What causes "Invalid user" in RocketChat/Rocket.Chat?

Pass an explicit, existing user _id as the first argument.

RocketChat/Rocket.Chat · error · Meteor.Error

error-invalid-user

error-invalid-user

Error message

Invalid user

What it means

First guard in the exported createChannelMethod helper: the userId argument itself is falsy. The createChannel DDP wrapper resolves and checks Meteor.userId() on its own, so this specific throw is for internal/server-side callers that passed undefined/null/'' as the user id.

Source

Thrown at apps/meteor/server/meteor-methods/rooms/createChannel.ts:36

			customFields?: Record<string, any>,
			extraData?: Record<string, any>,
		): ICreatedRoom;
	}
}

export const createChannelMethod = async (
	userId: string,
	name: string,
	members: string[],
	readOnly = false,
	customFields?: Record<string, any>,
	extraData: Record<string, any> = {},
	excludeSelf = false,
) => {
	check(name, String);
	check(members, Match.Optional([String]));
	if (!userId) {
		throw new Meteor.Error('error-invalid-user', 'Invalid user', { method: 'createChannel' });
	}

	const user = await Users.findOneById(userId, { projection: { services: 0 } });
	if (!user?.username) {
		throw new Meteor.Error('error-invalid-user', 'Invalid user', { method: 'createChannel' });
	}

	if (extraData.teamId) {
		const team = await Team.findOneById<Pick<ITeam, '_id' | 'roomId'>>(extraData.teamId, { projection: { roomId: 1 } });
		if (!team) {
			throw new Meteor.Error('error-team-not-found', 'The "teamId" param provided does not match any team', { method: 'createChannel' });
		}
		if (!(await hasPermissionAsync(userId, 'create-team-channel', team.roomId))) {
			throw new Meteor.Error('error-not-allowed', 'Not allowed', { method: 'createChannel' });
		}
	} else if (!(await hasPermissionAsync(userId, 'create-c'))) {
		throw new Meteor.Error('error-not-allowed', 'Not allowed', { method: 'createChannel' });
	}

View on GitHub (pinned to b2c16d5842)

Solutions

Pass an explicit, existing user _id as the first argument.
Capture Meteor.userId() inside the request context and propagate it into async continuations that call the helper.
Where no human actor exists, use a designated admin/system account or call the createRoom service directly.

Example fix

// before
createChannelMethod(Meteor.userId(), name, members); // null outside a request

// after
const uid = Meteor.userId();
if (!uid) {
  throw new Error('createChannelMethod requires a user id');
}
createChannelMethod(uid, name, members);

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

if (!uid) {
  throw new Error('createChannelMethod requires a real user id');
}
await createChannelMethod(uid, name, members);

Type guard

const isNonEmptyUserId = (uid: string | null | undefined): uid is string =>
  typeof uid === 'string' && uid.length > 0;

Try / catch

try {
  await createChannelMethod(uid, name, members);
} catch (e) {
  if (e instanceof Meteor.Error && e.error === 'error-invalid-user') {
    // internal caller bug: uid was falsy - fix the call site, do not retry
    throw new Error('createChannelMethod called without a user id');
  }
  throw e;
}

Prevention

Pass the uid explicitly when reusing createChannelMethod outside the DDP wrapper.
Capture Meteor.userId() inside the request and propagate it into async continuations (Meteor.bindEnvironment) instead of reading it later.
Give the helper's arguments explicit types so a missing uid fails at compile time.

When it happens

Trigger: Custom server code imports createChannelMethod and passes a uid variable that is undefined (Meteor.userId() read outside a request, wrong destructuring, or an argument-order mistake in the long positional signature name/members/readOnly/customFields/extraData/excludeSelf).

Common situations: Logic ported into workers/jobs where no user context exists; refactors that drop or shift arguments; code copied from the wrapper with uid forgotten.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of RocketChat/Rocket.Chat@b2c16d5842 (2026-08-18). Data as JSON: /api/errors/f9f2faeec2f2d809. Report an issue: GitHub.