RocketChat/Rocket.Chat · error · Meteor.Error

error-invalid-user

error-invalid-user

Error message

Invalid user

What it means

Thrown by the 'addUserToRoom' Meteor method (apps/meteor/server/meteor-methods/rooms/addUserToRoom.ts:19) when Meteor.userId() is falsy — the invoking DDP connection has no authenticated user. After the gate it immediately delegates to addUsersToRoomMethod with a single-element users array, so this is purely an authentication failure, not a room/user validation one. The method is deprecated as of 9.0.0 in favor of POST /v1/channels.invite and /v1/groups.invite.

Source

Thrown at apps/meteor/server/meteor-methods/rooms/addUserToRoom.ts:19

import type { ServerMethods } from '@rocket.chat/ddp-client';
import { Meteor } from 'meteor/meteor';

import { addUsersToRoomMethod } from './addUsersToRoom';
import { methodDeprecationLogger } from '../../lib/deprecationWarningLogger';

declare module '@rocket.chat/ddp-client' {
	// eslint-disable-next-line @typescript-eslint/naming-convention
	interface ServerMethods {
		addUserToRoom(data: { rid: string; username: string }): void;
	}
}

Meteor.methods<ServerMethods>({
	async addUserToRoom(data) {
		methodDeprecationLogger.method('addUserToRoom', '9.0.0', ['/v1/channels.invite', '/v1/groups.invite']);
		const userId = Meteor.userId();
		if (!userId) {
			throw new Meteor.Error('error-invalid-user', 'Invalid user', {
				method: 'addUserToRoom',
			});
		}

		await addUsersToRoomMethod(userId, {
			rid: data.rid,
			users: [data.username],
		});
	},
});

View on GitHub (pinned to b2c16d5842)

Solutions

1. Authenticate the connection first and verify with Meteor.userId() before invoking.
2. Re-login when the token has expired, then retry.
3. Move to the REST invite endpoints (POST /v1/channels.invite, POST /v1/groups.invite) which take explicit auth headers and are the supported path.
4. For tests, use a logged-in user fixture connection (e.g. meteor-factory/test login) rather than an anonymous one.

Example fix

// before
Meteor.call('addUserToRoom', { rid, username });

// after
if (!Meteor.userId()) throw new Error('login required');
Meteor.call('addUserToRoom', { rid, username });

if (!Meteor.userId()) throw new Error('login required');
Meteor.call('addUserToRoom', { rid, username });

const isLoggedIn = (): boolean => Boolean(Meteor.userId());

try {
  Meteor.call('addUserToRoom', { rid, username });
} catch (e) {
  if (e instanceof Meteor.Error && e.error === 'error-invalid-user') {
    // session missing/expired: re-login then retry
  }
}

When it happens

Trigger: Meteor.call('addUserToRoom', { rid, username }) from an unauthenticated or logged-out connection; expired login token; DDP integration that skipped the login handshake; calling the method from server code where no user context is bound.

Common situations: Sessions cleared after password resets or logout on another tab; scripts using DDP without credentials; front-end calling before login finishes; bots connecting with an invalid token that silently leaves userId unset.

Related errors

• error-invalid-user
• error-invalid-user
• error-invalid-user
• error-invalid-user
• error-invalid-user

AI-assisted analysis of RocketChat/Rocket.Chat@b2c16d5842 (2026-08-18). Data as JSON: /api/errors/18b18e2f32237191. Report an issue: GitHub.