fix: save binary fetch responses to a file instead of corrupting them as text by rolznz · Pull Request #62 · getAlby/cli

rolznz · 2026-07-24T06:32:32Z

Fixes #61

fetch read every successful response body with response.text(), which lossily UTF-8-decodes binary bodies (every invalid byte sequence becomes U+FFFD) and then returned the mangled string as JSON content. A paid WAV response arrived as ~50% replacement characters with no way to recover the original bytes - and no error, since the payment succeeded and the status was 200.

Changes

Read the body as bytes (arrayBuffer()) and decide text vs binary:
- a declared text content type (text/*, JSON/XML, form-urlencoded) is returned inline as content, as before
- otherwise the bytes qualify as text only when they strictly decode as UTF-8 (covers JSON APIs that omit or mislabel the content type)
- anything else is binary: it is written to a temp file named with an extension derived from the content type subtype (audio/wav -> .wav, unknown -> .bin), and the output carries outputPath, contentType and sizeBytes instead of content
New -o, --output <path> flag: saves any response body (text included) verbatim to the given path and returns the path, so an agent expecting a large output never round-trips it through stdout
Non-OK responses are unchanged (error bodies stay text), as is the payment object in all cases

A file was chosen over base64-in-JSON: the consumer almost always needs the binary as a file anyway (play it, upload it, feed it to ffmpeg), and base64 would add a manual decode step plus ~1.3x payload inflation.

Verification

5 new tests in src/test/fetch-binary.test.ts (binary saved byte-for-byte, .bin fallback, declared-text stays inline, valid-UTF-8-without-content-type stays inline, -o forces a file); full suite passes
Verified end-to-end with a real 2-sat payment to https://voice.forgemesh.io/v1/tts/base through the l402.space bridge: the response is now saved as a playable .wav whose size matches its RIFF header

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

Summary by CodeRabbit

New Features
- Added -o, --output <path> to save fetched responses to a chosen file.
- Binary responses are automatically saved to temporary files with suitable extensions.
- Text responses continue to display inline, while saved results report file type and size.
Bug Fixes
- Improved handling of binary, invalid UTF-8, and unlabeled response data.
- Enhanced fetch errors with response details and payment recovery information.

… as text Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

coderabbitai · 2026-07-24T06:32:52Z

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Review details

⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: defaults

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Pro Plus

Run ID: 0b3e1b9d-5b12-4b5e-9674-af3528e6d18a

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between b5c0d86 and 59aa654.

📒 Files selected for processing (4)

package.json
src/index.ts
src/test/fetch-binary.test.ts
src/tools/lightning/fetch.ts

📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

The fetch command adds --output. fetch402 now distinguishes text and binary responses, writes binary or forced-output bodies to files, returns typed metadata, and preserves payment details on errors. Tests cover content detection, file output, UTF-8 handling, and cleanup.

Changes

Fetch response output

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Typed response processing `src/tools/lightning/fetch.ts`	`fetch402` returns inline text for eligible responses and writes binary or explicitly requested output to files with content type and size metadata. Non-OK errors include response text and payment recovery details.
CLI output option `src/commands/fetch.ts`	The `-o, --output` option is documented and forwarded to `fetch402`.
Response output tests `src/test/fetch-binary.test.ts`	Tests cover labeled and unlabeled binary responses, text decoding, explicit output paths, metadata, and temporary-file cleanup.

Estimated code review effort: 3 (Moderate) | ~20 minutes

Sequence Diagram(s)

sequenceDiagram
  participant User
  participant FetchCommand
  participant Fetch402
  participant FileSystem
  User->>FetchCommand: Run fetch with optional --output
  FetchCommand->>Fetch402: Pass request and outputPath
  Fetch402->>Fetch402: Read bytes and classify response
  Fetch402->>FileSystem: Write binary or forced output
  FileSystem-->>Fetch402: Return output path and size
  Fetch402-->>FetchCommand: Return content or file metadata
  FetchCommand-->>User: Render fetch result

Possibly related PRs

getAlby/cli#7: Overlaps in fetch CLI wiring and fetch402 signatures.
getAlby/cli#56: Overlaps in fetch command options and fetch402 behavior.
getAlby/cli#59: Overlaps in fetch402 error metadata and CLI option forwarding.

Suggested reviewers: reneaaron

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 5

✅ Passed checks (5 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title clearly summarizes the main change: preserving binary fetch responses by saving them to a file.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	The changes address the linked issue by reading bytes, preserving text, and writing binary responses to files with metadata.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	The added output option and error-detail improvements still support the fetch response handling work and do not appear unrelated.
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check.

✨ Finishing Touches

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

Create PR with unit tests
Commit unit tests in branch fix/binary-fetch-output

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Actionable comments posted: 2

🤖 Prompt for all review comments with AI agents

Verify each finding against current code. Fix only still-valid issues, skip the
rest with a brief reason, keep changes minimal, and validate.

Inline comments:
In `@src/test/fetch-binary.test.ts`:
- Around line 75-76: Update the test case for the clean UTF-8 inline response to
stub a response without any Content-Type header, ensuring it exercises the
contentType === null path rather than application/octet-stream. Preserve the
existing valid UTF-8 body and inline-return assertions.

In `@src/tools/lightning/fetch.ts`:
- Around line 141-145: Update the response-saving flow around writeFileSync in
fetch so write failures are caught instead of propagated directly. When payment
credentials exist, throw a DetailedError that includes
paidRecoveryDetails(payment); preserve the existing write behavior and error
handling for responses without credentials.

🪄 Autofix (Beta)

Fix all unresolved CodeRabbit comments on this PR:

Push a commit to this branch (recommended)
Create a new PR with the fixes

ℹ️ Review info

⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: defaults

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Pro Plus

Run ID: d9eca5b6-63fe-4d9e-b1b3-e0b692c071a8

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 04e2137 and b5c0d86.

📒 Files selected for processing (3)

src/commands/fetch.ts
src/test/fetch-binary.test.ts
src/tools/lightning/fetch.ts

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

fix: save binary fetch responses to a file instead of corrupting them…

b5c0d86

… as text Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

rolznz mentioned this pull request Jul 24, 2026

Agent incorrectly tries to pipe output and therefore loses essential data from response, requiring a second paid fetch getAlby/payments-skill#32

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coderabbitai Bot reviewed Jul 24, 2026

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Comment thread src/test/fetch-binary.test.ts Outdated

Comment thread src/tools/lightning/fetch.ts

rolznz and others added 2 commits July 24, 2026 13:42

chore: bump version

97b59e9

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

fix: never lose a paid response when saving its file fails

59aa654

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

rolznz merged commit ce434db into master Jul 24, 2026
2 checks passed

coderabbitai Bot mentioned this pull request Jul 24, 2026

fix: surface non-OK response bodies instead of discarding them #64

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fix: save binary fetch responses to a file instead of corrupting them as text#62

fix: save binary fetch responses to a file instead of corrupting them as text#62
rolznz merged 3 commits into
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fix/binary-fetch-output

rolznz commented Jul 24, 2026 •

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