NationalSecurityAgency/ghidra · error · RuntimeError

No transaction

Error message

No transaction

What it means

Raised by State.require_tx when STATE.tx is None. Transactions wrap trace mutations; they are opened via trace.open_tx (used in 'ghidra trace tx-start' / open_tracked_tx). Any method that modifies the trace calls require_tx to ensure a transaction is active before writing.

Source

Thrown at Ghidra/Debug/Debugger-agent-x64dbg/src/main/py/src/ghidraxdbg/commands.py:146

    def require_trace(self) -> Trace[Extra]:
        if self.trace is None:
            raise RuntimeError("No trace active")
        return self.trace

    def require_no_trace(self) -> None:
        if self.trace != None:
            raise RuntimeError("Trace already started")

    def reset_trace(self) -> None:
        self.trace: Optional[Trace[Extra]] = None
        util.set_convenience_variable('_ghidra_tracing', "false")
        self.reset_tx()

    def require_tx(self) -> Tuple[Trace, Transaction]:
        trace = self.require_trace()
        if self.tx is None:
            raise RuntimeError("No transaction")
        return trace, self.tx

    def require_no_tx(self) -> None:
        if self.tx != None:
            raise RuntimeError("Transaction already started")

    def reset_tx(self) -> None:
        self.tx: Optional[Transaction] = None


STATE = State()


def ghidra_trace_connect(address: Optional[str] = None) -> None:
    """Connect Python to Ghidra for tracing.

    Address must be of the form 'host:port'
    """

View on GitHub (pinned to d5f144c24d)

Solutions

1. Open a transaction with 'ghidra trace tx-start <description>' before issuing mutation commands.
2. Use the open_tracked_tx context manager to ensure the transaction lifecycle is correct.
3. Check STATE.tx is not None before calling require_tx-dependent commands.

Example fix

# before: mutation without transaction
trace, tx = STATE.require_tx()  # tx is None

# after: open transaction first
with commands.open_tracked_tx('My Operation'):
    trace, tx = STATE.require_tx()
    # ... perform trace mutations ...

if STATE.tx is None:
    raise RuntimeError("No transaction; run 'ghidra trace tx-start' or use open_tracked_tx first")

def has_tx() -> bool:
    return getattr(STATE, 'tx', None) is not None

try:
    trace, tx = STATE.require_tx()
except RuntimeError:
    with commands.open_tracked_tx('Auto Transaction'):
        trace, tx = STATE.require_tx()
        # ... perform mutations ...

When it happens

Trigger: A trace-mutation command calls STATE.require_tx() before 'ghidra trace tx-start' (or trace.open_tx) has opened a transaction. This also fires after tx-stop/reset_tx clears the transaction.

Common situations: User issued 'ghidra trace put-*' or other mutation commands without first opening a transaction. The transaction was committed/stopped and not reopened before the next mutation. reset_tx was called (e.g. by reset_trace) and mutations were attempted.

Related errors

• No trace active
• Trace already started
• No memory mapper
• No register mapper
• Not connected

AI-assisted analysis of NationalSecurityAgency/ghidra@d5f144c24d (2026-08-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/3d0fadf6403cd405. Report an issue: GitHub.