microsoft/semantic-kernel · error · ServiceInvalidRequestError

A client error occurred while getting search results.

Error message

A client error occurred while getting search results.

What it means

If httpx raises a RequestError the request never completed successfully. This covers connection failures, DNS errors, TLS problems, and timeouts; the connector uses AsyncClient(timeout=5), a hard five-second cap. The error is logged and re-raised as ServiceInvalidRequestError('A client error occurred while getting search results.').

Source

Thrown at python/semantic_kernel/connectors/google_search.py:276

        logger.info(
            f"Received request for google web search with \
                params:\nnum_results: {options.top}\noffset: {options.skip}"
        )

        full_url = f"{CUSTOM_SEARCH_URL}{self._build_query(query, options)}"
        headers = {"user_agent": SEMANTIC_KERNEL_USER_AGENT}
        try:
            async with AsyncClient(timeout=5) as client:
                response = await client.get(full_url, headers=headers)
                response.raise_for_status()
                return GoogleSearchResponse.model_validate_json(response.text)
        except HTTPStatusError as ex:
            logger.error(f"Failed to get search results: {ex}")
            raise ServiceInvalidRequestError("Failed to get search results.") from ex
        except RequestError as ex:
            logger.error(f"Client error occurred: {ex}")
            raise ServiceInvalidRequestError("A client error occurred while getting search results.") from ex
        except Exception as ex:
            logger.error(f"An unexpected error occurred: {ex}")
            raise ServiceInvalidRequestError("An unexpected error occurred while getting search results.") from ex

    def _validate_options(self, options: SearchOptions) -> None:
        if options.top > 10:
            raise ServiceInvalidRequestError("count value must be less than or equal to 10.")

    def _parse_filter_lambda(self, filter_lambda: Callable | str) -> list[dict[str, str]]:
        """Parse a string lambda or string expression into a list of {field: value} dicts using AST."""
        expr = filter_lambda if isinstance(filter_lambda, str) else getsource(filter_lambda).strip()
        tree = ast.parse(expr, mode="eval")
        node = tree.body
        visitor = SearchLambdaVisitor(valid_parameters=QUERY_PARAMETERS)
        visitor.visit(node)
        return visitor.filters

    def _build_query(self, query: str, options: SearchOptions) -> str:

View on GitHub (pinned to c028a0c7dc)

Solutions

  1. Verify connectivity to https://www.googleapis.com from the host.
  2. Configure proxy via HTTP_PROXY/HTTPS_PROXY env vars or a corporate trust store for TLS.
  3. Retry transient RequestErrors with exponential backoff (the 5s timeout is hardcoded in the connector).
  4. If timeouts are chronic, search less frequently or pre-warm results asynchronously.

Example fix

# before
results = await google.search('skates')  # timeout/proxy -> [1304]

# after
for attempt in range(4):
    try:
        results = await google.search('skates')
        break
    except ServiceInvalidRequestError as ex:
        if not isinstance(ex.__cause__, RequestError):
            raise
        await asyncio.sleep(1.5 ** attempt)
else:
    raise
Defensive patterns

Strategy: retry

Try / catch

from httpx import RequestError
from semantic_kernel.exceptions import ServiceInvalidRequestError

for attempt in range(4):
    try:
        results = await google.search(query, top=top)
        break
    except ServiceInvalidRequestError as ex:
        if not isinstance(ex.__cause__, RequestError):
            raise
        if attempt == 3:
            raise
        await asyncio.sleep(1.5 ** attempt)

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: No network connectivity; DNS resolution failure for www.googleapis.com; ConnectTimeout/ReadTimeout because the call exceeded 5 seconds; corporate proxy or self-signed TLS interception blocking the request.

Common situations: Offline or sandboxed dev environment; corporate proxy not configured (HTTP_PROXY/HTTPS_PROXY); slow or flaky mobile/satellite link; Google API occasionally slow under load.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of microsoft/semantic-kernel@c028a0c7dc (2026-08-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/05a58d0c89c051e0. Report an issue: GitHub.