RocketChat/Rocket.Chat · error · Error

The "start" query parameter must be a valid date.

Error message

The "start" query parameter must be a valid date.

What it means

Every GET livechat/analytics/dashboards/* report route (conversations-by-source, -status, -department, -tags, -agent, ...) runs checkDates(start, end) on the moment-parsed query params. If start cannot be parsed into a valid moment (missing, empty, or unrecognized format), this error is thrown before the cached aggregation runs.

Source

Thrown at apps/meteor/ee/server/api/v1/omnichannel/reports.ts:17

import { isGETDashboardConversationsByType } from '@rocket.chat/rest-typings';
import type { Moment } from 'moment';
import moment from 'moment';

import {
	findAllConversationsBySourceCached,
	findAllConversationsByStatusCached,
	findAllConversationsByDepartmentCached,
	findAllConversationsByTagsCached,
	findAllConversationsByAgentsCached,
} from './lib/dashboards';
import { API } from '../../../../../server/api';
import { restrictQuery } from '../../../lib/omnichannel/restrictQuery';

const checkDates = (start: Moment, end: Moment) => {
	if (!start.isValid()) {
		throw new Error('The "start" query parameter must be a valid date.');
	}
	if (!end.isValid()) {
		throw new Error('The "end" query parameter must be a valid date.');
	}
	// Check dates are no more than 1 year apart using moment
	// 1.01 === "we allow to pass year by some hours/days"
	if (moment(end).startOf('day').diff(moment(start).startOf('day'), 'year', true) > 1.01) {
		throw new Error('The "start" and "end" query parameters must be less than 1 year apart.');
	}

	if (start.isAfter(end)) {
		throw new Error('The "start" query parameter must be before the "end" query parameter.');
	}
};

API.v1.addRoute(
	'livechat/analytics/dashboards/conversations-by-source',
	{

View on GitHub (pinned to b2c16d5842)

Solutions

1. Send start as ISO 8601, e.g. 2024-01-01T00:00:00.000Z or 2024-01-01.
2. Always include both start and end, non-empty.
3. Normalize dates client-side (moment/date-fns) before building the query string.

Example fix

// before
api.get('/v1/livechat/analytics/dashboards/conversations-by-source', { params: { start: 'yesterday', end } });

// after
api.get('/v1/livechat/analytics/dashboards/conversations-by-source', {
  params: { start: moment(start).toISOString(), end: moment(end).toISOString() },
});

const isIsoDate = (v: string | undefined): v is string => !!v && !Number.isNaN(Date.parse(v));
if (!isIsoDate(start) || !isIsoDate(end)) {
  throw new Error('start and end must be valid ISO 8601 dates');
}
await api.get(url, { params: { start, end } });

try {
  await api.get(url, { params: { start, end } });
} catch (e) {
  if (e?.response?.data?.error === 'The "start" query parameter must be a valid date.') {
    // normalize start to ISO 8601 and retry once
  } else throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: GET /api/v1/livechat/analytics/dashboards/conversations-by-source?start=abc&end=2024-01-01, or omitting start / sending an empty value, so moment(start).isValid() is false.

Common situations: Passing human dates ('yesterday', '01/02/2024' in an unexpected locale format); leaving the param out because the dashboard UI normally fills it; copy-pasted values with trailing spaces or smart quotes.

Related errors

• The "end" query parameter must be a valid date.
• The "start" and "end" query parameters must be less than 1 y
• The "start" query parameter must be before the "end" query p
• The "${property}.start" query parameter must be a valid date
• The "${property}.end" query parameter must be a valid date.

AI-assisted analysis of RocketChat/Rocket.Chat@b2c16d5842 (2026-08-18). Data as JSON: /api/errors/fdbceefac676e6a4. Report an issue: GitHub.