jackwener/OpenCLI · error · CommandExecutionError

Zhihu answer detail request failed (HTTP ${status})

Error message

Zhihu answer detail request failed (HTTP ${status})

What it means

This CommandExecutionError is the fallback for the answer detail API responding with an unexpected HTTP status — any code other than 401/403/404 (and no network-level rejection). The status code is interpolated into the message so the developer can see exactly what Zhihu returned (e.g. 429 rate limit, 5xx server error).

Source

Thrown at clis/zhihu/answer-detail.js:99

        } catch (error) {
          return { __malformedJson: error instanceof Error ? error.message : String(error) };
        }
      })()
    `).catch((err) => {
            throw new CommandExecutionError(
                `Zhihu answer detail request failed: ${err instanceof Error ? err.message : String(err)}`,
                'Try again later or rerun with -v for more detail.',
            );
        });
        if (!data || data.__httpError) {
            const status = data?.__httpError;
            if (status === 401 || status === 403) {
                throw new AuthRequiredError('www.zhihu.com', 'Failed to fetch Zhihu answer detail');
            }
            if (status === 404) {
                throw new EmptyResultError('zhihu answer-detail', `No Zhihu answer was found for ${answerId}.`);
            }
            throw new CommandExecutionError(
                status
                    ? `Zhihu answer detail request failed (HTTP ${status})`
                    : 'Zhihu answer detail request failed',
                'Try again later or rerun with -v for more detail',
            );
        }
        if (data.__malformedJson) {
            throw new CommandExecutionError(
                `Zhihu answer detail returned malformed JSON: ${data.__malformedJson}`,
                'Try again later or rerun with -v for more detail',
            );
        }
        if (typeof data !== 'object' || Array.isArray(data)) {
            throw new CommandExecutionError(
                'Zhihu answer detail returned a malformed payload',
                'Try again later or rerun with -v for more detail',
            );
        }

View on GitHub (pinned to 49907e53dc)

Solutions

1. Retry later or with backoff, especially if status is 429 or 5xx.
2. Rerun with -v for more detail about the request and response.
3. Reduce request frequency / add delays between calls to avoid rate limiting.
4. Check zhihu.com availability in a browser to rule out a site-wide outage.

function isHttpServerError(err) { const m = err?.message?.match(/HTTP (\d{3})/); return !!m && Number(m[1]) >= 500 || (m && m[1] === '429'); }

try {
  const detail = await answerDetail(id);
} catch (err) {
  const m = err.message.match(/HTTP (\d{3})/);
  if (m && (Number(m[1]) >= 500 || m[1] === '429')) {
    return retryWithBackoff(() => answerDetail(id), { attempts: 5, baseMs: 2000 });
  }
  throw err;
}

When it happens

Trigger: The in-page fetch returns __httpError set to a status like 429, 500, 502, or 503 from the Zhihu answer detail endpoint.

Common situations: Hitting Zhihu too frequently (429 rate limiting), Zhihu server-side incidents (5xx), or maintenance windows returning unusual statuses.

Understand the failure class

Background: "API error: {status}" and "HTTP 401/403/404/429/5xx" errors: non-2xx HTTP responses explained — this error's family across 27 libraries.

Related errors

• Zhihu identity probe failed (HTTP ${status ?? 'unknown'})
• Zhihu collection request failed (HTTP ${status})
• ${errorLabel} from Zhihu failed (HTTP ${status})
• autohome ${contextHint} HTTP ${resp.status}
• Chess.com callback returned HTTP ${resp.status} for ${url}

AI-assisted analysis of jackwener/OpenCLI@49907e53dc (2026-08-29). Data as JSON: /api/errors/92a9b03863ee468c. Report an issue: GitHub.