vxcontrol/pentagi · error · Fatal

failed to build request: %v

Error message

failed to build request: %v

What it means

traversaal.search returns Fatal 'failed to build request: %v' when http.NewRequest(http.MethodPost, traversaalURL, ...) fails. NewRequest errors on an invalid method or an unparseable URL, so this means the traversaalURL constant/config is malformed — a deployment/build-time problem, not a runtime network issue.

Source

Thrown at backend/pkg/tools/searchers/traversaal.go:88

func (t *traversaal) search(ctx context.Context, query string) (string, error) {
	client, err := system.GetHTTPClient(t.cfg)
	if err != nil {
		return "", Fatal(fmt.Errorf("failed to create http client: %w", err))
	}

	reqBody, err := json.Marshal(struct {
		Query string `json:"query"`
	}{
		Query: query,
	})
	if err != nil {
		return "", Fatal(fmt.Errorf("failed to marshal request body: %v", err))
	}

	req, err := http.NewRequest(http.MethodPost, traversaalURL, bytes.NewBuffer(reqBody))
	if err != nil {
		return "", Fatal(fmt.Errorf("failed to build request: %v", err))
	}

	req = req.WithContext(ctx)
	req.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/json")
	req.Header.Set("x-api-key", t.apiKey())

	resp, err := client.Do(req)
	if err != nil {
		return "", Retryable(fmt.Errorf("failed to do request: %v", err), 0)
	}
	defer resp.Body.Close()

	return t.parseHTTPResponse(resp)
}

func (t *traversaal) parseHTTPResponse(resp *http.Response) (string, error) {
	if resp.StatusCode != http.StatusOK {
		err := fmt.Errorf("unexpected status code: %d", resp.StatusCode)

View on GitHub (pinned to ea665308ba)

Solutions

1. Read the wrapped error; NewRequest reports url.Parse failures precisely.
2. Verify the Traversaal base URL env var is a valid absolute https:// URL.
3. Validate the URL at startup (url.Parse) so bad config fails fast.
4. If traversaalURL is hardcoded, check the constant wasn't corrupted by edits.

Example fix

// before: placeholder left in env
TRAVERSAAL_SERVER_URL=your-api-key-here
// after: valid endpoint
TRAVERSAAL_SERVER_URL=https://api.traversaal.ai/hybrid/live

if u, err := url.Parse(traversaalURL); err != nil || u.Scheme == "" || u.Host == "" {
    return fmt.Errorf("invalid traversaal URL: %q", traversaalURL)
}

result, err := traversaalSearcher.Handle(ctx, req)
var f *searchers.FatalError
if errors.As(err, &f) && strings.Contains(f.Error(), "failed to build request") {
    return "", fmt.Errorf("check TRAVERSAAL server URL config: %w", err)
}

When it happens

Trigger: http.NewRequest returns err because traversaalURL (or its configured override) is not a valid absolute URL (e.g. missing scheme, control characters, bad host).

Common situations: Misconfigured TRAVERSAAL server URL env var with spaces or missing https://; a fork pointing traversaalURL at an empty or placeholder value; config substitution injecting invalid characters.

Related errors

• failed to create http client: %w
• failed to create search request: %w
• failed to build request: %v
• failed to create request: %w
• failed to create request: %w

AI-assisted analysis of vxcontrol/pentagi@ea665308ba (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/2cb986c8492c984c. Report an issue: GitHub.