kovidgoyal/kitty · error

Received empty response from kitty

Error message

Received empty response from kitty

What it means

kitty @ received a zero-length response from the remote control channel. Since the command did not opt into NoResponse, an empty payload is invalid — kitty should always return a JSON envelope.

Source

Thrown at tools/cmd/at/main.go:244

	if err != nil {
		if errors.Is(err, os.ErrDeadlineExceeded) && io_data.rc.Async != "" {
			io_data.rc.Payload = nil
			io_data.rc.CancelAsync = true
			io_data.multiple_payload_generator = nil
			io_data.rc.NoResponse = true
			io_data.chunks_done = false
			_, _ = do_io(io_data)
			err = fmt.Errorf("Timed out waiting for a response from kitty")
		}
		return nil, err
	}
	if len(serialized_response) == 0 {
		if io_data.rc.NoResponse {
			res := Response{Ok: true}
			ans = &res
			return
		}
		err = fmt.Errorf("Received empty response from kitty")
		return
	}
	var response Response
	err = json.Unmarshal(serialized_response, &response)
	if err != nil {
		err = fmt.Errorf("Invalid response received from kitty, unmarshalling error: %w", err)
		return
	}
	ans = &response
	return
}

var running_shell = false

type exit_error struct {
	exit_code int
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 6d5d0c4406)

Solutions

1. Confirm kitty is still running and healthy
2. Update kitty so the CLI and the terminal are the same version
3. Retry the command; if it persists, restart kitty and re-enable remote control
4. Check that no proxy/multiplexer is truncating the unix/ssh channel

if err != nil && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "empty response") { /* check kitty alive, then retry */ }

When it happens

Trigger: get_response reads serialized_response; if its length is 0 and io_data.rc.NoResponse is false, this error is returned.

Common situations: The remote control socket closing mid-exchange, a version mismatch between kitty @ and kitty corrupting the framing, or the kitty process dying while handling the command.

Related errors

• This should be run as kitten icat
• This should be run as `kitten notify ...`
• Remote control not enabled, this kitten should be run via a
• The remote control password was invalid: {data!r}
• Remote control is not enabled, remember to use allow_remote_

AI-assisted analysis of kovidgoyal/kitty@6d5d0c4406 (2026-08-27). Data as JSON: /api/errors/1e711d4c7680bb6a. Report an issue: GitHub.