transloadit/uppy · error

res.sendStatus(500)

Error message

res.sendStatus(500)

What it means

The search controller returns HTTP 500 when companion.buildURL is missing or the 'q' query parameter is not a string. This is a server-side invariant failure: the URL builder was not injected or the query string was malformed/absent.

Source

Thrown at packages/@uppy/companion/src/server/controllers/search.ts:19

import type { NextFunction, Request, Response } from 'express'
import { respondWithError } from '../provider/error.js'

export default async function search(
  req: Request,
  res: Response,
  next: NextFunction,
): Promise<void> {
  const { query, companion } = req
  const { providerUserSession, provider } = companion
  if (!provider) {
    res.sendStatus(400)
    return
  }

  const buildURL = companion.buildURL
  const q = query['q']
  if (buildURL == null || typeof q !== 'string') {
    res.sendStatus(500)
    return
  }

  try {
    const data = await provider.search({
      companion: { buildURL },
      providerUserSession,
      query: { ...query, q },
    })
    res.json(data)
  } catch (err) {
    if (respondWithError(err, res)) return
    next(err)
  }
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 5d4dedd02a)

Solutions

1. Ensure the request includes a single string q parameter (normally guarded by hasSearchQuery middleware — check routing order)
2. Verify the provider search route uses the standard Companion router so req.companion.buildURL is attached
3. If q is user-supplied, validate/normalize it to a string before calling the endpoint

Example fix

// before
fetch('/search/unsplash')
// after
fetch(`/search/unsplash?q=${encodeURIComponent(query)}`)

if (typeof q !== 'string' || q === '') throw new TypeError('q must be a non-empty string')

const isSearchQuery = (q: unknown): q is string => typeof q === 'string' && q.length > 0

When it happens

Trigger: Calling the search endpoint without a q parameter, with q duplicated into an array (?q=a&q=b), or when Companion's internal buildURL helper is not set on req.companion (miswired middleware/routing).

Common situations: Client sends GET to /search/:provider without a search term; custom middleware setup bypassing Companion's standard initializers; query parsers producing arrays for repeated params.

Related errors

• File data is missing for file ${options.file.id}
• Missing S3 object key for completing multipart upload
• One of options `companionEndpoint`, `signRequest`, or `getCr
• [s3mini] fileType must be a string
• [s3mini] uploadId must be a non-empty string

AI-assisted analysis of transloadit/uppy@5d4dedd02a (2026-08-28). Data as JSON: /api/errors/0ace2f995dc9410c. Report an issue: GitHub.