vxcontrol/pentagi · error · Fatal

failed to create http client: %w

Error message

failed to create http client: %w

What it means

traversaal.search obtains an *http.Client via system.GetHTTPClient(t.cfg) and wraps any failure in a Fatal error 'failed to create http client: %w'. This fires when the shared HTTP client factory cannot build a client from the searcher config — typically invalid proxy URL or bad TLS settings in configuration.

Source

Thrown at backend/pkg/tools/searchers/traversaal.go:74

			langfuse.WithEventLevel(langfuse.ObservationLevelWarning),
			langfuse.WithEventMetadata(langfuse.Metadata{
				"engine": "traversaal",
				"query":  req.Query,
				"error":  err.Error(),
			}),
		)

		obs.LogErrorOrCancel(logger, err, "failed to search in traversaal")
		return "", err
	}

	return result, nil
}

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")

View on GitHub (pinned to ea665308ba)

Solutions

1. Read the wrapped error — GetHTTPClient reports whether the proxy URL or TLS config is at fault.
2. Fix proxy environment variables (HTTP_PROXY/HTTPS_PROXY/NO_PROXY) to be valid URLs.
3. Verify any custom CA certificate paths/content in the searchers config.
4. Write a startup health check that constructs the HTTP client once so bad config fails fast at boot, not mid-search.

Example fix

// before: silently continuing with nil-ish config
cfg := config.Load()
// after: validate proxy/TLS up front
if _, err := system.GetHTTPClient(cfg); err != nil {
    log.Fatalf("invalid HTTP client config: %v", err)
}

if _, err := system.GetHTTPClient(cfg); err != nil {
    log.Fatalf("invalid HTTP client configuration: %v", err)
}

result, err := traversaalSearcher.Handle(ctx, req)
var f *searchers.FatalError
if errors.As(err, &f) && strings.Contains(f.Error(), "failed to create http client") {
    return "", fmt.Errorf("fix proxy/TLS config for traversaal: %w", err)
}

When it happens

Trigger: traversaal.Handle -> search() calls system.GetHTTPClient(t.cfg), which returns err (e.g. unparseable proxy URL, invalid TLS material), producing Fatal(fmt.Errorf("failed to create http client: %w", err)).

Common situations: Malformed HTTP_PROXY/HTTPS_PROXY env values; bad custom CA cert file path in config; incorrect cfg passed to the searcher at construction; TLS scheme typos.

Related errors

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

AI-assisted analysis of vxcontrol/pentagi@ea665308ba (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/66d9cb2bfce3ebec. Report an issue: GitHub.