Bug: internal library exception is leaked

Start with the validate entry point in openapi_spec_validator/shortcuts.py and the iteration path shown in validation/validators.py. Run the minimal openapi.invalid_reference.yml and main.py reproduction first. Done means the invalid reference raises the package's ValidationError rather than referencing.exceptions.PointerToNowhere, without logging the entire OpenAPI specification.

Hello, thank you for maintaining this project!

Description

I found an issue, where an internal library error (referencing lib) is raised and not wrapped in a ValidationError. Also this exception logs the whole of the openapi spec which is not ideal for a really large spec.

Expected behavior

The internal ValidationError exception is raised instead of the internal library one.

Steps to Reproduce

Here is minimal openapi spec to reproduce the issue.

# openapi.invalid_reference.yml
openapi: 3.0.0
info:
  title: Trigger unhandled exception
  version: 1.0.0
  description: >-
    This is a minimal openapi config to trigger referencing.exceptions.PointerToNowhere
    exception this should be handled by the openapi_spec_validator but it is not
servers:
  - url: http://petstore.swagger.io/api
paths:
  /pets:
    get:
      responses:
        "200":
          description: pet response
        "401": # Reference points to nonexistant entry, this should trigger the exception
          $ref: "#/components/responses/InvalidReference"
        "5XX":
          $ref: "#/components/responses/APIError"

components:
  responses:
    APIError:
      description: An error occurred interacting with the API.
      content:
        application/json:
          schema:
            $ref: "#/components/schemas/APIError"

# main.py
from openapi_spec_validator import validate
from openapi_spec_validator.readers import read_from_filename

spec_dict, base_uri = read_from_filename('openapi.invalid_reference.yml')
# referencing.exceptions.PointerToNowhere exception is raised
validate(spec_dict)

Raised exception output

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/user/repro/schema_validation/.venv/lib/python3.14/site-packages/referencing/_core.py", line 276, in pointer
    contents = contents[segment]  # type: ignore[reportUnknownArgumentType]
               ~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^
KeyError: 'InvalidReference'

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

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/user/repro/schema_validation/main.py", line 6, in <module>
    validate(spec_dict)
    ~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/home/user/repro/schema_validation/.venv/lib/python3.14/site-packages/openapi_spec_validator/shortcuts.py", line 55, in validate
    return v.validate()
           ~~~~~~~~~~^^
  File "/home/user/repro/schema_validation/.venv/lib/python3.14/site-packages/openapi_spec_validator/validation/validators.py", line 72, in validate
    for err in self.iter_errors():
               ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^
  File "/home/user/repro/schema_validation/.venv/lib/python3.14/site-packages/openapi_spec_validator/validation/caches.py", line 61, in __next__
    item = next(self.parent)
  File "/home/user/repro/schema_validation/.venv/lib/python3.14/site-packages/openapi_spec_validator/validation/caches.py", line 30, in __next__
    item = next(self.iter)
  File "/home/user/repro/schema_validation/.venv/lib/python3.14/site-packages/openapi_spec_validator/validation/decorators.py", line 28, in wrapper
    for err in errors:
               ^^^^^^
  File "/home/user/repro/schema_validation/.venv/lib/python3.14/site-packages/openapi_spec_validator/validation/validators.py", line 93, in iter_errors
    yield from self.root_validator(self.schema_path)
  File "/home/user/repro/schema_validation/.venv/lib/python3.14/site-packages/openapi_spec_validator/validation/keywords.py", line 721, in __call__
    yield from self.paths_validator(paths)
  File "/home/user/repro/schema_validation/.venv/lib/python3.14/site-packages/openapi_spec_validator/validation/keywords.py", line 631, in __call__
    yield from self.path_validator(url, path_item)
  File "/home/user/repro/schema_validation/.venv/lib/python3.14/site-packages/openapi_spec_validator/validation/keywords.py", line 588, in __call__
    yield from self.operation_validator(
        url, field_name, operation, parameters
    )
  File "/home/user/repro/schema_validation/.venv/lib/python3.14/site-packages/openapi_spec_validator/validation/keywords.py", line 515, in __call__
    yield from self.responses_validator(responses)
  File "/home/user/repro/schema_validation/.venv/lib/python3.14/site-packages/openapi_spec_validator/validation/keywords.py", line 475, in __call__
    yield from self.response_validator(response_code, response)
  File "/home/user/repro/schema_validation/.venv/lib/python3.14/site-packages/openapi_spec_validator/validation/keywords.py", line 462, in __call__
    if "content" in response:
       ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/home/user/repro/schema_validation/.venv/lib/python3.14/site-packages/pathable/paths.py", line 524, in __contains__
    return self.accessor.contains(self.parts, key)
           ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/home/user/repro/schema_validation/.venv/lib/python3.14/site-packages/jsonschema_path/accessors.py", line 178, in contains
    node = self[parts]
           ~~~~^^^^^^^
  File "/home/user/repro/schema_validation/.venv/lib/python3.14/site-packages/jsonschema_path/accessors.py", line 129, in __getitem__
    resolved = self.get_resolved(parts)
  File "/home/user/repro/schema_validation/.venv/lib/python3.14/site-packages/jsonschema_path/accessors.py", line 239, in get_resolved
    result = self._path_resolver.resolve(self.node, parts)
  File "/home/user/repro/schema_validation/.venv/lib/python3.14/site-packages/jsonschema_path/resolvers.py", line 34, in resolve
    resolved = self._resolve_with_prefix_cache(node, parts)
  File "/home/user/repro/schema_validation/.venv/lib/python3.14/site-packages/jsonschema_path/resolvers.py", line 80, in _resolve_with_prefix_cache
    resolved_schema = SchemaNode._resolve_node(
        current_node,
        current_resolver,
    )
  File "/home/user/repro/schema_validation/.venv/lib/python3.14/site-packages/jsonschema_path/nodes.py", line 24, in _resolve_node
    resolved = resolver.lookup(ref)
  File "/home/user/repro/schema_validation/.venv/lib/python3.14/site-packages/referencing/_core.py", line 690, in lookup
    return retrieved.value.pointer(pointer=fragment, resolver=resolver)
           ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/home/user/repro/schema_validation/.venv/lib/python3.14/site-packages/referencing/_core.py", line 279, in pointer
    raise error from lookup_error
referencing.exceptions.PointerToNowhere: '/components/responses/InvalidReference' does not exist within {'openapi': '3.0.0', 'info': {'title': 'Trigger unhandled exception', 'version': '1.0.0', 'description': 'This is a minimal openapi config to trigger referencing.exceptions.PointerToNowhere exception this should be handled by the openapi_spec_validator but it is not'}, 'servers': [{'url': 'http://petstore.swagger.io/api'}], 'paths': {'/pets': {'get': {'responses': {'200': {'description': 'pet response'}, '401': {'$ref': '#/components/responses/InvalidReference'}, '5XX': {'$ref': '#/components/responses/APIError'}}}}}, 'components': {'responses': {'APIError': {'description': 'An error occurred interacting with the API.', 'content': {'application/json': {'schema': {'$ref': '#/components/schemas/APIError'}}}}}}}

Environment

• OS: Linux ubuntu 24.04.1
• Python version (python --version) : Python 3.14.4
• python library environment (uv pip freeze):

annotated-types==0.7.0
attrs==26.1.0
jsonschema==4.26.0
jsonschema-path==0.5.0
jsonschema-specifications==2025.9.1
lazy-object-proxy==1.12.0
openapi-schema-validator==0.9.0
openapi-spec-validator==0.9.0
pathable==0.6.0
pydantic==2.13.4
pydantic-core==2.46.4
pydantic-settings==2.14.1
python-dotenv==1.2.2
pyyaml==6.0.3
referencing==0.37.0
rfc3339-validator==0.1.4
rpds-py==2026.5.1
six==1.17.0
typing-extensions==4.15.0
typing-inspection==0.4.2