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

Persist the reporter id together with every report record you plan to dismiss by

Invalid user id

Error message

Invalid user id

What it means

AppModerationBridge.dismissReportsByUserId throws when userId is falsy before calling ModerationReports.hideMessageReportsByUserId. The dismissal of all reports filed by a user requires that user's id, so the bridge rejects the call early when it is missing.

Solutions

Persist the reporter id together with every report record you plan to dismiss by
Validate before calling: skip with a warning when !userId
Check argument order — userId is a separate parameter from messageId/reason/action
Migrate old persisted state that lacks the user id

Example fix

// before
await app.getRocketChat().getModeration().dismissReportsByUserId(reporter?.id, reason, action); // undefined -> throws
// after
if (!reporter?.id) { app.getLogger().warn('dismiss skipped: no reporter id'); return; }
await app.getRocketChat().getModeration().dismissReportsByUserId(reporter.id, reason, action);

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

const dismissByUser = async (userId: unknown, reason: string, action: string) => {
  if (typeof userId !== 'string' || userId === '') {
    app.getLogger().warn('dismiss skipped: no reporter id');
    return;
  }
  await app.getRocketChat().getModeration().dismissReportsByUserId(userId, reason, action);
};

Type guard

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

if (isId(reporter?.id)) {
  await app.getRocketChat().getModeration().dismissReportsByUserId(reporter.id, reason, action);
}

Try / catch

try {
  await app.getRocketChat().getModeration().dismissReportsByUserId(userId, reason, action);
} catch (err) {
  if (err instanceof Error && err.message === 'Invalid user id') {
    app.getLogger().warn('dismiss skipped: reporter id missing');
    return;
  }
  throw err;
}

Prevention

Store reporter ids with report records at creation time
Validate persisted state shape after app upgrades that add new fields
Never assume optional persisted fields exist — default them on read
Guard all moderation bridge calls with one shared id-validator

When it happens

Trigger: An app calls dismiss-reports-by-user with undefined/null/'' — e.g. a reporter id that was not stored with the report, an optional field on a persisted record, or a payload from a UI interaction missing the user context.

Common situations: Reporter information lost when persisting moderation state; handlers mixing up reporter id and message id arguments; state objects created before the reporter field was added (older persisted records).

Understand the failure class

Background: "missing required argument" and "the following required arguments were not provided": what required-argument errors mean and how to fix them — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of RocketChat/Rocket.Chat@b2c16d5842 (2026-08-18). Data as JSON: /api/errors/57d6c4dcf3bf439c. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at apps/meteor/app/apps/server/bridges/moderation.ts:42

		await reportMessage(messageId, description, userId || 'rocket.cat');
	}

	protected async dismissReportsByMessageId(messageId: IMessage['id'], reason: string, action: string, appId: string): Promise<void> {
		this.orch.debugLog(`The App ${appId} is dismissing reports by message id.`);

		if (!messageId) {
			throw new Error('Invalid message id');
		}

		await ModerationReports.hideMessageReportsByMessageId(messageId, appId, reason, action);
	}

	protected async dismissReportsByUserId(userId: IUser['id'], reason: string, action: string, appId: string): Promise<void> {
		this.orch.debugLog(`The App ${appId} is dismissing reports by user id.`);

		if (!userId) {
			throw new Error('Invalid user id');
		}
		await ModerationReports.hideMessageReportsByUserId(userId, appId, reason, action);
	}
}

View on GitHub (pinned to b2c16d5842)