sxyazi/yazi · error

Unknown error

Error message

Unknown error

What it means

The fallback branch of `Dds::exec`: when the response reports `ok == false` but carries an empty `error` string, the client cannot surface a remote message and bails with the generic `Unknown error`. It indicates a malformed or opaque failure response from the Yazi DDS endpoint.

Source

Thrown at yazi-cli/src/dds/exec.rs:34

		let req = cmd.body(*yazi_boot::ID)?;
		let resp = Self::ask("dds-exec", receiver, &req, "dds-exec-result").await?;

		#[derive(Deserialize)]
		struct Body {
			ok:    bool,
			#[serde(default)]
			value: Data,
			#[serde(default)]
			error: String,
		}

		let body = Body::deserialize(&resp)?;
		if body.ok {
			Ok(body.value)
		} else if !body.error.is_empty() {
			bail!("{}", body.error)
		} else {
			bail!("Unknown error")
		}
	}

	/// Send one custom message and wait for a matching custom reply.
	async fn ask(kind: &str, receiver: Id, body: &str, reply_kind: &str) -> Result<Data> {
		Ember::validate(kind)?;
		Ember::validate(reply_kind)?;

		let payload = try_format!(
			"{}\n{kind},{receiver},{ID},{body}\n",
			Payload::new(EmberHi::borrowed([reply_kind])),
		)?;

		let (mut lines, mut writer) = Stream::connect().await?;
		writer.write_all(payload.as_bytes()).await?;
		writer.flush().await?;
		drop(writer);

View on GitHub (pinned to 5f901b886b)

Solutions

1. Restart both `yazi` and all `ya` processes so versions and schemas match.
2. Check `YAZI_LOG=debug` output on the Yazi side to find the original failure that produced an empty error.
3. File an issue if a specific message reliably yields `ok:false` with an empty error — that is a server-side bug.

match result {
  Err(e) if e.to_string() == "Unknown error" => {
    // opaque failure: check YAZI_LOG=debug output on the yazi side, then retry once
    retry_once();
  }
  other => other,
}

When it happens

Trigger: The Yazi side sets `ok: false` without populating `body.error` — e.g. a panic/aborted handler or an older/newer build whose Body schema differs so the error field fails to populate.

Common situations: Version mismatch between `ya` and `yazi` causing deserialization to silently drop the error field; a Yazi bug that returns an empty error payload.

Related errors

• Expected custom payload of kind `{reply_kind}`
• {}
• Connection closed before receiving reply
• Incompatible version (Ya {}, Yazi {}). Restart all `ya` and
• No receiver found. Check if any receivers are running.

AI-assisted analysis of sxyazi/yazi@5f901b886b (2026-09-02). Data as JSON: /api/errors/c76cc5a5e454cf5a. Report an issue: GitHub.