lfnovo/open-notebook · error · HTTPException

Error updating default prompt: {str(e)}

Error message

Error updating default prompt: {str(e)}

What it means

Generic 500 from PUT /transformations/default-prompt when persisting the updated default prompt fails unexpectedly. Validation of the request body is done by Pydantic before the handler runs, so a 500 indicates a persistence or serialization failure when saving DefaultPrompts.

Source

Thrown at api/routers/transformations.py:180

    """Update the default transformation prompt."""
    try:
        default_prompts: DefaultPrompts = await DefaultPrompts.get_instance()  # type: ignore[assignment]

        default_prompts.transformation_instructions = (
            prompt_update.transformation_instructions
        )
        await default_prompts.update()

        return DefaultPromptResponse(
            transformation_instructions=default_prompts.transformation_instructions
        )
    except HTTPException:
        raise
    except OpenNotebookError:
        raise
    except Exception as e:
        logger.error(f"Error updating default prompt: {str(e)}")
        raise HTTPException(
            status_code=500, detail=f"Error updating default prompt: {str(e)}"
        )


@router.get(
    "/transformations/{transformation_id}", response_model=TransformationResponse
)
async def get_transformation(transformation_id: str):
    """Get a specific transformation by ID."""
    try:
        transformation = await Transformation.get(transformation_id)
        if not transformation:
            raise HTTPException(status_code=404, detail="Transformation not found")

        return _transformation_response(transformation)
    except HTTPException:
        raise
    except OpenNotebookError:

View on GitHub (pinned to a7de90d38a)

Solutions

  1. Check API logs for the exact exception logged before the 500
  2. Verify SurrealDB connectivity and that GET /transformations/default-prompt also works
  3. Retry the PUT after confirming the database is healthy
  4. If persistent, inspect the default prompt record in SurrealDB for corruption
Defensive patterns

Strategy: retry

Validate before calling

current = await client.get('/transformations/default-prompt')
if current.status_code != 200:
    raise RuntimeError('cannot read default prompt; DB likely unhealthy')

Try / catch

resp = await client.put('/transformations/default-prompt', json=body)
if resp.status_code >= 500:
    await asyncio.sleep(2)
    resp = await client.put('/transformations/default-prompt', json=body)
resp.raise_for_status()

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: PUT /api/transformations/default-prompt with a valid body while SurrealDB is down, the default-prompt record cannot be found/created, or the save raises a non-OpenNotebookError exception.

Common situations: Database connectivity loss between GET and PUT, write permission issues on SurrealDB, or schema drift after an upgrade.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of lfnovo/open-notebook@a7de90d38a (2026-08-27). Data as JSON: /api/errors/2bd4b5c33fe562fa. Report an issue: GitHub.