What causes "Invalid service URL" in RocketChat/Rocket.Chat?

Edit the trigger and set the Service URL on its external-service action, then save.

Invalid service URL

Error message

Invalid service URL

What it means

For a valid external-service trigger, the first action's params are destructured with defaults (serviceTimeout 5000, serviceFallbackMessage 'trigger-default-fallback-message') but serviceUrl has no default; when it is missing or empty the route throws 'Invalid service URL' and the outbound call never happens.

Solutions

Edit the trigger and set the Service URL on its external-service action, then save.
Re-fetch the trigger and confirm actions[0].params.serviceUrl is non-empty before calling.
Validate the same URL with POST /api/v1/livechat/triggers/external-service/test to confirm reachability and response shape.

Example fix

// before: actions[0].params = { serviceTimeout: 5000 }  // no serviceUrl
// after:  actions[0].params = {
//   serviceUrl: 'https://svc.example.com/trigger',
//   serviceTimeout: 5000,
//   serviceFallbackMessage: 'One moment please',
// }

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

const { triggers } = await api.get('/v1/livechat/triggers', { params: { count: 0 } });
const trigger = triggers.find((t) => t._id === triggerId);
const serviceUrl = trigger?.actions?.[0]?.params?.serviceUrl;
if (!serviceUrl) throw new Error('Trigger action has no serviceUrl configured');
await api.post(`/v1/livechat/triggers/${triggerId}/external-service/call`, body);

Type guard

const hasServiceUrl = (t: { actions?: { params?: { serviceUrl?: string } }[] } | undefined): boolean =>
  typeof t?.actions?.[0]?.params?.serviceUrl === 'string' && t.actions[0].params.serviceUrl.length > 0;

Try / catch

try {
  await api.post(`/v1/livechat/triggers/${triggerId}/external-service/call`, body);
} catch (e) {
  if (e?.response?.data?.error === 'Invalid service URL') {
    // set actions[0].params.serviceUrl on the trigger, then retry
  } else throw e;
}

Prevention

Require a non-empty Service URL in your trigger-creation forms.
After saving or importing triggers, re-fetch and verify params.serviceUrl.
Only serviceTimeout and serviceFallbackMessage have defaults; serviceUrl must be set explicitly.

When it happens

Trigger: Trigger whose external-service action was saved without a Service URL (empty or omitted serviceUrl), then POST /api/v1/livechat/triggers/<id>/external-service/call is hit.

Common situations: Trigger form submitted with the URL field cleared; triggers imported or migrated with params dropped; URL stored under a different key by older tooling.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of RocketChat/Rocket.Chat@b2c16d5842 (2026-08-18). Data as JSON: /api/errors/c8a7c35c53997003. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at apps/meteor/ee/server/api/v1/omnichannel/triggers.ts:93

		async post() {
			const { _id: triggerId } = this.urlParams;
			const { token: visitorToken, extraData } = this.bodyParams;

			const trigger = await LivechatTrigger.findOneById(triggerId);

			if (!trigger) {
				throw new Error('Invalid trigger');
			}

			if (!trigger?.actions.length || !isExternalServiceTrigger(trigger)) {
				throw new Error('Trigger is not configured to use an external service');
			}

			const { params: { serviceTimeout = 5000, serviceUrl, serviceFallbackMessage = 'trigger-default-fallback-message' } = {} } =
				trigger.actions[0];

			if (!serviceUrl) {
				throw new Error('Invalid service URL');
			}

			const token = settings.get<string>('Livechat_secret_token');

			if (!token) {
				throw new Error('Livechat secret token is not configured');
			}

			const body = {
				metadata: extraData,
				visitorToken,
			};

			const headers = {
				'Accept': 'application/json',
				'Content-Type': 'application/json',
				'X-RocketChat-Livechat-Token': token,
			};

View on GitHub (pinned to b2c16d5842)