diff --git a/multicurl.sh b/multicurl.sh
index 026c37ac..7ae6d1f5 100755
--- a/multicurl.sh
+++ b/multicurl.sh
@@ -47,7 +47,14 @@ for url in "${urls[@]}"; do
         # null result (a lagging endpoint that doesn't have the requested block/data yet).
         # Without the result==null check the first endpoint's {"result":null} was accepted as
         # success and the remaining fallback URLs were never tried.
-        if cat "$temp_file" | jq -e 'has("error") or (.result == null)' > /dev/null 2>&1; then
+        # $temp_file only exists when curl was called with -o (see the -o loop above).
+        # When a caller omits -o, the body is already in $output, so reading cat "" would
+        # emit "cat: '': No such file or directory". Read from whichever place holds the body.
+        response_body="$output"
+        if [ -n "$temp_file" ]; then
+            response_body=$(cat "$temp_file")
+        fi
+        if echo "$response_body" | jq -e 'has("error") or (.result == null)' > /dev/null 2>&1; then
             continue  # Try the next URL
         fi