Public API often returns error 500 for no obivous reason #856
Description
I have been trying the collect endpoint a bit, but some purls just always seem to return an error 500. For example:
> curl -v https://public.purldb.io/api/collect/?purl=pkg:maven/com.fasterxml.jackson.core/jackson-annotations@2.21
* Host public.purldb.io:443 was resolved.
* IPv6: (none)
* IPv4: 37.27.52.79
* Trying 37.27.52.79:443...
* Connected to public.purldb.io (37.27.52.79) port 443
* ALPN: curl offers h2,http/1.1
* (304) (OUT), TLS handshake, Client hello (1):
* CAfile: /etc/ssl/cert.pem
* CApath: none
* (304) (IN), TLS handshake, Server hello (2):
* (304) (IN), TLS handshake, Unknown (8):
* (304) (IN), TLS handshake, Certificate (11):
* (304) (IN), TLS handshake, CERT verify (15):
* (304) (IN), TLS handshake, Finished (20):
* (304) (OUT), TLS handshake, Finished (20):
* SSL connection using TLSv1.3 / AEAD-CHACHA20-POLY1305-SHA256 / [blank] / UNDEF
* ALPN: server accepted h2
* Server certificate:
* subject: CN=public.purldb.io
* start date: Jan 23 01:33:48 2026 GMT
* expire date: Apr 23 01:33:47 2026 GMT
* subjectAltName: host "public.purldb.io" matched cert's "public.purldb.io"
* issuer: C=US; O=Let's Encrypt; CN=R13
* SSL certificate verify ok.
* using HTTP/2
* [HTTP/2] [1] OPENED stream for https://public.purldb.io/api/collect/?purl=pkg:maven/com.fasterxml.jackson.core/jackson-annotations@2.21
* [HTTP/2] [1] [:method: GET]
* [HTTP/2] [1] [:scheme: https]
* [HTTP/2] [1] [:authority: public.purldb.io]
* [HTTP/2] [1] [:path: /api/collect/?purl=pkg:maven/com.fasterxml.jackson.core/jackson-annotations@2.21]
* [HTTP/2] [1] [user-agent: curl/8.7.1]
* [HTTP/2] [1] [accept: */*]
> GET /api/collect/?purl=pkg:maven/com.fasterxml.jackson.core/jackson-annotations@2.21 HTTP/2
> Host: public.purldb.io
> User-Agent: curl/8.7.1
> Accept: */*
>
* Request completely sent off
< HTTP/2 500
< content-type: text/html; charset=utf-8
< cross-origin-opener-policy: same-origin
< date: Mon, 23 Mar 2026 10:57:33 GMT
< referrer-policy: same-origin
< server: nginx/1.25.3
< x-content-type-options: nosniff
< x-frame-options: DENY
< content-length: 145
<
<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<title>Server Error (500)</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Server Error (500)</h1><p></p>
</body>
</html>
* Connection #0 to host public.purldb.io left intact
some more PURLs that I never got a successful reply for if it helps debugging.
pkg:maven/com.amazonaws/aws-java-sdk-core@1.12.788
pkg:npm/micromark-factory-label@2.0.1
pkg:npm/style-mod@4.1.3