vxcontrol/pentagi · error · FatalError

failed to create google search service: %w

Error message

failed to create google search service: %w

What it means

google.Handle fails to build the Custom Search JSON API client and wraps the cause in Fatal(fmt.Errorf("failed to create google search service: %w", err)). This is Fatal (not Retryable), so the web_search orchestrator will not retry Google for this query and will move on. The underlying cause is almost always the nested 'failed to create http client' or customsearch.NewService failure.

Source

Thrown at backend/pkg/tools/searchers/google.go:57

	}

	ctx, observation := obs.Observer.NewObservation(ctx)

	numResults := int64(req.MaxResults)
	if numResults < 1 || numResults > googleMaxResults {
		numResults = googleMaxResults
	}

	logger := logrus.WithContext(ctx).WithFields(logrus.Fields{
		"engine":      "google",
		"query":       req.Query[:min(len(req.Query), 1000)],
		"num_results": numResults,
	})

	svc, err := g.newSearchService(ctx)
	if err != nil {
		logger.WithError(err).Error("failed to create google search service")
		return "", Fatal(fmt.Errorf("failed to create google search service: %w", err))
	}

	result, err := g.search(ctx, svc, req.Query, numResults)
	if err != nil {
		observation.Event(
			langfuse.WithEventName("search engine error"),
			langfuse.WithEventInput(req.Query),
			langfuse.WithEventStatus(err.Error()),
			langfuse.WithEventLevel(langfuse.ObservationLevelWarning),
			langfuse.WithEventMetadata(langfuse.Metadata{
				"engine":      "google",
				"query":       req.Query,
				"max_results": numResults,
				"error":       err.Error(),
			}),
		)

		obs.LogErrorOrCancel(logger, err, "failed to search in google")

View on GitHub (pinned to ea665308ba)

Solutions

1. Read the wrapped cause: if it is 'failed to create http client', fix proxy/TLS settings (HTTPS_PROXY, CA bundle) used by system.GetHTTPClient
2. Ensure GOOGLE_API_KEY and GOOGLE_CX_KEY are set — although IsAvailable() guards this, verify the config actually loaded
3. If the context is canceled, check upstream cancellation/timeouts rather than Google config
4. Retry the flow; since the error is Fatal the orchestrator skips Google, so fix the root cause to restore Google results

// guard config before calling the engine
if cfg.GoogleAPIKey == "" || cfg.GoogleCXKey == "" {
    // engine unavailable (IsAvailable() would return false)
}

result, err := googleSearcher.Handle(ctx, req)
if err != nil {
    if searchers.IsFatal(err) && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "failed to create google search service") {
        log.Errorf("google client init failed: %v", err) // fix proxy/TLS, don't retry
        return fallbackSearcher.Handle(ctx, req)
    }
    return "", err
}

When it happens

Trigger: g.newSearchService(ctx) errors: system.GetHTTPClient fails (proxy/TLS config invalid) or customsearch.NewService(ctx, option.WithHTTPClient(client)) fails to initialize the google.golang.org/api service.

Common situations: Invalid HTTPS_PROXY/HTTP_PROXY env vars or bad proxy CA certs on Google API search calls; corrupt google.golang.org/api module options; context already canceled when Handle is invoked.

Related errors

• failed to create google search service: %v
• google search failed: %w
• failed to do request: %w
• could not create Google OpenID client: %w
• id_token is not present in the token

AI-assisted analysis of vxcontrol/pentagi@ea665308ba (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/fcb0312fd9d15b99. Report an issue: GitHub.