jackwener/OpenCLI · warning · EmptyResultError

zhihu answer-detail

zhihu answer-detail

Error message

No Zhihu answer was found for ${answerId}.

What it means

This EmptyResultError (code 'zhihu answer-detail') is thrown when the Zhihu answer detail API responds with HTTP 404, meaning no answer exists for the given answer id. It is a deliberate 'nothing found' signal rather than a failure, letting callers treat unknown ids as empty results.

Source

Thrown at clis/zhihu/answer-detail.js:97

        try {
          return await r.json();
        } 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. Double-check the answer id — open https://www.zhihu.com/answer/<id> in a browser to confirm it exists.
2. Copy the full answer URL and re-extract the id from /answer/<aid> instead of retyping it.
3. If the answer was deleted, no fix is possible; handle the empty result in your script.

Example fix

// before
clis zhihu answer-detail 19012345  // typo'd id -> 404
// after
clis zhihu answer-detail 6190123456789012345  // id verified against the live URL

// validate the id format before calling
if (!/^\d{10,20}$/.test(String(answerId))) throw new Error(`Suspicious answer id: ${answerId}`);

function isEmptyResultError(err) { return err instanceof EmptyResultError || err?.code === 'zhihu answer-detail'; }

try {
  const detail = await answerDetail(id);
} catch (err) {
  if (err instanceof EmptyResultError) {
    console.warn(`Answer ${id} not found — skipping`);
    return null;
  }
  throw err;
}

When it happens

Trigger: The in-page fetch returns __httpError === 404: the answerId passed on the command line does not correspond to any existing Zhihu answer (deleted answer, wrong id, or truncated/typo'd id).

Common situations: Answer was deleted by its author or removed by Zhihu moderation, id copied from an incomplete URL, digits transposed when typing the id, or scraping a very old answer that has since been purged.

Understand the failure class

Background: 'Could not be found', 'does not exist', 'not found in database': the resource-not-found family when an ID, slug, key, or URI lookup comes back empty — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

• Chess.com returned 404 for ${url}
• crates.io returned 404 for ${url}.
• Maven Central returned 404 for ${url}.
• bilibili creator-stats ${bvid}
• coingecko has no coin with id "${id}".

AI-assisted analysis of jackwener/OpenCLI@49907e53dc (2026-08-29). Data as JSON: /api/errors/e85ec21950e93117. Report an issue: GitHub.