jackwener/OpenCLI · warning · EmptyResultError

No items match "${query}" on archive.org.

Error message

No items match "${query}" on archive.org.

What it means

EmptyResultError thrown by `opencli archive search` when the archive.org advancedsearch API responds successfully but returns zero hits in response.docs. This is not a failure of the API call itself; the query parsed and executed, it simply matched nothing. The library converts an empty result set into a typed error so callers can distinguish 'no data' from 'broken payload' or 'network failure'.

Source

Thrown at clis/archive/search.js:90

        } catch (error) {
            throw new CommandExecutionError(`archive search request failed: ${error?.message || error}`);
        }
        if (!resp.ok) {
            throw new CommandExecutionError(`archive search failed: HTTP ${resp.status}`);
        }
        let data;
        try {
            data = await resp.json();
        } catch (error) {
            throw new CommandExecutionError(`archive search returned malformed JSON: ${error?.message || error}`);
        }

        const docs = data?.response?.docs;
        if (!Array.isArray(docs)) {
            throw new CommandExecutionError('archive search returned malformed payload: response.docs must be an array');
        }
        if (docs.length === 0) {
            throw new EmptyResultError('archive search', `No items match "${query}" on archive.org.`);
        }

        return docs.slice(0, limit).map((d, i) => {
            const id = String(d.identifier ?? '');
            if (!IDENTIFIER_RE.test(id)) {
                throw new CommandExecutionError('archive search returned malformed payload: result row is missing a stable identifier');
            }
            const downloads = Number(d.downloads ?? 0);
            if (!Number.isFinite(downloads)) {
                throw new CommandExecutionError(`archive search returned malformed payload for "${id}": downloads must be numeric`);
            }
            const creator = Array.isArray(d.creator) ? d.creator.join(', ') : String(d.creator ?? '');
            return {
                rank: i + 1,
                identifier: id,
                title: String(d.title ?? ''),
                creator,
                date: d.date ? String(d.date).slice(0, 10) : '',

View on GitHub (pinned to 49907e53dc)

Solutions

1. Broaden the search query: remove quoted phrases, field filters, or extra keywords and retry.
2. Check spelling of the query terms and any field:value filters.
3. Verify the item still exists by browsing https://archive.org directly for the same terms.
4. If the empty result is expected in your workflow, catch EmptyResultError explicitly and treat it as a normal 'no rows' outcome.

Example fix

// before
opencli archive search 'collection:missingcollection AND title:"exact phrase"'
// after
opencli archive search 'collection:missingcollection'   # broaden, then refine

// Pre-check the same query against the advancedsearch API before relying on results
const api = `https://archive.org/advancedsearch.php?q=${encodeURIComponent(query)}&fl[]=identifier&rows=1&output=json`;
const data = await (await fetch(api)).json();
const hasHits = Array.isArray(data?.response?.docs) && data.response.docs.length > 0;
if (!hasHits) console.warn('query will return no archive.org items');

function hasDocs(data) {
  return Array.isArray(data?.response?.docs) && data.response.docs.length > 0;
}

try {
  const rows = await run(['archive', 'search', query]);
} catch (e) {
  if (e instanceof EmptyResultError || /No items match/.test(e.message)) {
    return []; // treat empty as a normal result
  }
  throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Running `opencli archive search <query>` where the HTTP request succeeds (resp.ok), the JSON parses, response.docs is an array, but that array has length 0.

Common situations: Misspelled search terms; over-restrictive query syntax (e.g. quoted phrases or field filters like mediatype: that match nothing); searching for identifiers/items that have been removed from archive.org; typos in metadata fields used in the query.

Understand the failure class

Background: EmptyResultError / "no results found": when an API or scraper succeeds but returns zero rows — this error's family across 9 libraries.

Related errors

• No hotels rendered (${totalText}). Try a broader destination
• No WeRead books found for "${bookQuery}"
• archive snapshots url cannot be empty
• archive snapshots limit must be a positive integer
• dongchedi search "${keyword}": No car series matched. Try th

AI-assisted analysis of jackwener/OpenCLI@49907e53dc (2026-08-29). Data as JSON: /api/errors/c1561cc3ca2f1e58. Report an issue: GitHub.