jackwener/OpenCLI · error · CommandExecutionError

semanticscholar ${label} row is not an object

Error message

semanticscholar ${label} row is not an object

What it means

normalizePaperRow asserts each result row from the Semantic Scholar API is a non-null object before extracting fields. When a row is null, an array element that is a string, or otherwise not an object, it throws this CommandExecutionError. It protects downstream field access from TypeError crashes.

Source

Thrown at clis/semanticscholar/utils.js:164

    if (!Array.isArray(authors) || !authors.length) return '';
    const first = authors[0];
    if (first && typeof first === 'object' && typeof first.name === 'string') {
        return first.name.trim();
    }
    return '';
}

export function optionalNumber(value, label) {
    if (value == null) return null;
    if (typeof value !== 'number' || !Number.isFinite(value)) {
        throw new CommandExecutionError(`semanticscholar ${label} must be a number when present`);
    }
    return value;
}

export function normalizePaperRow(paper, label, { rank } = {}) {
    if (!paper || typeof paper !== 'object') {
        throw new CommandExecutionError(`semanticscholar ${label} row is not an object`);
    }
    if (typeof paper.paperId !== 'string' || !paper.paperId.trim()) {
        throw new CommandExecutionError(`semanticscholar ${label} row is missing paperId`);
    }
    if (typeof paper.title !== 'string' || !paper.title.trim()) {
        throw new CommandExecutionError(`semanticscholar ${label} row is missing title`);
    }
    if (paper.authors != null && !Array.isArray(paper.authors)) {
        throw new CommandExecutionError(`semanticscholar ${label} row has malformed authors`);
    }
    const row = {
        paperId: paper.paperId.trim(),
        doi: pickDoi(paper.externalIds),
        title: paper.title.trim(),
        year: optionalNumber(paper.year, `${label} year`),
        firstAuthor: firstAuthorName(paper.authors),
        citationCount: optionalNumber(paper.citationCount, `${label} citationCount`),
        url: typeof paper.url === 'string' && paper.url.trim()

View on GitHub (pinned to 49907e53dc)

Solutions

1. Filter the raw list before normalizing: rows.filter(r => r && typeof r === 'object').
2. Inspect the endpoint's raw JSON to confirm whether nulls are expected (deleted papers).
3. Wrap normalization per-row and skip/report bad rows instead of failing the whole command.
4. Retry — transient backend corruption can produce null rows.

Example fix

// before
const rows = data.data.map(p => normalizePaperRow(p, 'citation'));
// after
const rows = data.data.filter(p => p && typeof p === 'object').map(p => normalizePaperRow(p, 'citation'));

const safeRows = (data.data ?? []).filter(r => r && typeof r === 'object');

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

try {
  const rows = data.data.map(p => normalizePaperRow(p, 'citation'));
} catch (err) {
  if (/row is not an object/.test(err.message)) {
    const rows = data.data.filter(isPaperRow).map(p => normalizePaperRow(p, 'citation'));
    return rows;
  }
  throw err;
}

When it happens

Trigger: An endpoint (citations, references, recommendations) returns a list containing null or non-object entries where paper objects are expected, and normalizePaperRow is called on such an entry.

Common situations: Semantic Scholar returning null placeholders for deleted/merged papers inside citation lists; recommendations API emitting sparse rows; mock/stub data used in scripts.

Understand the failure class

Background: Schema validation failed / invalid input schema: payload rejected because its shape doesn't match the expected schema — this error's family across 28 libraries.

Related errors

• semanticscholar ${label} row has malformed authors
• semanticscholar ${label} must be a number when present
• semanticscholar ${label} row is missing paperId
• semanticscholar ${label} row is missing title
• ${label} must be an integer between ${min} and ${max}, got $

AI-assisted analysis of jackwener/OpenCLI@49907e53dc (2026-08-29). Data as JSON: /api/errors/bc655eac98d203eb. Report an issue: GitHub.