ollama - 💡(How to fix) Fix `bge-m3` returns HTTP 500 with `json: unsupported value: NaN` when embedding certain markdown files. [1 participants]

The file is valid UTF-8 markdown (~1.9 KB) with standard YAML frontmatter. Other files in the same corpus embed without issue. The same file consistently triggers the error across restarts — it's deterministic, not a transient failure. The error suggests the model produced a NaN value in the embedding vector that Ollama's JSON serializer cannot encode. This is model-level numerical instability for specific inputs, not a client or file issue. Error: Expected: valid embedding vector, or a descriptive error identifying the problematic input

TL;DR

The issue can be mitigated by preprocessing the input text to handle potential numerical instability in the bge-m3 model.

Guidance

• Verify that the input text does not contain any special characters or sequences that could cause the model to produce NaN values.
• Check the YAML frontmatter in the markdown file for any potential issues, such as invalid or missing values.
• Consider adding input validation or sanitization to the client.embed method to handle edge cases.
• Test the embedding process with a simplified version of the input text to isolate the cause of the issue.

Example

import ollama
client = ollama.Client(host="http://your-ollama-host")
with open("triggering_file.md") as f:
    text = f.read()
# Simplify the input text to test for edge cases
simplified_text = text.replace("\n", " ").replace("\t", " ")
result = client.embed(model="bge-m3", input=[simplified_text])

Notes

The root cause of the issue is likely related to the bge-m3 model's numerical instability for specific inputs. The provided reproducer and log output suggest that the error occurs during the encoding of the response, indicating a problem with the model's output.

Recommendation

Apply a workaround by preprocessing the input text to handle potential numerical instability in the bge-m3 model, as this is a more feasible solution given the current information.