RocketChat/Rocket.Chat · error · MeteorError

invalid-event-name

invalid-event-name

Error message

invalid-event-name

What it means

Rocket.Chat's streamer (server-side event bus over DDP) validates every subscription in _publish: an empty event name throws Meteor.Error 'invalid-event-name' before any permission check. The event name is the sub-stream key (room id, user id, etc.) that scopes which events the client receives.

Source

Thrown at apps/meteor/server/modules/streamer/streamer.module.ts:183

		options: boolean | { useCollection?: boolean; args?: any } = false,
	): Promise<void> {
		let useCollection;
		let args = [];

		if (typeof options === 'boolean') {
			useCollection = options;
		} else {
			if (options.useCollection) {
				useCollection = options.useCollection;
			}

			if (options.args) {
				args = options.args;
			}
		}

		if (eventName.length === 0) {
			throw new MeteorError('invalid-event-name');
		}

		if ((await this.isReadAllowed(publication, eventName, args)) !== true) {
			throw new MeteorError('not-allowed');
		}

		// after meteor 3.4.1 immediately after a disconnection session becomes null (which is not wrong)
		// we were just not counting on this, session is _session so we actually should not use it
		// now after any await, the session can potentially be null, so we need to check for that
		if (!Streamer.isPublicationActive(publication)) {
			// if the client is disconnected, we don't want to do anything, it will not have an disconnect event to undo anymore
			throw new MeteorError('publication-client-disconnected');
		}

		const subscription = {
			subscription: publication,
			eventName,
		};

View on GitHub (pinned to b2c16d5842)

Solutions

1. Make sure the event-name argument (room/user id) is defined before subscribing
2. Gate the subscription on the value being non-empty (only render/subscribe once the id is loaded)
3. Double-check the streamer subscribe signature — eventName comes first, options second
4. Log the computed event name right before subscribing during development

Example fix

// before
Meteor.autorun(() => {
  Meteor.subscribe('stream-notify-room', roomId.get(), false); // roomId may be '' initially
});

// after
Meteor.autorun(() => {
  const rid = roomId.get();
  if (rid) {
    Meteor.subscribe('stream-notify-room', rid, false);
  }
});

const isValidEventName = (eventName: unknown): boolean =>
  typeof eventName === 'string' && eventName.length > 0;

// before subscribing
if (!isValidEventName(rid)) throw new Error('event name (rid) not loaded yet');

const isNonEmptyString = (v: unknown): v is string =>
  typeof v === 'string' && v.length > 0;

When it happens

Trigger: Meteor.subscribe('stream-notify-room'|'stream-notify-user'|'stream-ui'|..., eventName, ...) with eventName === '' — typically a rid/userId variable that is undefined, null, or not yet loaded at subscribe time.

Common situations: Subscribing reactively before the room id or user id resolves at startup; refactors that changed the subscribe argument order; template helpers returning undefined; null concatenated into the event name.

Related errors

• not-allowed
• [Message Delivery] High delay detected: ${receiveDelay}ms. P
• error-invalid-user
• error-invalid-user
• error-invalid-room

AI-assisted analysis of RocketChat/Rocket.Chat@b2c16d5842 (2026-08-18). Data as JSON: /api/errors/85570a23f781f334. Report an issue: GitHub.