Only channels, private groups and direct messages can be…

Error message

Only channels, private groups and direct messages can be created.

What it means

AppRoomBridge.create only handles three apps-engine room types — RoomType.CHANNEL ('c'), RoomType.PRIVATE_GROUP ('p') and RoomType.DIRECT_MESSAGE ('d'); every other room.type hits the default branch and throws. Notably Team ('t') and Livechat ('l') rooms cannot be created through this bridge.

Solutions

Restrict creation to CHANNEL, PRIVATE_GROUP and DIRECT_MESSAGE
Create teams/omnichannel rooms through their dedicated server/REST APIs instead of the room bridge
Set room.type explicitly from the RoomType enum — never from unvalidated strings
Validate room.type before calling create and fail with your own descriptive error

Example fix

// before
const room = { type: 't' as any, ... }; // team room -> default branch throws
await app.getRocketChat().getChat().createRoom(room, members);
// after
const room = { type: RoomType.CHANNEL, creator, name: 'my-channel' };
await app.getRocketChat().getChat().createRoom(room, members);

Defensive patterns

Strategy: type-guard

Validate before calling

const CREATABLE = new Set([RoomType.CHANNEL, RoomType.PRIVATE_GROUP, RoomType.DIRECT_MESSAGE]);
if (!CREATABLE.has(room.type)) {
  throw new Error(`room type '${room.type}' cannot be created via the apps API`);
}
await app.getRocketChat().getChat().createRoom(room, members);

Type guard

import { RoomType } from '@rocket.chat/apps-engine/definition/rooms';
const isCreatableRoomType = (t: unknown): t is RoomType.CHANNEL | RoomType.PRIVATE_GROUP | RoomType.DIRECT_MESSAGE =>
  t === RoomType.CHANNEL || t === RoomType.PRIVATE_GROUP || t === RoomType.DIRECT_MESSAGE;

if (!isCreatableRoomType(room.type)) return;

Try / catch

try {
  await app.getRocketChat().getChat().createRoom(room, members);
} catch (err) {
  if (err instanceof Error && err.message.includes('Only channels, private groups and direct messages')) {
    app.getLogger().error(`room type ${room.type} is not creatable via apps`);
    return;
  }
  throw err;
}

Prevention

Set room.type only from the RoomType enum — never from strings or copied fetched rooms
Create teams/omnichannel rooms via their dedicated APIs, not this bridge
Whitelist creatable types at the edge of your app code
Test creation for each type you support

When it happens

Trigger: Creating a room with room.type = RoomType.TEAMS or RoomType.LIVECHAT (or any custom/raw string); copying the type of a fetched livechat or team room into a new IRoom passed to the create API.

Common situations: Apps trying to provision teams or omnichannel rooms via the apps API; building IRoom objects by hand with a wrong type value; assuming every value of the apps-engine RoomType enum is creatable.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of RocketChat/Rocket.Chat@b2c16d5842 (2026-08-18). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d5d630164b1e779f. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at apps/meteor/app/apps/server/bridges/rooms.ts:75

export class AppRoomBridge extends RoomBridge {
	constructor(private readonly orch: IAppServerOrchestrator) {
		super();
	}

	protected async create(room: IRoom, members: Array<string>, appId: string): Promise<string> {
		this.orch.debugLog(`The App ${appId} is creating a new room.`, room);

		const rcRoom = await this.orch.getConverters()?.get('rooms').convertAppRoom(room);

		switch (room.type) {
			case RoomType.CHANNEL:
				return this.createChannel(room.creator.id, rcRoom, members);
			case RoomType.PRIVATE_GROUP:
				return this.createPrivateGroup(room.creator.id, rcRoom, members);
			case RoomType.DIRECT_MESSAGE:
				return this.createDirectMessage(room.creator.id, members);
			default:
				throw new Error('Only channels, private groups and direct messages can be created.');
		}
	}

	private prepareExtraData(room: Record<string, any>): Record<string, unknown> {
		const extraData = Object.assign({}, room);
		delete extraData.name;
		delete extraData.t;
		delete extraData.ro;
		delete extraData.customFields;

		return extraData;
	}

	private async createChannel(userId: string, room: ICoreRoom, members: string[]): Promise<string> {
		return (await createChannelMethod(userId, room.name || '', members, room.ro, room.customFields, this.prepareExtraData(room))).rid;
	}

	private async createDirectMessage(userId: string, members: string[]): Promise<string> {

View on GitHub (pinned to b2c16d5842)