RocketChat/Rocket.Chat · warning

A new user type has been added that the Apps don't know abou

Error message

A new user type has been added that the Apps don't know about? "${type}"

What it means

This codec converts a Rocket.Chat user document's type field into the Apps-Engine UserType enum. The switch covers 'user', 'bot', 'app' and empty/undefined; anything else hits the default branch, warns, and passes the raw value uppercased to the engine — which may not be a valid UserType member, so apps receiving such a user can misbehave or mislabel it.

Source

Thrown at apps/meteor/app/apps/server/converters/codecs/enums.ts:39

/**
 * Rocket.Chat `IUser['type']` <-> Apps-Engine `UserType`.
 * Mirrors `AppUsersConverter._convertUserTypeToEnum`.
 */
export const UserTypeCodec = z.codec(z.any(), z.any(), {
	decode: (type): string => {
		switch (type) {
			case 'user':
				return UserType.USER;
			case 'bot':
				return UserType.BOT;
			case 'app':
				return UserType.APP;
			case '':
			case undefined:
				return UserType.UNKNOWN;
			default:
				console.warn(`A new user type has been added that the Apps don't know about? "${type}"`);
				return type.toUpperCase();
		}
	},
	// The reverse converter assigns `user.type` straight back onto the document.
	encode: (type): string => type,
});

/**
 * Rocket.Chat `IUser['statusConnection']` <-> Apps-Engine `UserStatusConnection`.
 * Mirrors the value mapping of `AppUsersConverter._convertStatusConnectionToEnum`. The legacy
 * `console.warn` (which includes the affected user's id/username) stays in the converter, since
 * that context is not available to a standalone codec.
 */
export const UserStatusConnectionCodec = z.codec(z.any(), z.any(), {
	decode: (status): string => {
		switch (status) {
			case 'offline':
				return UserStatusConnection.OFFLINE;

View on GitHub (pinned to b2c16d5842)

Solutions

1. Upgrade the Rocket.Chat server so the bundled apps-engine codec knows the new user type
2. Audit the users collection for unexpected type values and normalize them to 'user', 'bot' or 'app'
3. If you own the custom type, add an explicit case mapping in the codec instead of relying on the uppercased default

const KNOWN_USER_TYPES = new Set(['user', 'bot', 'app', '']);

function isKnownUserType(type: string | undefined): type is 'user' | 'bot' | 'app' | '' | undefined {
	return type === undefined || KNOWN_USER_TYPES.has(type);
}

When it happens

Trigger: A user document whose type is a newer or custom value (added by a newer core version than the apps-engine codec bundled with the server, or written by third-party code) reaching an app via a bridge conversion (e.g. user payload to an app).

Common situations: Version skew between core and apps-engine during upgrades; forks or plugins adding their own user types; legacy/imported users with unexpected type strings.

Related errors

• The user ${user.username} (${user._id}) does not have a vali
• Creating normal users is currently not supported
• User not provided
• Invalid user id
• error-cannot-delete-app-user

AI-assisted analysis of RocketChat/Rocket.Chat@b2c16d5842 (2026-08-18). Data as JSON: /api/errors/07a72f9a25c484b2. Report an issue: GitHub.