jackwener/OpenCLI · warning · EmptyResultError

No people found on the rendered page for "${keywords}". The

Error message

No people found on the rendered page for "${keywords}". The search may have returned zero results, or the DOM markup may have changed.

What it means

This EmptyResultError is thrown when a LinkedIn people search scrape completed but normalizePeopleRows returned zero rows AND the page reported no candidates (candidate_count and resolved_count are both 0 or falsy). It distinguishes a genuine/likely empty result from the parse-failure case (error 2350).

Source

Thrown at clis/linkedin/people-search.js:241

            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,
    normalizeProfileUrl,
    normalizePeopleRows,
    parseNonNegativeCount,
    extractionScript,
};

View on GitHub (pinned to 49907e53dc)

Solutions

1. Broaden or correct the keywords passed to the search
2. Verify the session is signed in and re-run so the page actually loads results
3. Retry after a delay if LinkedIn rate-limited or soft-blocked the request
4. Check the rendered page manually to confirm whether the search truly has zero results

Example fix

// before
await linkedin.peopleSearch({ keywords: 'senior vb.net devmond' });
// after
await linkedin.peopleSearch({ keywords: 'senior vb.net developer' });

const result = await runSearch();
if (Array.isArray(result?.rows) && result.rows.length === 0 && !(result?.candidate_count > 0) && !(result?.resolved_count > 0)) {
  console.warn('Search likely returned zero results for', keywords);
}

null

try {
  const rows = await linkedinPeopleSearch(keywords);
} catch (e) {
  if (e instanceof EmptyResultError || e.name === 'EmptyResultError') {
    return []; // treat as zero results
  }
  throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling people-search with keywords that match no profiles on the rendered page, or the page failed to render any results at all — rows.length === 0 with candidateCount === 0 and resolvedCount === 0.

Common situations: Overly specific search keywords; searching a niche that has no LinkedIn matches; region/account restrictions yielding zero results; page did not actually load results (rate limiting or soft auth wall) so counters are also zero.

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 series found for '${brand}'. Check the brand name spellin
• This series has no koubei rating yet.
• ${command} returned no results
• NOT_FOUND
• guazi browse ${code}

AI-assisted analysis of jackwener/OpenCLI@49907e53dc (2026-08-29). Data as JSON: /api/errors/649922a173c15ea8. Report an issue: GitHub.