What causes "RPC ${method} HTTP ${res.status}" in tinyhumansai/openhuman?

On 401: re-fetch the token — cat the current workspace's core.token, or pass --spawn-core so the script generates and uses a matching token

tinyhumansai/openhuman · error · Error

RPC ${method} HTTP ${res.status}

Error message

RPC ${method} HTTP ${res.status}

What it means

rpc() in scripts/debug/agent-prepare-context-audit.mjs parses the response body as JSON successfully, then checks res.ok; any non-2xx status throws 'RPC <method> HTTP <status>'. This is transport-level rejection at the HTTP layer — the server spoke valid JSON (often a JSON error object) but the status says the request itself was not accepted.

Source

Thrown at scripts/debug/agent-prepare-context-audit.mjs:281

      }),
    });
  } catch (err) {
    if (err?.name === "AbortError")
      throw new Error(`RPC ${method} timed out after ${timeoutMs}ms`);
    throw err;
  } finally {
    clearTimeout(timeout);
  }
  const bodyText = await res.text();
  let body;
  try {
    body = JSON.parse(bodyText);
  } catch {
    throw new Error(
      `RPC ${method} returned non-JSON HTTP ${res.status}: ${bodyText.slice(0, 200)}`,
    );
  }
  if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`RPC ${method} HTTP ${res.status}`);
  if (body.error)
    throw new Error(
      `RPC ${method} error: ${JSON.stringify(body.error).slice(0, 300)}`,
    );
  return body.result;
}

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View on GitHub (pinned to a221052e0d)

Solutions

On 401: re-fetch the token — cat the current workspace's core.token, or pass --spawn-core so the script generates and uses a matching token
On 404: verify the URL includes /rpc and the core is the openhuman-core JSON-RPC server
On 5xx: check the core's own logs (file-only core log stream) for the underlying failure and restart it
Retry after the core is healthy — this is a state error, not a bad request shape

Example fix

# before
$ OPENHUMAN_CORE_TOKEN=stale-token node scripts/debug/agent-prepare-context-audit.mjs
Error: RPC core.ping HTTP 401

# after
$ node scripts/debug/agent-prepare-context-audit.mjs --token "$(cat ~/.openhuman/users/<id>/workspace/core.token)"

Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Validate before calling

// Cheap auth probe before the expensive audit calls
const res = await fetch(coreUrl, { method: "POST", headers: { "content-type": "application/json", authorization: `Bearer ${token}` }, body: JSON.stringify({ jsonrpc: "2.0", id: 1, method: "core.ping", params: {} }) });
if (res.status === 401) throw new Error("bearer rejected (401) — re-read core.token from the running core's workspace or pass --token");
if (res.status === 404) throw new Error("route not found (404) — URL must include /rpc");

Try / catch

try {
  return await rpc(coreUrl, token, method, params);
} catch (e) {
  const m = /RPC \S+ HTTP (\d+)/.exec(e.message);
  if (m) {
    const status = Number(m[1]);
    if (status === 401 || status === 403) throw new Error(`auth failed (${status}) — refresh the token from the live core`, { cause: e });
    if (status >= 500) { await sleep(5_000); return rpc(coreUrl, token, method, params); } // core restarting
  }
  throw e;
}

Prevention

Tokens are per-launch: never reuse a core.token from a previous core run when attaching to a new one
Probe with core.ping before kicking off a long audit — 401 there costs milliseconds instead of minutes
5xx right after --spawn-core usually means the core is still binding; wait and retry once

When it happens

Trigger: 401 when the bearer token is wrong/revoked (e.g. --token from a dead core's core.token while attaching to a newly spawned core with a fresh token); 403 for permission failures; 404 when the URL path is wrong (missing /rpc or a proxy route); 500 when the core's HTTP layer fails before JSON-RPC dispatch. Distinct from the non-JSON error (212), which fires when the body isn't even parseable.

Common situations: Mixing tokens between core runs — core.token is regenerated per launch, so a stale file yields 401; pointing at a core built with different feature gates so the route shape differs; reverse proxies returning 502 while the core restarts underneath the audit.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of tinyhumansai/openhuman@a221052e0d (2026-08-16). Data as JSON: /api/errors/3f85a3d2205d9b7f. Report an issue: GitHub.