diff --git a/desktop/src/main/services/ffmpeg.ts b/desktop/src/main/services/ffmpeg.ts
index dc417c595..850b70d44 100644
--- a/desktop/src/main/services/ffmpeg.ts
+++ b/desktop/src/main/services/ffmpeg.ts
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ import fs from "node:fs/promises";
 import type { ZipItem } from "../../types/ipc";
 import log from "../log";
 import { execAsync } from "../utils";
-import { withTimeout } from "../utils/common";
+import { ensure, withTimeout } from "../utils/common";
 import {
     deleteTempFile,
     makeFileForDataOrPathOrZipItem,
@@ -110,5 +110,5 @@ const ffmpegBinaryPath = () => {
     // This substitution of app.asar by app.asar.unpacked is suggested by the
     // ffmpeg-static library author themselves:
     // https://github.com/eugeneware/ffmpeg-static/issues/16
-    return pathToFfmpeg.replace("app.asar", "app.asar.unpacked");
+    return ensure(pathToFfmpeg).replace("app.asar", "app.asar.unpacked");
 };
diff --git a/desktop/src/main/services/fs.ts b/desktop/src/main/services/fs.ts
index 2428d3a80..4570a4a33 100644
--- a/desktop/src/main/services/fs.ts
+++ b/desktop/src/main/services/fs.ts
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 /**
  * @file file system related functions exposed over the context bridge.
  */
+
 import { existsSync } from "node:fs";
 import fs from "node:fs/promises";
 
diff --git a/desktop/src/main/services/ml-clip.ts b/desktop/src/main/services/ml-clip.ts
index 67c6d2db7..149f634b5 100644
--- a/desktop/src/main/services/ml-clip.ts
+++ b/desktop/src/main/services/ml-clip.ts
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ import * as ort from "onnxruntime-node";
 import Tokenizer from "../../thirdparty/clip-bpe-ts/mod";
 import log from "../log";
 import { writeStream } from "../stream";
+import { ensure } from "../utils/common";
 import { deleteTempFile, makeTempFilePath } from "../utils/temp";
 import { makeCachedInferenceSession } from "./ml";
 
@@ -22,8 +23,7 @@ const cachedCLIPImageSession = makeCachedInferenceSession(
 export const clipImageEmbedding = async (jpegImageData: Uint8Array) => {
     const tempFilePath = await makeTempFilePath();
     const imageStream = new Response(jpegImageData.buffer).body;
-    if (!imageStream) throw new Error("Missing body that we just fed data to");
-    await writeStream(tempFilePath, imageStream);
+    await writeStream(tempFilePath, ensure(imageStream));
     try {
         return await clipImageEmbedding_(tempFilePath);
     } finally {
diff --git a/desktop/src/main/utils/common.ts b/desktop/src/main/utils/common.ts
index 100a8ad2d..1f5016e61 100644
--- a/desktop/src/main/utils/common.ts
+++ b/desktop/src/main/utils/common.ts
@@ -5,6 +5,15 @@
  * currently a common package that both of them share.
  */
 
+/**
+ * Throw an exception if the given value is `null` or `undefined`.
+ */
+export const ensure = <T>(v: T | null | undefined): T => {
+    if (v === null) throw new Error("Required value was null");
+    if (v === undefined) throw new Error("Required value was not found");
+    return v;
+};
+
 /**
  * Wait for {@link ms} milliseconds
  *
diff --git a/web/packages/utils/ensure.ts b/web/packages/utils/ensure.ts
index 761cedc99..93706bfb6 100644
--- a/web/packages/utils/ensure.ts
+++ b/web/packages/utils/ensure.ts
@@ -1,7 +1,8 @@
 /**
- * Throw an exception if the given value is undefined.
+ * Throw an exception if the given value is `null` or `undefined`.
  */
-export const ensure = <T>(v: T | undefined): T => {
+export const ensure = <T>(v: T | null | undefined): T => {
+    if (v === null) throw new Error("Required value was null");
     if (v === undefined) throw new Error("Required value was not found");
     return v;
 };