tinyhumansai/openhuman · error

Brave returned malformed JSON: {e}

Error message

Brave returned malformed JSON: {e}

What it means

The Brave API returned a 2xx response whose body could not be parsed as JSON in `brave_get`. This fires when the response body is not valid JSON at all — an HTML error/consent page from an intercepting proxy, a truncated body from a connection cut mid-transfer, or a content-type mismatch. It is distinct from a schema drift (fields missing/renamed), which is reported as a shape-changed error instead.

Source

Thrown at src/openhuman/search/tools/brave.rs:108

        let detail = crate::openhuman::util::utf8_safe_prefix_at_byte_boundary(&body, 500);
        tracing::warn!(
            path = %path,
            status = %status,
            elapsed_ms = elapsed_ms as u64,
            "[brave] non-2xx response: {detail}"
        );
        anyhow::bail!("Brave returned {status}: {detail}");
    }
    tracing::debug!(
        path = %path,
        status = %status,
        elapsed_ms = elapsed_ms as u64,
        body_bytes = body.len(),
        "[brave] response ok"
    );
    serde_json::from_str::<Value>(&body).map_err(|e| {
        tracing::warn!(path = %path, "[brave] JSON parse failed: {e}");
        anyhow::anyhow!("Brave returned malformed JSON: {e}")
    })
}

fn extract_query(args: &Value) -> anyhow::Result<String> {
    let q = args
        .get("query")
        .and_then(|v| v.as_str())
        .ok_or_else(|| anyhow::anyhow!("Missing required parameter: query"))?
        .trim();
    if q.is_empty() {
        anyhow::bail!("Search query cannot be empty");
    }
    Ok(q.to_string())
}

fn clamped_count(args: &Value, default: usize, max: usize) -> usize {
    args.get("count")
        .and_then(|v| v.as_u64())

View on GitHub (pinned to 7491200858)

Solutions

1. Reproduce the raw response externally: `curl -H 'X-Subscription-Token: <key>' 'https://api.search.brave.com/res/v1/web/search?q=test'` to inspect what is actually returned
2. If a corporate proxy intercepts TLS, configure the proxy or its CA in the core's TLS/proxy settings
3. Retry once — truncated bodies from interrupted transfers are often transient

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at src/openhuman/search/tools/brave.rs:108 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

Understand the failure class

• Parsing and encoding errors: unexpected token, malformed input — why parsers reject input and how to find the real culprit.

AI-assisted analysis of tinyhumansai/openhuman@7491200858 (2026-08-17). Data as JSON: /api/errors/4eab121617e5426b. Report an issue: GitHub.