still generating.

What it means

TimeoutError for image generation: the loop collects finished image URLs, and if at deadline the page was still visibly rendering and zero finished images had appeared, the library treats it as a temporary in-progress failure and throws.

Source

Thrown at clis/chatgpt/utils.js:2724

        if (urls.length === 0) continue;

        const key = urls.join('\n');
        const prevKey = lastUrls.join('\n');
        if (key === prevKey) {
            stableCount += 1;
        } else {
            lastUrls = urls;
            stableCount = 1;
        }

        if (stableCount >= 2 || i === maxPolls - 1) {
            return lastUrls;
        }
    }
    // A deadline that lands while ChatGPT is visibly mid-generation is a
    // temporary failure, not an empty conversation. Mirror the ask wait.
    if (!lastUrls.length && stillRendering) {
        throw new TimeoutError(
            'chatgpt image',
            timeoutSeconds,
            'No finished image appeared before timeout. Re-run with a higher --timeout if it is still generating.',
        );
    }
    return lastUrls;
}

/**
 * Get the list of ChatGPT Projects from the sidebar.
 * Navigates to chatgpt.com if not already there, opens the sidebar,
 * and extracts project links (matching /g/g-p-*).
 */
export async function getProjectList(page) {
    await ensureOnChatGPT(page);

    // Ensure sidebar is open
    const openSidebar = requireBooleanEvaluateResult(unwrapEvaluateResult(await page.evaluate(`(() => {

View on GitHub (pinned to 49907e53dc)

Solutions

Re-run with a higher --timeout (image jobs can queue for minutes)
Check the conversation manually — if the image finished after the deadline, scrape the URL directly
Retry the request; a queued/stalled job often succeeds on a second attempt
Reduce prompt complexity or request fewer images per prompt

Example fix

// before
await chatgptImage(page, prompt);              // default timeout
// after
await chatgptImage(page, prompt, { timeout: 600 }); // 10 min

Defensive patterns

Strategy: retry

Try / catch

try {
  await waitForChatGPTImages(page, { timeoutSeconds: 180 });
} catch (e) {
  if (e instanceof TimeoutError && e.operation === 'chatgpt image') {
    // retry once with timeoutSeconds: 600
  } else throw e;
}

Prevention

Allow several minutes for image generation, more under load
Check the conversation for finished images that landed just after the deadline
Simplify prompts / request fewer images to shorten generation time

When it happens

Trigger: chatgpt image wait reached timeoutSeconds while stillRendering was true and lastUrls was empty — the image generation never completed within the window.

Common situations: Complex image prompts taking longer than --timeout; ChatGPT image service congestion; user lowered the timeout too aggressively; generation stalled showing a shimmer/spinner indefinitely.

Understand the failure class

Timeouts: ETIMEDOUT, deadlines, and hung requests — what actually expires when a request times out.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of jackwener/OpenCLI@49907e53dc (2026-08-29). Data as JSON: /api/errors/78ca10955f40a9ef. Report an issue: GitHub.