From 26d53497503b46c37975b50e5f3505770049f5f0 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Luis Novo <lfnovo@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 14 Feb 2026 18:09:07 -0300
Subject: [PATCH] fix: handle empty/whitespace source content without retry
 loop (#576)

Source.vectorize() wrapped its own ValueError in DatabaseOperationError,
bypassing the stop_on=[ValueError] retry guard in process_source_command.
This caused up to 15 retries when processing files with no extractable
text, blocking sync API requests indefinitely.

- Re-raise ValueError directly in Source.vectorize() instead of wrapping
- Add .strip() check to catch whitespace-only content
- Skip vectorization gracefully in save_source() when content is empty
- Add unit tests for vectorize error handling

Fixes #560
---
 open_notebook/domain/notebook.py |  4 +++-
 open_notebook/graphs/source.py   |  9 ++++++--
 tests/test_domain.py             | 37 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 3 files changed, 47 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/open_notebook/domain/notebook.py b/open_notebook/domain/notebook.py
index 05dc8f2..656255f 100644
--- a/open_notebook/domain/notebook.py
+++ b/open_notebook/domain/notebook.py
@@ -429,7 +429,7 @@ class Source(ObjectModel):
         logger.info(f"Submitting embed_source job for source {self.id}")
 
         try:
-            if not self.full_text:
+            if not self.full_text or not self.full_text.strip():
                 raise ValueError(f"Source {self.id} has no text to vectorize")
 
             # Submit the embed_source command
@@ -447,6 +447,8 @@ class Source(ObjectModel):
 
             return command_id_str
 
+        except ValueError:
+            raise
         except Exception as e:
             logger.error(
                 f"Failed to submit embed_source job for source {self.id}: {e}"
diff --git a/open_notebook/graphs/source.py b/open_notebook/graphs/source.py
index 02d1e75..dc55390 100644
--- a/open_notebook/graphs/source.py
+++ b/open_notebook/graphs/source.py
@@ -101,8 +101,13 @@ async def save_source(state: SourceState) -> dict:
     # No need to create them here to avoid duplicate edges
 
     if state["embed"]:
-        logger.debug("Embedding content for vector search")
-        await source.vectorize()
+        if source.full_text and source.full_text.strip():
+            logger.debug("Embedding content for vector search")
+            await source.vectorize()
+        else:
+            logger.warning(
+                f"Source {source.id} has no text content to embed, skipping vectorization"
+            )
 
     return {"source": source}
 
diff --git a/tests/test_domain.py b/tests/test_domain.py
index 7fe5167..917c163 100644
--- a/tests/test_domain.py
+++ b/tests/test_domain.py
@@ -202,6 +202,43 @@ class TestSourceDomain:
             mock_delete.assert_called_once()
 
 
+    @pytest.mark.asyncio
+    async def test_vectorize_raises_valueerror_when_no_text(self):
+        """Test that vectorize() raises ValueError (not DatabaseOperationError) for empty text."""
+        source = Source(id="source:test_empty", title="Test", full_text=None)
+        with pytest.raises(ValueError, match="has no text to vectorize"):
+            await source.vectorize()
+
+    @pytest.mark.asyncio
+    async def test_vectorize_raises_valueerror_when_empty_string(self):
+        """Test that vectorize() raises ValueError for empty string."""
+        source = Source(id="source:test_empty_str", title="Test", full_text="")
+        with pytest.raises(ValueError, match="has no text to vectorize"):
+            await source.vectorize()
+
+    @pytest.mark.asyncio
+    async def test_vectorize_raises_valueerror_when_whitespace_only(self):
+        """Test that vectorize() raises ValueError for whitespace-only text."""
+        source = Source(id="source:test_ws", title="Test", full_text="   \n\t  ")
+        with pytest.raises(ValueError, match="has no text to vectorize"):
+            await source.vectorize()
+
+    @pytest.mark.asyncio
+    async def test_vectorize_submits_command_with_valid_text(self):
+        """Test that vectorize() submits embed_source command when text is valid."""
+        source = Source(id="source:test_valid", title="Test", full_text="Real content")
+        with patch(
+            "open_notebook.domain.notebook.submit_command", return_value="command:123"
+        ) as mock_submit:
+            result = await source.vectorize()
+            mock_submit.assert_called_once_with(
+                "open_notebook",
+                "embed_source",
+                {"source_id": "source:test_valid"},
+            )
+            assert result == "command:123"
+
+
 # ============================================================================
 # TEST SUITE 5: Note Domain
 # ============================================================================