playwright request failed net::ERR_EMPTY_RESPONSE behind load balancer

Not specified by the original author.

TL;DR

The load balancer closed the connection without answering, usually because the backend was deregistered, the idle timeout fired, or the request hit a dead pool member. Check LB target health first, then align keep-alive and idle timeouts between Playwright and the LB. If the origin is healthy and the LB still empties responses, the LB config is the bug.

playwright request failed net::ERR_EMPTY_RESPONSE behind load balancer

Use this when

• The error appears only through the load balancer, never direct to origin.
• Failures cluster after idle periods or during deploys.
• The LB is AWS ALB/NLB, GCP, Cloudflare, or nginx/haproxy.

Not for this skill when

• Direct-to-origin requests also fail. That is the backend, not the balancer.
• The error is ERRCONNECTIONRESET. That is a reset, a different failure.

Steps

1. Check the LB target health: every backend should be healthy at the moment of failure. Verify: no targets flapping or draining during the failure window.
2. Compare idle timeouts: the LB's idle timeout must exceed the longest gap between requests on a reused connection. Verify: raising the LB idle timeout (e.g. ALB 60s default) stops the failures.
3. Disable connection reuse for the test: new Playwright context per batch. Verify: failures disappear, confirming stale pooled connections through the LB.
4. Check sticky sessions: if the app needs stickiness and the LB routes to a dead member, the response empties. Verify: stickiness settings match what the app expects.
5. During deploys, confirm connection draining is enabled with a drain timeout longer than in-flight requests. Verify: deploys stop producing empty responses.

Variant phrasings

ERREMPTYRESPONSE load balancer

The short search, same LB-first diagnosis.

playwright empty response alb

Vendor phrasing, points at the idle-timeout check.

load balancer closes connection no response

Symptom phrasing, lands on step 1.

Compatibility: Playwright 1.x, any LB. The failure is at the TCP/HTTP layer, so the browser version barely matters.

Why it happens

An empty response means someone closed the TCP connection without writing an HTTP response. Load balancers do this when the backend disappears mid-request, when an idle connection outlives the LB's timeout, or when health checks lag reality and traffic routes to a dead target. The browser cannot distinguish these; only the LB's logs can.

Edge cases / pitfalls

• Playwright's connection pooling keeps sockets open longer than curl's one-shot requests, so the bug shows in Playwright first. That does not make it a Playwright bug.
• HTTP/2 through the LB multiplexes many requests on one connection; one dead connection empties many responses at once.
• Empty responses during scale-down are normal if draining is misconfigured. Fix the drain, not the client.
• Log the LB request ID (ALB adds one) to correlate the empty response with the LB's access logs.

Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_HUDXJaSSFRGeEbVm1qnVXg

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_HUDXJaSSFRGeEbVm1qnVXg

Thread query: playwright request failed net::ERREMPTYRESPONSE behind load balancer

TL;DR: The load balancer closed the connection without answering, usually because the backend was deregistered, the idle timeout fired, or the request hit a dead pool member. Check LB target health first, then align keep-alive and idle timeouts between Playwright and the LB. If the origin is healthy and the LB still empties responses, the LB config is the bug.

Not specified by the original author.

TL;DR

The proxy is killing the connection, not the target site. Make sure Playwright's traffic actually flows through the proxy (it ignores system proxy env vars by default), pass auth through the context options, and confirm CONNECT tunneling works. If the site still resets after a clean proxy path, the target is refusing your traffic and you stop there.

playwright page.goto net::ERR_CONNECTION_RESET crawling through corporate proxy

Use this when

• page.goto throws net::ERR_CONNECTION_RESET on the corporate network but works elsewhere.
• The proxy requires auth or only allows certain ports and methods.
• Direct navigation without a proxy succeeds, so the site itself is reachable.

Not for this skill when

• The reset comes from the target site for every network. That is a block, not a proxy problem.
• The error is net::ERR_TUNNEL_CONNECTION_FAILED. That is a different failure (the proxy refused CONNECT outright).

Steps

1. Pass the proxy explicitly in the context: browser.new_context(proxy={"server": "https://example.com", "username": "USER", "password": "PASS"}). Verify: Playwright docs confirm env vars like HTTPS_PROXY are ignored by default; explicit config is the only path.
2. Confirm the proxy allows CONNECT on port 443. Ask IT or test with curl through the proxy to an https URL. Verify: curl returns the page instead of a proxy error.
3. Listen for the failure detail: page.on("requestfailed", r => console.log(r.failure())). Verify: the failure object names the proxy layer (connection reset during tunnel setup) rather than the target.
4. Keep alive headers default: Playwright reuses connections, some proxies kill idle ones. If resets cluster after pauses, recreate the context between batches. Verify: a fresh context per batch drops the reset rate.
5. If the corporate proxy MITMs TLS (custom CA), import the CA into the context with ignore_https_errors off and the CA trusted at the OS level, not by bypassing cert checks. Verify: navigation succeeds with strict cert validation on.

Variant phrasings

playwright ERRCONNECTIONRESET proxy authentication

Auth-shaped search, same fix path: credentials must ride on the context, not the shell.

page.goto connection reset behind corporate firewall

The firewall-intercept search, solved at step 2 with the CONNECT test.

playwright proxy tunnel reset

Tunnel-focused phrasing, points at the CONNECT handshake.

Compatibility: Playwright 1.x (Chromium). Corporate proxies that intercept TLS need the CA in the OS trust store, not Playwright flags.

Why it happens

Playwright does not read system proxy environment variables, so traffic leaves the browser directly and hits a corporate firewall that only permits proxied traffic. The firewall answers the raw connection with a reset instead of a proper error. When a proxy is configured, the failures move to auth (407) or CONNECT policy, which are at least diagnosable.

Edge cases / pitfalls

• NTLM/Kerberos proxies need per-request auth Playwright cannot do natively. Route through a local forwarding proxy that handles the handshake.
• PAC files are not evaluated by Playwright. Resolve the PAC yourself and pass the chosen server.
• Resets that appear only after N minutes are idle-timeout kills. Do not retry blindly; rotate the context instead.
• Never downgrade to ignore_https_errors: True on a corporate network. A MITM you cannot identify is a finding, not a config option.

Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_KvFcND1X3Cnnz39wpSk8AQ

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_KvFcND1X3Cnnz39wpSk8AQ

Thread query: playwright page.goto net::ERRCONNECTIONRESET crawling through corporate proxy

TL;DR: The proxy is killing the connection, not the target site. Make sure Playwright's traffic actually flows through the proxy (it ignores system proxy env vars by default), pass auth through the context options, and confirm CONNECT tunneling works. If the site still resets after a clean proxy path, the target is refusing your traffic and you stop there.

Not specified by the original author.

TL;DR

Fix this in Ketch request queue automation by acting on the exact problem first: save any queue work locally first, restore the signed in session, open the Ketch request queue directly and wait for the queue table to render, and use the Ketch API or export for bulk queue checks rather than paging the dashboard. Do not rerun the whole job or request unchanged, because the same inputs produce the same failure. Prove the fix on one request, system or batch first, then rerun the full scope and reconcile the counts.

Playwright failed loading privacy dashboard - request queue timed out

Use this when

• The operation in Ketch request queue automation fails with this exact message or symptom: Playwright failed loading privacy dashboard - request queue timed out.
• The same failure repeats on retry with unchanged inputs.
• A privacy request, export, deletion or deadline is blocked until this item completes.

Not for this skill when

• The message is an outage notice from the platform. Resolve that first, then return here if this problem remains.
• The operation completes and you only disagree with a legal interpretation or a policy choice. That is a privacy team decision, not this failure.

Steps

1. Reproduce the failure with the smallest scope that still shows it in Ketch request queue automation, and copy the full message plus the request, system or record involved into the run notes. Verify: the problem is reproduced on demand with a named scope, not only seen in a log.
2. Apply the specific fix for this problem: save any queue work locally first, restore the signed in session, open the Ketch request queue directly and wait for the queue table to render, and use the Ketch API or export for bulk queue checks rather than paging the dashboard. Verify: the smallest failing scope now completes, or the named request, system or record behaves as the fix predicts.
3. Check the neighbouring requests, systems or records that share the same connector, mapping or owner, because this class of failure rarely affects only one item. Verify: the neighbouring items are listed and each is marked affected or clear.
4. Rerun the original operation in Ketch request queue automation on the previously failing scope, watching for the same message rather than assuming success from a quiet log. Verify: the operation completes and the original message does not appear.
5. Compare the result counts or status against the source in Ketch request queue automation so a silent partial success is caught before the request is closed. Verify: counts match the source or every difference is named and explained.
6. Record the fix, the triggering input and the verification result on the request so the next occurrence is recognised immediately. Verify: the record names the problem, the fix applied and the evidence of success.

Why it happens

Privacy dashboards load queues slowly and expire sessions silently, so automation on fixed waits reads a loading page as an empty queue and times out.

Variant phrasings

Playwright failed loading privacy dashboard - request queue timed out

The verbatim form searchers paste from the console, queue or request tracker. Treat it identically: same fix, same single scope proof, then the full rerun.

How to fix - Playwright failed loading the Ketch request queue privacy dashboard timed out

The how to phrasing for the same failure in Ketch request queue automation. The steps above apply unchanged; start at the reproduction step rather than skipping to the rerun.

Ketch request queue automation troubleshooting for this failure

The symptom first phrasing used when the console hides the full message. Surface the full message first, confirm it matches the code block above, then follow the steps.

Edge cases

• If the fix works on the small scope but the full rerun still fails on a different system, treat that system as a new instance, record its scope separately, and apply the same steps rather than widening the first fix blindly.
• If personal data was already sent to the wrong place or a notice was already sent early, record the incident for privacy assessment first, then apply the fix, and note the affected request in the run record.
• If a legal hold or a verification question is in play, pause deletion or delivery for that request only, resolve the hold or verification, and keep other requests moving.

Compatibility: Ketch request queue automation at current versions, plus the admin console or API the query names; no extra tooling beyond the source system access needed to verify counts.

Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_XBCeJQ33zJpDXd0QR9GnlQ

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_XBCeJQ33zJpDXd0QR9GnlQ

Thread query: Playwright failed loading the Ketch request queue privacy dashboard timed out

TL;DR: Fix this in Ketch request queue automation by acting on the exact problem first: save any queue work locally first, restore the signed in session, open the Ketch request queue directly and wait for the queue table to render, and use the Ketch API or export for bulk queue checks rather than paging the dashboard. Do not rerun the whole job or request unchanged, because the same inputs produce the same failure. Prove the fix on one request, system or batch first, then rerun the full scope and reconcile the counts.