From 2b1c26781e14a7f09161f057b6d8fde59697abe8 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Luna <clawy@reversed.dev>
Date: Mon, 25 May 2026 17:18:31 +0000
Subject: [PATCH] cli: surface HTTP status and body on backend errors

---
 cli/src/main.py        |  7 ++++++-
 cli/tests/test_main.py | 15 +++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 21 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/cli/src/main.py b/cli/src/main.py
index 277c741..5ddbe54 100644
--- a/cli/src/main.py
+++ b/cli/src/main.py
@@ -59,6 +59,11 @@ def save_response(response: httpx.Response, destination: Path) -> None:
     destination.write_bytes(response.content)
 
 
+def format_http_error(response: httpx.Response, endpoint: str) -> str:
+    body = response.text.strip() or "<empty response body>"
+    return f"HTTP {response.status_code} from {endpoint}: {body}"
+
+
 def main() -> int:
     parser = build_parser()
     args = parser.parse_args()
@@ -84,7 +89,7 @@ def main() -> int:
     try:
         response.raise_for_status()
     except httpx.HTTPStatusError as exc:
-        message = exc.response.text.strip() or str(exc)
+        message = format_http_error(exc.response, endpoint)
         parser.exit(1, f"{message}\n")
 
     if args.to_file:
diff --git a/cli/tests/test_main.py b/cli/tests/test_main.py
index a77e9ab..b1c4c1e 100644
--- a/cli/tests/test_main.py
+++ b/cli/tests/test_main.py
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ import pytest
 sys.path.insert(0, str(Path(__file__).resolve().parents[1] / "src"))
 
 import main
+import httpx
 
 
 def test_resolve_server_from_env(monkeypatch) -> None:
@@ -29,3 +30,17 @@ def test_infer_output_path_for_directory(tmp_path: Path) -> None:
 def test_infer_output_path_for_explicit_file(tmp_path: Path) -> None:
     destination = main.infer_output_path(tmp_path / "custom-name.txt", Path("clip.wav"), "txt")
     assert destination == tmp_path / "custom-name.txt"
+
+
+def test_format_http_error_with_body() -> None:
+    request = httpx.Request("POST", "http://localhost:8000/transcriptions")
+    response = httpx.Response(500, text="Internal Server Error", request=request)
+    message = main.format_http_error(response, "http://localhost:8000/transcriptions")
+    assert message == "HTTP 500 from http://localhost:8000/transcriptions: Internal Server Error"
+
+
+def test_format_http_error_with_empty_body() -> None:
+    request = httpx.Request("POST", "http://localhost:8000/transcriptions")
+    response = httpx.Response(500, text="", request=request)
+    message = main.format_http_error(response, "http://localhost:8000/transcriptions")
+    assert message == "HTTP 500 from http://localhost:8000/transcriptions: <empty response body>"