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

Raised when httpx raises a RequestError — a client-side/network error before a response is received (connection failure, DNS resolution error, timeout, TLS error). The connector wraps it as ServiceInvalidRequestError. Unlike the HTTP-status error, this means the request never successfully reached or returned from Brave.

Source

Thrown at python/semantic_kernel/connectors/brave.py:238

        params = self._build_request_parameters(query, options)

        logger.info(f"Sending GET request to {url}")

        headers = {
            "X-Subscription-Token": self.settings.api_key.get_secret_value(),
            "user_agent": SEMANTIC_KERNEL_USER_AGENT,
        }
        try:
            async with AsyncClient(timeout=5) as client:
                response = await client.get(url, headers=headers, params=params)
                response.raise_for_status()
                return BraveSearchResponse.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 <= 0:
            raise ServiceInvalidRequestError("count value must be greater than 0.")
        if options.top >= 21:
            raise ServiceInvalidRequestError("count value must be less than 21.")

        if options.skip < 0:
            raise ServiceInvalidRequestError("offset must be greater than or equal to 0.")
        if options.skip > 9:
            raise ServiceInvalidRequestError("offset must be less than 10.")

    def _get_url(self) -> str:
        return DEFAULT_URL

View on GitHub (pinned to c028a0c7dc)

Solutions

1. Verify outbound network connectivity and DNS resolution for the Brave API host from the runtime environment.
2. Increase resilience with a retry/backoff wrapper for transient RequestErrors, and check whether a proxy is required.
3. If timeouts recur, investigate latency or raise the client timeout (requires subclassing/overriding, since 5s is hardcoded).

Example fix

// before
results = await connector.search(query)
// after
for attempt in range(3):
    try:
        results = await connector.search(query)
        break
    except ServiceInvalidRequestError as e:
        if not isinstance(e.__cause__, RequestError):
            raise
        await asyncio.sleep(2 ** attempt)

from semantic_kernel.exceptions import ServiceInvalidRequestError
from httpx import RequestError

for attempt in range(3):
    try:
        results = await connector.search(query)
        break
    except ServiceInvalidRequestError as e:
        if isinstance(e.__cause__, RequestError):
            import asyncio
            await asyncio.sleep(2 ** attempt)
            continue
        raise

When it happens

Trigger: The async GET to the Brave URL fails at the transport layer: no network connectivity, DNS failure for the Brave host, the 5-second timeout (AsyncClient(timeout=5)) expires, or a proxy/TLS configuration problem.

Common situations: Running in an environment without outbound internet, behind a restrictive proxy/firewall, DNS misconfiguration, or the Brave endpoint being slow enough to exceed the 5s timeout.

Related errors

• Failed to get search results.
• An unexpected error occurred while getting search results.
• Failed to start process
• Process not found
• Timeout waiting for OAuth callback

AI-assisted analysis of microsoft/semantic-kernel@c028a0c7dc (2026-08-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/714caecc4244a083. Report an issue: GitHub.