jackwener/OpenCLI · error · CommandExecutionError

Zhihu search request failed

Error message

Zhihu search request failed

What it means

requireSearchPayload throws this CommandExecutionError when payload.__fetchError is set — the in-page fetch itself failed (network error, DNS failure, CORS/connection refused) before any HTTP status was received. The raw fetch error string is attached as the remedy/detail.

Source

Thrown at clis/zhihu/search.js:88

function unwrapEvaluateResult(payload) {
    if (payload && typeof payload === 'object' && 'data' in payload && 'session' in payload) return payload.data;
    return payload;
}

function requireSearchPayload(data, url) {
    const payload = unwrapEvaluateResult(data);
    if (!payload || typeof payload !== 'object' || Array.isArray(payload)) {
        throw new CommandExecutionError('Zhihu search returned malformed payload');
    }
    if (payload.__httpError) {
        const status = payload.__httpError;
        if (status === 401 || status === 403) {
            throw new AuthRequiredError('www.zhihu.com', 'Failed to fetch search results from Zhihu');
        }
        throw new CommandExecutionError(`Zhihu search request failed${status ? ` (HTTP ${status})` : ''}`, 'Try again later or rerun with -v for more detail');
    }
    if (payload.__fetchError) {
        throw new CommandExecutionError('Zhihu search request failed', String(payload.__fetchError));
    }
    if (!Array.isArray(payload.data)) {
        throw new CommandExecutionError('Zhihu search returned malformed data list', `URL: ${url}`);
    }
    if (!payload.paging || typeof payload.paging !== 'object') {
        throw new CommandExecutionError('Zhihu search returned malformed paging data', `URL: ${url}`);
    }
    return payload;
}

function normalizeResultItem(item) {
    if (!item || typeof item !== 'object' || item.type !== 'search_result' || !item.object || typeof item.object !== 'object') {
        return null;
    }
    const obj = item.object;
    if (obj.type !== 'answer' && obj.type !== 'article' && obj.type !== 'question') return null;
    const key = itemKey(item);
    const url = itemUrl(obj);

View on GitHub (pinned to 49907e53dc)

Solutions

1. Inspect the attached __fetchError detail string for the underlying cause (it is passed as the CommandExecutionError hint)
2. Verify general connectivity: open www.zhihu.com in the connected Chrome browser manually
3. Check VPN/proxy/DNS settings if the site is unreachable
4. Retry after confirming the network path is healthy; check Zhihu status during suspected outages

Example fix

// before: ignoring detail
// after: surface the fetch detail
catch (err) {
  if (err instanceof CommandExecutionError && err.hint) console.error('Fetch detail:', err.hint);
  throw err;
}

// pre-flight connectivity check
const reachable = await fetch('https://www.zhihu.com/robots.txt', { method: 'HEAD' }).then(r => r.ok).catch(() => false);
if (!reachable) throw new Error('www.zhihu.com unreachable; check network/VPN/DNS');

function isFetchFailure(err) {
  return err instanceof CommandExecutionError && err.message === 'Zhihu search request failed' && !/HTTP/.test(err.message);
}

try {
  return await searchZhihu(q);
} catch (err) {
  if (isFetchFailure(err)) {
    console.error('Network-level fetch failure:', err.hint);
    console.error('Check connectivity/VPN/DNS, then retry.');
    return null;
  }
  throw err;
}

When it happens

Trigger: The Browser Bridge page's fetch() to Zhihu's search endpoint threw (no response at all): connection refused, DNS resolution failure, TLS error, request blocked by the browser before a status was returned — stored as payload.__fetchError.

Common situations: No internet / VPN or proxy down; DNS misconfiguration; corporate firewall blocking www.zhihu.com; browser offline mode; Zhihu endpoint unreachable during an outage.

Related errors

• ${label} request failed: ${err?.message ?? err}
• Failed to fetch Flomo memos: ${err instanceof Error ? err.me
• ${label} request failed: ${err?.message ?? err}
• TikTok Studio item_list network failure: ${result.networkErr
• autohome ${contextHint} network error: ${err?.message || err

AI-assisted analysis of jackwener/OpenCLI@49907e53dc (2026-08-29). Data as JSON: /api/errors/abad167bc177bb6e. Report an issue: GitHub.