SeaQL/sea-orm · critical

Disconnected

Error message

Disconnected

What it means

This panic fires when `get_database_backend()` (or a similar backend-inspecting method) is called on a `DatabaseConnection` whose inner `DatabaseConnectionType` is the `Disconnected` variant. SeaORM represents an un-established, closed, or never-connected connection this way, and there is no backend to report for a connection that was never opened. It is a hard panic, not a recoverable `Result`, because the API contract assumes a live connection.

Source

Thrown at src/database/db_connection.rs:727

    ///
    /// # Panics
    ///
    /// Panics if [DatabaseConnection] is `Disconnected`.
    pub fn get_database_backend(&self) -> DbBackend {
        match &self.inner {
            #[cfg(feature = "sqlx-mysql")]
            DatabaseConnectionType::SqlxMySqlPoolConnection(_) => DbBackend::MySql,
            #[cfg(feature = "sqlx-postgres")]
            DatabaseConnectionType::SqlxPostgresPoolConnection(_) => DbBackend::Postgres,
            #[cfg(feature = "sqlx-sqlite")]
            DatabaseConnectionType::SqlxSqlitePoolConnection(_) => DbBackend::Sqlite,
            #[cfg(feature = "rusqlite")]
            DatabaseConnectionType::RusqliteSharedConnection(_) => DbBackend::Sqlite,
            #[cfg(feature = "mock")]
            DatabaseConnectionType::MockDatabaseConnection(conn) => conn.get_database_backend(),
            #[cfg(feature = "proxy")]
            DatabaseConnectionType::ProxyDatabaseConnection(conn) => conn.get_database_backend(),
            DatabaseConnectionType::Disconnected => panic!("Disconnected"),
        }
    }

    /// Creates a [`SchemaBuilder`] for this backend
    pub fn get_schema_builder(&self) -> SchemaBuilder {
        Schema::new(self.get_database_backend()).builder()
    }

    #[cfg(feature = "entity-registry")]
    #[cfg_attr(docsrs, doc(cfg(feature = "entity-registry")))]
    /// Builds a schema for all the entites in the given module
    pub fn get_schema_registry(&self, prefix: &str) -> SchemaBuilder {
        let schema = Schema::new(self.get_database_backend());
        crate::EntityRegistry::build_schema(schema, prefix)
    }

    /// Sets a callback to metric this connection
    pub fn set_metric_callback<F>(&mut self, _callback: F)

View on GitHub (pinned to e29bcd1b41)

Solutions

1. Ensure `DatabaseConnection::connect(...)` is awaited and its `Result` is propagated before any query or backend query; never use `.unwrap_or_default()` on connect.
2. Check `conn.is_valid()` / match on `DatabaseConnectionType` before calling backend-dependent methods.
3. Initialize the connection in application setup (e.g. actix `web::Data`) so handlers only ever receive a connected handle.
4. If lazily initializing, gate access behind an `Option<DatabaseConnection>` or `OnceCell` so a disconnected handle can't be reached.

Example fix

// before
let db: DatabaseConnection = DatabaseConnection::default();
let backend = db.get_database_backend(); // panics: Disconnected

// after
let db = Database::connect("sqlite://db.sqlite?mode=rwc").await?;
let backend = db.get_database_backend(); // safe: connection is live

if !conn.is_valid() || matches!(conn, DatabaseConnection { inner: DatabaseConnectionType::Disconnected, .. }) {
    return Err(anyhow!("database connection not established"));
}

fn is_connected(conn: &DatabaseConnection) -> bool {
    !matches!(conn.as_ref(), DatabaseConnectionType::Disconnected)
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling `get_database_backend()`, `get_schema_builder()`, or any backend-querying method on a `DatabaseConnection` created via `DatabaseConnection::default()` / `Disconnected`, or after the connection was explicitly disconnected/replaced with a disconnected handle.

Common situations: Declaring a `DatabaseConnection::default()` struct field and using it before `connect()` succeeds; storing the connection after `connect()` returned an `Err` but the error was swallowed with `.unwrap_or_default()`; using a connection whose pool was shut down in tests.

Understand the failure class

Background: ECONNREFUSED and "connection refused" / "could not connect to server" errors: what they mean and how to fix them — this error's family across 44 libraries.

Related errors

• Disconnected
• Not mock connection
• Not proxy connection
• Failed to get date
• Failed to get time

AI-assisted analysis of SeaQL/sea-orm@e29bcd1b41 (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/26fe17690961ea72. Report an issue: GitHub.