exclude() doesn't work.

[azulika]

Summary

exclude() returns html instead of JSON.

Reproduction Steps

RuntimeError: Failed to parse the response as JSON.

The above exception was the direct cause of the following exception:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "G:\AkiApi2025\main.py", line 18, in <module>
    aki.answer(user_input)
    ~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "G:\AkiApi2025\.venv\Lib\site-packages\akinator\client.py", line 255, in answer
    return self.exclude()
           ~~~~~~~~~~~~^^
  File "G:\AkiApi2025\.venv\Lib\site-packages\akinator\client.py", line 334, in exclude
    raise RuntimeError("Failed to exclude the proposition.") from e
RuntimeError: Failed to exclude the proposition.

It seems /exclude doesn't work anymore at least with the current method. The same happens with https://github.com/advnpzn/akipy/ .

Minimal Reproducible Code

Expected Results

exclude() lets the session continue.

Actual Results

exclude() results in an error.

System Information

Windows 11 Pro

Checklist

• I have searched open issues for duplicates.
• I have shown the entire traceback, if possible.
• I have made sure that this issue is valid.

Additional Context

No response

[Ombucha]

It is working locally on Windows 11. Can you share your code?

[azulika]

Sure, here it is. Basically the same as the sample code in README.md

import akinator

aki = akinator.Akinator()
aki.start_game()

while not aki.finished:
    print(f"\nQuestion: {str(aki)}")
    user_input = input(
        "Your answer ([y]es/[n]o/[i] don't know/[p]robably/[pn] probably not, [b]ack): "
    ).strip().lower()
    if user_input == "b":
        try:
            aki.back()
        except akinator.CantGoBackAnyFurther:
            print("You can't go back any further!")
    else:
        try:
            aki.answer(user_input)
        except akinator.InvalidChoiceError:
            print("Invalid answer. Please try again.")

print("\n--- Game Over ---")
print(f"Proposition: {aki.name_proposition}")
print(f"Description: {aki.description_proposition}")
print(f"Pseudo: {aki.pseudo}")
print(f"Photo: {aki.photo}")
print(f"Final Message: {aki.question}")

Sample result

Question: Is your character a female?
Your answer ([y]es/[n]o/[i] don't know/[p]robably/[pn] probably not, [b]ack): n

Question: Does your character really exist?
Your answer ([y]es/[n]o/[i] don't know/[p]robably/[pn] probably not, [b]ack): n

Question: Is your character black-haired?
Your answer ([y]es/[n]o/[i] don't know/[p]robably/[pn] probably not, [b]ack): n

Question: Does your character have a human nose?
Your answer ([y]es/[n]o/[i] don't know/[p]robably/[pn] probably not, [b]ack): y

Question: Does your character speak Japanese?
Your answer ([y]es/[n]o/[i] don't know/[p]robably/[pn] probably not, [b]ack): n

Question: Is your character Korean?
Your answer ([y]es/[n]o/[i] don't know/[p]robably/[pn] probably not, [b]ack): n

Question: Is your character from a game?
Your answer ([y]es/[n]o/[i] don't know/[p]robably/[pn] probably not, [b]ack): n

Question: Does your character have special powers?
Your answer ([y]es/[n]o/[i] don't know/[p]robably/[pn] probably not, [b]ack): y

Question: Is your character bad?
Your answer ([y]es/[n]o/[i] don't know/[p]robably/[pn] probably not, [b]ack): n

Question: Is your character a superhero?
Your answer ([y]es/[n]o/[i] don't know/[p]robably/[pn] probably not, [b]ack): n

Question: Is your character from a movie?
Your answer ([y]es/[n]o/[i] don't know/[p]robably/[pn] probably not, [b]ack): n

Question: Is your character older than 35 years old?
Your answer ([y]es/[n]o/[i] don't know/[p]robably/[pn] probably not, [b]ack): n

Question: Is your character blond?
Your answer ([y]es/[n]o/[i] don't know/[p]robably/[pn] probably not, [b]ack): y

Question: Does your character live in America?
Your answer ([y]es/[n]o/[i] don't know/[p]robably/[pn] probably not, [b]ack): n

Question: Is your character from an anime?
Your answer ([y]es/[n]o/[i] don't know/[p]robably/[pn] probably not, [b]ack): n

Question: Is your character from a book?
Your answer ([y]es/[n]o/[i] don't know/[p]robably/[pn] probably not, [b]ack): n

Question: Is your character from a TV Series for kids?
Your answer ([y]es/[n]o/[i] don't know/[p]robably/[pn] probably not, [b]ack): n

Question: Does your character have a phone?
Your answer ([y]es/[n]o/[i] don't know/[p]robably/[pn] probably not, [b]ack): n

Question: Is your character from a manhwa?
Your answer ([y]es/[n]o/[i] don't know/[p]robably/[pn] probably not, [b]ack): y

Question: Is your character a student?
Your answer ([y]es/[n]o/[i] don't know/[p]robably/[pn] probably not, [b]ack): n

Question: Is your character associated with a ram?
Your answer ([y]es/[n]o/[i] don't know/[p]robably/[pn] probably not, [b]ack): n

Question: Is your character gay?
Your answer ([y]es/[n]o/[i] don't know/[p]robably/[pn] probably not, [b]ack): n

Question: Has your character been king?
Your answer ([y]es/[n]o/[i] don't know/[p]robably/[pn] probably not, [b]ack): n

Question: Is your character from a porn game?
Your answer ([y]es/[n]o/[i] don't know/[p]robably/[pn] probably not, [b]ack): n

Question: Does your character fight with a sword?
Your answer ([y]es/[n]o/[i] don't know/[p]robably/[pn] probably not, [b]ack): n

Question: I think of Cory Dvoas (I Don't Want to Be an Ojakgyo)
Your answer ([y]es/[n]o/[i] don't know/[p]robably/[pn] probably not, [b]ack): n
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "AkiApi2025\.venv\Lib\site-packages\requests\models.py", line 974, in json
    return complexjson.loads(self.text, **kwargs)
           ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python313\Lib\json\__init__.py", line 346, in loads
    return _default_decoder.decode(s)
           ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^
  File "AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python313\Lib\json\decoder.py", line 345, in decode
    obj, end = self.raw_decode(s, idx=_w(s, 0).end())
               ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python313\Lib\json\decoder.py", line 363, in raw_decode
    raise JSONDecodeError("Expecting value", s, err.value) from None
json.decoder.JSONDecodeError: Expecting value: line 2 column 1 (char 1)

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "AkiApi2025\.venv\Lib\site-packages\akinator\client.py", line 152, in __handler
    data = response.json()
  File "AkiApi2025\.venv\Lib\site-packages\requests\models.py", line 978, in json
    raise RequestsJSONDecodeError(e.msg, e.doc, e.pos)
requests.exceptions.JSONDecodeError: Expecting value: line 2 column 1 (char 1)

The above exception was the direct cause of the following exception:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "AkiApi2025\.venv\Lib\site-packages\akinator\client.py", line 332, in exclude
    self.__handler(response)
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^
  File "AkiApi2025\.venv\Lib\site-packages\akinator\client.py", line 156, in __handler
    raise RuntimeError("Failed to parse the response as JSON.") from e
RuntimeError: Failed to parse the response as JSON.

The above exception was the direct cause of the following exception:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "AkiApi2025\main2.py", line 18, in <module>
    aki.answer(user_input)
    ~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "AkiApi2025\.venv\Lib\site-packages\akinator\client.py", line 255, in answer
    return self.exclude()
           ~~~~~~~~~~~~^^
  File "AkiApi2025\.venv\Lib\site-packages\akinator\client.py", line 334, in exclude
    raise RuntimeError("Failed to exclude the proposition.") from e
RuntimeError: Failed to exclude the proposition.

[Ombucha]

This is the error the Akinator returns: A technical problem has occurred. Please try again.. I think this is a problem on their end.

[azulika]

Thanks for looking into it.

This issue has been persistent for about a month now, so I doubt it's a temporary problem on their end anymore. After investigating, it seems that the A technical problem has occurred. Please try again. message is a generic response for what the server considers an invalid request, rather than a specific server error.

I inspected the network traffic on the official Akinator website, and the API endpoint (https://en.akinator.com/exclude) and request method are correct and unchanged. Here is a capture of a successful POST request to /exclude from the live site as of today:

■ Summary

Item	Value
Request URL	https://en.akinator.com/exclude
Method	POST
Status Code	200 OK

■ Request Headers

Header Name	Value
:authority	en.akinator.com
accept	*/*
content-type	application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=UTF-8
origin	https://en.akinator.com
referer	https://en.akinator.com/game
user-agent	Mozilla/5.0 ...
x-requested-with	XMLHttpRequest

■ Payload (Form Data)

Key	Value
step	25
sid	1
cm	false
progression	46.9995
session	564
signature	GQ0fFELZ8phudaYfeQxMECIDyyrMkhkHCF1Ml+YnfgM=
forward_answer	1

Payload keys seem to match with the current implement of akinator.py. The only reason I can think of why the request from Python is now rejected is that they implemented stricter security measures, and simply using cloudscraper doesn't work anymore. It's possibly related to the signature, I don't know.