jackwener/OpenCLI · warning · EmptyResultError

Wikidata returned 404 for ${url}.

Error message

Wikidata returned 404 for ${url}.

What it means

wikidataFetch wraps every Wikidata HTTP call. A 404 from the Wikidata API is treated as an EmptyResultError rather than a hard failure, because 404 here means 'entity/URL does not exist' — most commonly a bad Q-ID on Special:EntityData. The library throws it so callers can treat 'not found' as an empty result instead of an error.

Source

Thrown at clis/wikidata/utils.js:73

            'Expected an ISO 639 language code such as "en", "fr", "zh", "zh-hans".',
        );
    }
    return raw;
}

export async function wikidataFetch(url, label) {
    let resp;
    try {
        resp = await fetch(url, { headers: { 'user-agent': UA, accept: 'application/json' } });
    }
    catch (err) {
        throw new CommandExecutionError(
            `${label} request failed: ${err?.message ?? err}`,
            'Check that www.wikidata.org is reachable from this network.',
        );
    }
    if (resp.status === 404) {
        throw new EmptyResultError(label, `Wikidata returned 404 for ${url}.`);
    }
    if (resp.status === 429) {
        throw new CommandExecutionError(
            `${label} returned HTTP 429 (rate limited)`,
            'Wikidata throttles anonymous traffic; back off and retry.',
        );
    }
    if (!resp.ok) {
        throw new CommandExecutionError(`${label} returned HTTP ${resp.status}`);
    }
    let body;
    try {
        body = await resp.json();
    }
    catch (err) {
        throw new CommandExecutionError(`${label} returned malformed JSON: ${err?.message ?? err}`);
    }
    return body;

View on GitHub (pinned to 49907e53dc)

Solutions

1. Verify the entity ID is a valid existing Q/P/L ID by searching it on www.wikidata.org or via wbsearchentities
2. Catch EmptyResultError in the calling code and treat it as 'no result' rather than a crash
3. Check the URL passed to wikidataFetch for typos in the path or hostname

Example fix

// before
const body = await wikidataFetch(`${WIKIDATA_BASE}/wiki/Special:EntityData/${qid}.json`, 'entity');
// after
let body;
try {
  body = await wikidataFetch(`${WIKIDATA_BASE}/wiki/Special:EntityData/${qid}.json`, 'entity');
} catch (err) {
  if (err instanceof EmptyResultError) return null; // entity not found
  throw err;
}

const qid = String(id ?? '').trim().toUpperCase();
if (!/^[QPL]\d+$/.test(qid)) throw new Error(`invalid entity id: ${id}`);

function isEntityId(v) { return typeof v === 'string' && /^[QPL]\d+$/.test(v.trim().toUpperCase()); }

try {
  const body = await wikidataFetch(url, 'entity');
} catch (err) {
  if (err instanceof EmptyResultError) return null; // 404 = entity not found
  throw err;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling wikidataFetch with an entity URL like https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Special:EntityData/Q999999999.json where the Q-ID does not exist; a mistyped or deleted entity ID reaching the endpoint; a wrong path/hostname in the URL passed to wikidataFetch.

Common situations: User pastes an invalid or deleted Wikidata Q-ID (e.g. off-by-one or fabricated ID); a script iterates a stale list of entities where some were merged/redirected and the old ID 404s; constructing the EntityData URL programmatically with a bad ID.

Related errors

• Chess.com returned 404 for ${url}
• coingecko has no coin with id "${id}".
• crates.io returned 404 for ${url}.
• dblp returned 404 — the requested record may not exist.
• hf datasets

AI-assisted analysis of jackwener/OpenCLI@49907e53dc (2026-08-29). Data as JSON: /api/errors/43d7aaeb7beea29d. Report an issue: GitHub.