fix(zhihu): fix identity detection, comment, answer, and search by Benjamin-eecs · Pull Request #1207 · jackwener/OpenCLI

Benjamin-eecs · 2026-04-28T13:45:54Z

Description

Zhihu changed its page structure in several ways that broke all write commands and search. This PR fixes them.

cc @Astro-Han (original author of the zhihu write commands in #868)

Identity detection (#1198): Zhihu removed __INITIAL_STATE__ and moved the user avatar from <a href="/people/..."> into a <button>. Added a fallback in write-shared.js that extracts the slug from the header avatar alt text.

Write commands (comment, answer, like, follow, favorite): The previous UI-based flow relied on finding contenteditable editors, inserting text via execCommand, and clicking submit buttons. Three independent Zhihu DOM changes broke this approach simultaneously:

The comment editor is now rendered inside a Modal-content portal outside the answer DOM block, so scope.querySelectorAll('[contenteditable]') finds nothing
Draft.js no longer accepts text from document.execCommand('insertText'). the DOM updates but the internal ContentState stays empty, so the submit button stays disabled
The submit button only renders after the editor has content, but since Draft.js rejects programmatic input, it never appears

I tried fixing each layer individually (Modal scope fallback, container walk-up for submit button, CDP Input.insertText for Draft.js, CDP Input.dispatchMouseEvent for clicks) but the submit button still does not fire any network request on click. Zhihu appears to check event.isTrusted or use an internal event bus that rejects programmatic interaction.

The working alternative is Zhihu's REST API, which accepts the same cookies the browser session already has. All five write commands now call the API directly:

POST /api/v4/answers/{id}/comments
POST /api/v4/questions/{id}/answers
POST /api/v4/answers/{id}/voters
POST /api/v4/questions/{id}/followers or /api/v4/members/{slug}/followers
POST /api/v4/favlists/{id}/items

Identity verification (resolveCurrentUserIdentity) and the --execute safety gate are preserved. The API responses include created item IDs for verification.

Search: The search API now returns mixed types (ads, education, hot_timing) alongside actual results. Updated the filter to select by object.type and increased the fetch size to compensate.

Strategy changed from UI to COOKIE for the five write commands since they no longer manipulate the DOM.

Fixes #1198, fixes #1210

Type of Change

Checklist

I ran the checks relevant to this PR
I updated tests or docs if needed
I included output or screenshots when useful

Documentation (if adding/modifying an adapter)

N/A

Screenshots / Output

All 9 commands tested on macOS with v1.7.8:

Command	Status
`hot`	OK
`search`	OK (fixed)
`question`	OK
`comment --execute`	OK (API)
`answer --execute`	OK (API)
`like --execute`	OK (API)
`follow --execute`	OK (API)
`favorite --execute`	OK (API)
`download`	OK

Copilot

Pull request overview

Fixes the Zhihu adapter’s write/search functionality after recent Zhihu DOM/API changes, primarily by improving logged-in identity detection and switching comment/answer writes from UI automation to direct API calls.

Changes:

Add a new fallback for resolving the current user slug from the header avatar img.alt.
Replace UI-based comment/answer flows with cookie-authenticated API POST requests.
Update search result filtering to handle mixed result types and fetch more items to compensate.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 7 out of 7 changed files in this pull request and generated 6 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
clis/zhihu/write-shared.js	Adds header-avatar-alt-based identity detection fallback.
clis/zhihu/write-shared.test.js	Updates identity-resolution test scaffolding for the new selector.
clis/zhihu/comment.js	Switches comment creation to a cookie + API `POST` flow.
clis/zhihu/comment.test.js	Updates tests to validate API-based comment behavior and errors.
clis/zhihu/answer.js	Switches answer creation to a cookie + API `POST` flow.
clis/zhihu/answer.test.js	Updates tests to validate API-based answer behavior and errors.
clis/zhihu/search.js	Adjusts search filtering to accept real content types and increases fetch size.

💡 Add Copilot custom instructions for smarter, more guided reviews. Learn how to get started.

Copilot · 2026-04-28T13:52:01Z

+        const apiResult = await page.evaluate(`(async () => {
+            var targetKind = ${JSON.stringify(target.kind)};
+            var targetId = ${JSON.stringify(target.id)};
+            var content = ${JSON.stringify(payload)};
+            var resourceType = targetKind === 'answer' ? 'answers' : 'articles';
+            var url = 'https://www.zhihu.com/api/v4/' + resourceType + '/' + targetId + '/comments';


For article targets, parseTarget() navigates to https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/..., but the API call posts to https://www.zhihu.com/api/v4/articles/.... That’s a cross-origin fetch from the page context (zhuanlan → www) and can be blocked by CORS, causing the command to fail even with valid cookies. To avoid this, consider running the POST from a www.zhihu.com origin (e.g., navigate to https://www.zhihu.com before the API call and use a same-origin/relative /api/v4/... URL), or otherwise ensure the request is made in a way that isn’t subject to browser CORS restrictions.

Suggested change

const apiResult = await page.evaluate(`(async () => {

var targetKind = ${JSON.stringify(target.kind)};

var targetId = ${JSON.stringify(target.id)};

var content = ${JSON.stringify(payload)};

var resourceType = targetKind === 'answer' ? 'answers' : 'articles';

var url = 'https://www.zhihu.com/api/v4/' + resourceType + '/' + targetId + '/comments';

if (target.kind === 'article') {

await page.goto('https://www.zhihu.com');

await page.wait(3);

}

const apiResult = await page.evaluate(`(async () => {

var targetKind = ${JSON.stringify(target.kind)};

var targetId = ${JSON.stringify(target.id)};

var content = ${JSON.stringify(payload)};

var resourceType = targetKind === 'answer' ? 'answers' : 'articles';

var url = '/api/v4/' + resourceType + '/' + targetId + '/comments';

Copilot · 2026-04-28T13:52:02Z

+            var data = await resp.json();
+            if (!resp.ok) return { ok: false, status: resp.status, message: data.error ? data.error.message : 'unknown error' };
+            return { ok: true, id: data.id, url: data.url };


Similar to answer.js, the evaluated API call does await resp.json() even when resp.ok is false. If Zhihu returns a non-JSON error body (HTML on robot check / edge CDN errors), this will throw inside page.evaluate and bypass your { ok:false, ... } handling. Consider parsing defensively (e.g., resp.text() + try { JSON.parse }) and returning a stable error shape.

Suggested change

var data = await resp.json();

if (!resp.ok) return { ok: false, status: resp.status, message: data.error ? data.error.message : 'unknown error' };

return { ok: true, id: data.id, url: data.url };

var body = await resp.text();

var data = null;

if (body) {

try {

data = JSON.parse(body);

}

catch (e) {

data = null;

}

}

if (!resp.ok) return {

ok: false,

status: resp.status,

message: data && data.error && data.error.message

? data.error.message

: data && data.message

? data.message

: 'unknown error',

};

return { ok: true, id: data && data.id, url: data && data.url };

Copilot · 2026-04-28T13:52:02Z

+        if (!apiResult?.ok) {
+            throw new CliError('COMMAND_EXEC', apiResult?.message || 'Failed to create comment');
+        }


As with zhihu/question, consider mapping API 401/403 responses to AuthRequiredError (clis/zhihu/question.js:39-44) instead of always throwing COMMAND_EXEC. This will make expired/invalid sessions much easier for users to diagnose and fix.

Copilot · 2026-04-28T13:52:03Z

+    var avatarImgs = document.querySelectorAll('header img[alt*="\\u4e3b\\u9875"]');
+    for (var ai = 0; ai < avatarImgs.length; ai++) {
+      var altMatch = (avatarImgs[ai].alt || '').match(/\\u70b9\\u51fb\\u6253\\u5f00(.+?)\\u7684\\u4e3b\\u9875/);
+      if (altMatch) return { slug: altMatch[1] };
+    }


The new identity fallback that extracts the slug from the header avatar img.alt is a key behavior change but isn’t covered by tests. Consider adding a unit test in write-shared.test.js that stubs header img[alt*="主页"] with an alt like 点击打开<slug>的主页 and asserts resolveCurrentUserIdentity() returns that slug.

Copilot · 2026-04-28T13:52:03Z

+            var data = await resp.json();
+            if (!resp.ok) return { ok: false, status: resp.status, message: data.error ? data.error.message : 'unknown error' };


The in-page API call unconditionally does await resp.json(). If Zhihu returns non-JSON (e.g., HTML on a 403/5xx/robot check), this will throw inside page.evaluate and surface as an unhandled browser-eval error rather than a structured CLI error. Consider reading resp.text() and JSON-parsing defensively (or try/catch around resp.json()), returning a structured { ok:false, status, message } even when the body is not JSON.

Suggested change

var data = await resp.json();

if (!resp.ok) return { ok: false, status: resp.status, message: data.error ? data.error.message : 'unknown error' };

var bodyText = await resp.text();

var data = null;

try {

data = bodyText ? JSON.parse(bodyText) : null;

}

catch (e) {

data = null;

}

if (!resp.ok) {

var errorMessage = data && data.error && data.error.message

? data.error.message

: (bodyText ? bodyText.slice(0, 200) : ('Request failed with status ' + resp.status));

return { ok: false, status: resp.status, message: errorMessage };

}

if (!data || typeof data !== 'object' || data.id == null) {

return { ok: false, status: resp.status, message: bodyText ? bodyText.slice(0, 200) : 'Invalid API response' };

}

Copilot · 2026-04-28T13:52:03Z

+        if (!apiResult?.ok) {
+            throw new CliError('COMMAND_EXEC', apiResult?.message || 'Failed to create answer');
        }


On API failure, this currently throws CliError('COMMAND_EXEC', ...) for all statuses. In the same adapter, zhihu/question maps 401/403 to AuthRequiredError (see clis/zhihu/question.js:39-44). It’d be more consistent/helpful to surface 401/403 from the answer-create API as AuthRequiredError (or another auth-specific error) so users get the correct remediation message when their session expires.

Identity detection: Zhihu removed __INITIAL_STATE__ and moved the user avatar from a profile link into a button. Added fallback that extracts the user slug from the header avatar alt text. Comment and answer: Zhihu moved the comment editor into a Modal and changed the submit button behavior, breaking the UI-based write flow. Replaced with direct API calls (POST /api/v4/answers/ {id}/comments and POST /api/v4/questions/{id}/answers) which are reliable and much simpler. Search: Zhihu's search API now returns mixed result types (ads, education, hot_timing) alongside search_result. Updated the filter to select by object.type (answer/article/question) and increased fetch size to compensate for non-content results. Fixes jackwener#1198

Same DOM breakage as comment/answer. Replaced UI-based click flows with direct Zhihu API calls for all write commands.

Copilot AI review requested due to automatic review settings April 28, 2026 13:45

Copilot AI reviewed Apr 28, 2026

View reviewed changes

Benjamin-eecs force-pushed the fix/zhihu-identity branch from 482152f to b7b6ec0 Compare April 28, 2026 14:45

Benjamin-eecs mentioned this pull request Apr 28, 2026

Bug: opencli zhihu does not recognize logged-in state #1198

Open

Benjamin-eecs force-pushed the fix/zhihu-identity branch from b7b6ec0 to 1e99756 Compare April 28, 2026 14:48

Benjamin-eecs added 2 commits April 29, 2026 00:10

fix(zhihu): rewrite like, follow, favorite to use API

c941ff2

Same DOM breakage as comment/answer. Replaced UI-based click flows with direct Zhihu API calls for all write commands.

Benjamin-eecs force-pushed the fix/zhihu-identity branch from 1e99756 to c941ff2 Compare April 28, 2026 15:11

Provide feedback

Saved searches

Use saved searches to filter your results more quickly

fix(zhihu): fix identity detection, comment, answer, and search#1207

fix(zhihu): fix identity detection, comment, answer, and search#1207
Benjamin-eecs wants to merge 2 commits intojackwener:mainfrom
Benjamin-eecs:fix/zhihu-identity

Benjamin-eecs commented Apr 28, 2026 •

edited

Loading

Uh oh!

Copilot AI left a comment

Uh oh!

Copilot AI Apr 28, 2026

Uh oh!

Copilot AI Apr 28, 2026

Uh oh!

Copilot AI Apr 28, 2026

Uh oh!

Copilot AI Apr 28, 2026

Uh oh!

Copilot AI Apr 28, 2026

Uh oh!

Copilot AI Apr 28, 2026

Uh oh!

Reviewers

Assignees

Labels

Projects

Milestone

Development

Uh oh!

2 participants

-            var data = await resp.json();
-            if (!resp.ok) return { ok: false, status: resp.status, message: data.error ? data.error.message : 'unknown error' };
-            return { ok: true, id: data.id, url: data.url };
+            var body = await resp.text();
+            var data = null;
+            if (body) {
+                try {
+                    data = JSON.parse(body);
+                }
+                catch (e) {
+                    data = null;
+                }
+            }
+            if (!resp.ok) return {
+                ok: false,
+                status: resp.status,
+                message: data && data.error && data.error.message
+                    ? data.error.message
+                    : data && data.message
+                        ? data.message
+                        : 'unknown error',
+            };
+            return { ok: true, id: data && data.id, url: data && data.url };

		var data = await resp.json();
		if (!resp.ok) return { ok: false, status: resp.status, message: data.error ? data.error.message : 'unknown error' };

-            var data = await resp.json();
-            if (!resp.ok) return { ok: false, status: resp.status, message: data.error ? data.error.message : 'unknown error' };
+            var bodyText = await resp.text();
+            var data = null;
+            try {
+                data = bodyText ? JSON.parse(bodyText) : null;
+            }
+            catch (e) {
+                data = null;
+            }
+            if (!resp.ok) {
+                var errorMessage = data && data.error && data.error.message
+                    ? data.error.message
+                    : (bodyText ? bodyText.slice(0, 200) : ('Request failed with status ' + resp.status));
+                return { ok: false, status: resp.status, message: errorMessage };
+            }
+            if (!data || typeof data !== 'object' || data.id == null) {
+                return { ok: false, status: resp.status, message: bodyText ? bodyText.slice(0, 200) : 'Invalid API response' };
+            }

Conversation

Benjamin-eecs commented Apr 28, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Description

Type of Change

Checklist

Documentation (if adding/modifying an adapter)

Screenshots / Output

Uh oh!

Copilot AI left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Pull request overview

Reviewed changes

Uh oh!

Copilot AI Apr 28, 2026

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Copilot AI Apr 28, 2026

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Copilot AI Apr 28, 2026

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Copilot AI Apr 28, 2026

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Copilot AI Apr 28, 2026

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Copilot AI Apr 28, 2026

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Reviewers

Assignees

Labels

Projects

Milestone

Development

Uh oh!

2 participants

Benjamin-eecs commented Apr 28, 2026 •

edited

Loading