SigNoz/signoz · error

invalid_input

invalid_input

Error message

unsupported ctimefmt directive: %s

What it means

When building a regex layout for ctime-based parsing, any strftime/strptime directive (%X) in the layout that has no mapping in ctimeRegex is collected and reported as unsupported. Only the whitelisted directives can be converted for timestamp parsing.

Source

Thrown at pkg/types/pipelinetypes/time_parser.go:109

	"%%": "%",
	//	%c - Date and time representation (Mon Jan 02 15:04:05 2006)
	"%c": "[a-zA-Z]{3} [a-zA-Z]{3} [0-9]{2} [0-9]{2}:[0-9]{2}:[0-9]{2} [0-9]{4}",
}

func RegexForStrptimeLayout(layout string) (string, error) {
	layoutRegex := layout
	for _, regexSpecialChar := range []string{
		".", "+", "*", "?", "^", "$", "(", ")", "[", "]", "{", "}", "|", `\`,
	} {
		layoutRegex = strings.ReplaceAll(layoutRegex, regexSpecialChar, `\`+regexSpecialChar)
	}

	var errs []error
	replaceStrptimeDirectiveWithRegex := func(directive string) string {
		if regex, ok := ctimeRegex[directive]; ok {
			return regex
		}
		errs = append(errs, errors.New(errors.TypeInvalidInput, errors.CodeInvalidInput, "unsupported ctimefmt directive: "+directive))
		return ""
	}

	strptimeDirectiveRegexp := regexp.MustCompile(`%.`)
	layoutRegex = strptimeDirectiveRegexp.ReplaceAllStringFunc(layoutRegex, replaceStrptimeDirectiveWithRegex)
	if len(errs) != 0 {
		return "", errors.NewInvalidInputf(errors.CodeInvalidInput, "couldn't generate regex for ctime format: %v", errs)
	}

	return layoutRegex, nil
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 5069bf80b0)

Solutions

1. Replace unsupported directives with supported ones (e.g. %f → drop or pre-process; check ctimeRegex map for the allowed set)
2. Use strptime layout parsing if the format is standard
3. Test layouts against the parser in isolation before deploying
4. Consult the supported directive table in time_parser.go

Example fix

// before
{"type":"time_parser","format":"%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S.%f"}
// after
{"type":"time_parser","format":"%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S"}

const supported = new Set(['%Y','%m','%d','%H','%M','%S','%y','%b','%B','%e','%j','%p','%I','%Z','%z','%s']);
[...fmt.matchAll(/%./g)].forEach(m => { if (!supported.has(m[0])) throw new Error('unsupported ' + m[0]); });

When it happens

Trigger: A pipeline time_parser operator whose ctimefmt layout uses a directive the library doesn't support, e.g. %f (microseconds), %Z variants, %L, or a literal stray percent like '%%x'.

Common situations: Copying strftime formats from Python/Java logs (e.g. %f) into Stanza-style ctimefmt; assuming full strptime parity; typo'd directives.

Related errors

• invalid_input
• CodeInvalidInput
• ErrCodeRoleInvalidInput
• ErrCodeInvalidGatewayConfig
• CodeInvalidInput

AI-assisted analysis of SigNoz/signoz@5069bf80b0 (2026-08-28). Data as JSON: /api/errors/03c15c4ad535f963. Report an issue: GitHub.