openai/openai-python · error · ValueError

Expected a non-empty value for `response_id` but received {r

Error message

Expected a non-empty value for `response_id` but received {response_id!r}

What it means

Raised by client.responses.retrieve() when response_id is empty (None, '', or falsy) before any HTTP request is made. The id is interpolated into the path /responses/{response_id}, so an empty value would produce a malformed URL; the SDK fails fast instead.

Source

Thrown at src/openai/resources/responses/responses.py:1626

        ...

    def retrieve(
        self,
        response_id: str,
        *,
        include: List[ResponseIncludable] | Omit = omit,
        include_obfuscation: bool | Omit = omit,
        starting_after: int | Omit = omit,
        stream: Literal[False] | Literal[True] | Omit = omit,
        # Use the following arguments if you need to pass additional parameters to the API that aren't available via kwargs.
        # The extra values given here take precedence over values defined on the client or passed to this method.
        extra_headers: Headers | None = None,
        extra_query: Query | None = None,
        extra_body: Body | None = None,
        timeout: float | httpx2.Timeout | None | NotGiven = not_given,
    ) -> Response | Stream[ResponseStreamEvent]:
        if not response_id:
            raise ValueError(f"Expected a non-empty value for `response_id` but received {response_id!r}")
        return self._get(
            path_template("/responses/{response_id}", response_id=response_id),
            options=make_request_options(
                extra_headers=extra_headers,
                extra_query=extra_query,
                extra_body=extra_body,
                timeout=timeout,
                query=maybe_transform(
                    {
                        "include": include,
                        "include_obfuscation": include_obfuscation,
                        "starting_after": starting_after,
                        "stream": stream,
                    },
                    response_retrieve_params.ResponseRetrieveParams,
                ),
                security={"bearer_auth": True},
            ),

View on GitHub (pinned to 9917c6e28e)

Solutions

1. Verify the id is a non-empty string starting with 'resp_' before calling retrieve
2. Trace where response_id came from — usually a previous response object or stored job id
3. If reading from storage/API output, add a guard clause for falsy values

Example fix

// before
resp = client.responses.retrieve(response_id=data.get("id"))
// after
rid = data.get("id") or ""
resp = client.responses.retrieve(response_id=rid) if rid else None

rid = response_id if isinstance(response_id, str) and response_id.strip() else None
if not rid:
    raise ValueError(f'cannot retrieve response with empty id: {response_id!r}')
resp = client.responses.retrieve(response_id=rid)

def is_valid_response_id(rid) -> bool:
    return isinstance(rid, str) and bool(rid.strip())

try:
    resp = client.responses.retrieve(response_id=rid)
except ValueError as e:
    if 'non-empty value' in str(e):
        rid = fallback_id or fetch_latest_id()
        if rid:
            resp = client.responses.retrieve(response_id=rid)
        else:
            raise
    else:
        raise

When it happens

Trigger: client.responses.retrieve(response_id=None), retrieve(''), or retrieve(response_id='') where the id came from an unset variable or a response object whose .id was missing/empty.

Common situations: Accessing response.id on an object that doesn't have it (e.g. an error object or a stream event), passing an empty string from parsed JSON, typos like response_id='' defaults in wrappers.

Understand the failure class

Background: Missing required parameter errors: what 'X is required' and 'the required X param is missing' mean, and how to fix them — this error's family across 27 libraries.

Related errors

• Expected a non-empty value for `response_id` but received {r
• Expected a non-empty value for `response_id` but received {r
• model must be provided when creating a new response
• id must be provided when streaming an existing response
• Pagination is only supported with mappings

AI-assisted analysis of openai/openai-python@9917c6e28e (2026-08-28). Data as JSON: /api/errors/1c691009edae9025. Report an issue: GitHub.