What causes "data.detail || data.error || `HTTP ${res.status}`" in odysseus-dev/odysseus?

Check whether res.json() succeeded — if the endpoint returns HTML on error, parse text first and JSON-parse defensively

odysseus-dev/odysseus · error · Error

data.detail || data.error || `HTTP ${res.status}`

Error message

data.detail || data.error || `HTTP ${res.status}`

What it means

Error thrown after POST /api/cookbook/test-ssh answers non-OK while probing a cookbook server's SSH reachability. The JSON body is parsed first (res.json() runs before the ok check), and detail/error/status are merged into the message. The surrounding UI turns the status dot red/green based on data, so this throw only fires on transport-level or server-side failures, not on mere SSH failure.

Source

Thrown at static/js/cookbook-hwfit.js:2357

    if (!host) {
      dot.className = 'cookbook-srv-status';
      dot.title = 'Enter user@host to test';
      setMsg('');
      return;
    }
    dot.className = 'cookbook-srv-status testing';
    dot.title = 'Testing SSH…';
    setMsg('Testing SSH...');
    const t0 = Date.now();
    try {
      const res = await fetch('/api/cookbook/test-ssh', {
        method: 'POST', credentials: 'same-origin',
        headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
        body: JSON.stringify({ host, ssh_port: port || undefined }),
      });
      const data = await res.json();
      if (!res.ok) {
        throw new Error(data.detail || data.error || `HTTP ${res.status}`);
      }
      const ms = Date.now() - t0;
      const out = (data.stdout || '').trim();
      if (data.exit_code === 0 && out.startsWith('ok')) {
        dot.className = 'cookbook-srv-status ok';
        dot.title = `Reachable · ${ms} ms · use Dependencies to check tmux/HF setup`;
        setMsg(`Connected · ${ms} ms`, 'var(--green,#50fa7b)');
      } else {
        dot.className = 'cookbook-srv-status fail';
        const err = (data.stderr || data.stdout || (data.exit_code == null ? 'no exit code' : `exit ${data.exit_code}`)).toString().trim().slice(0, 240);
        dot.title = `SSH failed: ${err}`;
        setMsg(`Failed · ${err}`, 'var(--red,#e06c75)');
      }
    } catch (e) {
      dot.className = 'cookbook-srv-status fail';
      dot.title = `Test failed: ${e.message || e}`;
      setMsg(`Failed · ${e.message || e}`, 'var(--red,#e06c75)');
    }

View on GitHub (pinned to f9235ebbf1)

Solutions

Check whether res.json() succeeded — if the endpoint returns HTML on error, parse text first and JSON-parse defensively
Validate host is 'user@hostname' and port is numeric before sending
Confirm the server process has an ssh client available (which ssh on the host)
Look at backend logs for the exception behind the non-OK status

Example fix

// before
const data = await res.json();
if (!res.ok) {
  throw new Error(data.detail || data.error || `HTTP ${res.status}`);
}

// after
const body = await res.text();
let data = {};
try { data = JSON.parse(body); } catch {}
if (!res.ok) {
  throw new Error(data.detail || data.error || `HTTP ${res.status} ${res.statusText}: ${body.slice(0, 160)}`);
}

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

const m = host.match(/^(?<user>[^@\s]+)@(?<host>[^@\s]+)$/);
if (!m) { setMsg('Host must be user@hostname', 'var(--red)'); return; }
if (port && !/^\d+$/.test(port)) { setMsg('Port must be numeric', 'var(--red)'); return; }

Try / catch

try {
  const res = await fetch('/api/cookbook/test-ssh', { method: 'POST', credentials: 'same-origin', headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' }, body: JSON.stringify({ host, ssh_port: port || undefined }) });
  const body = await res.text();
  let data = {};
  try { data = JSON.parse(body); } catch { throw new Error(`HTTP ${res.status}: non-JSON response`); }
  if (!res.ok) throw new Error(data.detail || data.error || `HTTP ${res.status}`);
  // ... update dot/msg
} catch (e) {
  dot.className = 'cookbook-srv-status fail';
  setMsg(`Test failed: ${e.message}`, 'var(--red)');
}

Prevention

Parse the body as text first, then JSON.parse defensively — res.json() can throw on HTML error pages
Validate user@host and numeric port client-side before the request
Distinguish transport errors (this throw) from SSH failures (exit_code !== 0 path)

When it happens

Trigger: POST /api/cookbook/test-ssh returns 500 (ssh client crashed server-side), 422 (host without user@ format, non-numeric port), or the body is not JSON so res.json() itself throws before this line; auth middleware returning 401.

Common situations: Host field missing the user@ portion; port field contains junk; backend lacks an ssh binary in PATH; reverse proxy intercepts with an HTML error page making res.json() reject first; session cookie expired so a 401 HTML page is returned.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of odysseus-dev/odysseus@f9235ebbf1 (2026-08-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/ac1efaaab1f94d40. Report an issue: GitHub.