fix(web): return graceful error for unknown search context (#1362)

* fix(web): return graceful error for unknown search context

context:<value> resolves a named search context. When the context did
not exist, onExpandSearchContext threw a plain Error, which is not caught
by the SyntaxError-only handler and crashed the request. Throw a
ServiceErrorException with SEARCH_CONTEXT_NOT_FOUND so it returns a clean
404 instead.

Fixes #1312

* docs: add changelog entry for search context crash fix

* Fix changelog

---------

Co-authored-by: Brendan Kellam <brendan@sourcebot.dev>

Author: rachit367

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 - Upgraded `brace-expansion` to `^1.1.17`/`^2.1.3`/`^5.0.8`. [#1527](https://github.com/sourcebot-dev/sourcebot/pull/1527)
 - Upgraded `tar` to `^7.5.22`. [#1472](https://github.com/sourcebot-dev/sourcebot/pull/1472)
 - Fixed GitLab topic filters being incorrectly case-sensitive. [#1393](https://github.com/sourcebot-dev/sourcebot/pull/1393)
+- Fixed a crash when searching with `context:` referencing a search context that does not exist; it now returns a graceful error. [#1362](https://github.com/sourcebot-dev/sourcebot/pull/1362)
 
 ## [5.1.5] - 2026-07-31
 

packages/web/src/features/search/parser.test.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+import { describe, expect, it } from 'vitest';
+import type { PrismaClient } from '@sourcebot/db';
+import { parseQuerySyntaxIntoIR } from './parser';
+import { ServiceErrorException } from '@/lib/serviceError';
+import { ErrorCode } from '@/lib/errorCodes';
+
+describe('parseQuerySyntaxIntoIR', () => {
+    it('throws a ServiceErrorException when a search context is not found', async () => {
+        const prisma = {
+            searchContext: {
+                findUnique: async () => null,
+            },
+        } as unknown as PrismaClient;
+
+        const promise = parseQuerySyntaxIntoIR({
+            query: 'Helpers context:0',
+            options: {},
+            prisma,
+        });
+
+        await expect(promise).rejects.toBeInstanceOf(ServiceErrorException);
+        await expect(promise).rejects.toMatchObject({
+            serviceError: { errorCode: ErrorCode.SEARCH_CONTEXT_NOT_FOUND },
+        });
+    });
+
+    it('expands a search context into its repo set when found', async () => {
+        const prisma = {
+            searchContext: {
+                findUnique: async () => ({
+                    repos: [{ name: 'org/repo-a' }, { name: 'org/repo-b' }],
+                }),
+            },
+        } as unknown as PrismaClient;
+
+        const ir = await parseQuerySyntaxIntoIR({
+            query: 'context:my-context',
+            options: {},
+            prisma,
+        });
+
+        expect(JSON.stringify(ir)).toContain('org/repo-a');
+        expect(JSON.stringify(ir)).toContain('org/repo-b');
+    });
+});

packages/web/src/features/search/parser.ts

@@ -114,7 +114,11 @@ export const parseQuerySyntaxIntoIR = async ({
                 });
 
                 if (!context) {
-                    throw new Error(`Search context "${contextName}" not found`);
+                    throw new ServiceErrorException({
+                        statusCode: StatusCodes.NOT_FOUND,
+                        errorCode: ErrorCode.SEARCH_CONTEXT_NOT_FOUND,
+                        message: `Search context "${contextName}" not found`,
+                    });
                 }
 
                 return context.repos.map((repo) => repo.name);