RocketChat/Rocket.Chat · error · Meteor.Error

error-action-not-allowed

error-action-not-allowed

Error message

Auto-Translate is not allowed

What it means

Thrown when a user without the 'auto-translate' permission calls 'autoTranslate.getSupportedLanguages' (DDP). The REST twin enforces authentication only, so this surfaces mainly on the DDP path through the shared lib. Auto-Translate is not granted to all roles by default; it must be added to a role the user holds.

Source

Thrown at apps/meteor/server/lib/autotranslate/functions/getSupportedLanguages.ts:13

import { Meteor } from 'meteor/meteor';

import { settings } from '../../../settings';
import { hasPermissionAsync } from '../../authorization/hasPermission';
import { TranslationProviderRegistry } from '../index';

export const getSupportedLanguages = async (userId: string, targetLanguage: string) => {
	if (!settings.get('AutoTranslate_Enabled')) {
		throw new Meteor.Error('error-autotranslate-disabled', 'Auto-Translate is disabled');
	}

	if (!(await hasPermissionAsync(userId, 'auto-translate'))) {
		throw new Meteor.Error('error-action-not-allowed', 'Auto-Translate is not allowed', {
			method: 'autoTranslate.getSupportedLanguages',
		});
	}

	return TranslationProviderRegistry.getSupportedLanguages(targetLanguage);
};

View on GitHub (pinned to b2c16d5842)

Solutions

  1. Grant 'auto-translate' to the roles that need it under Administration > Permissions
  2. Check the user's effective permissions before exposing the translate UI
  3. Catch the error and hide the translate option instead of erroring on every poll
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

const me = await GET '/api/v1/me';
if (!me.permissions?.includes('auto-translate')) {
  // do not call autoTranslate.getSupportedLanguages for this user
}

Try / catch

try {
  await call('autoTranslate.getSupportedLanguages', targetLanguage);
} catch (e) {
  if (e instanceof Meteor.Error && e.error === 'error-action-not-allowed') {
    // user lacks the 'auto-translate' permission - hide the feature
  } else {
    throw e;
  }
}

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: A regular user opens the translate UI without the 'auto-translate' permission; a custom role created without it; the permission revoked while the user's client keeps polling languages.

Common situations: Admins enable the AutoTranslate_Enabled setting but forget to grant the permission to user/admin roles; bots or federation users lacking the permission.

Understand the failure class

Background: Permission denied / not authorized / 403 Forbidden: access-control rejections when the caller lacks the required role, grant, or ownership — this error's family across 18 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of RocketChat/Rocket.Chat@b2c16d5842 (2026-08-18). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d9c6f5470948beee. Report an issue: GitHub.