SigNoz/signoz · error

invalid type for consumer group

Error message

invalid type for consumer group

What it means

Thrown by BuildClickHouseQuery in the Kafka messaging-queues integration when the query context is "consumer" but the required variable "consumer_group" is absent from messagingQueue.Variables. The function needs the consumer group name to build generateConsumerSQL, and cannot proceed without it. It is a caller-side contract violation, not a ClickHouse or Kafka broker error.

Source

Thrown at pkg/query-service/app/integrations/messagingQueues/kafka/translator.go:364

		if !(queryContext == "consumer-throughput-details" ||
			queryContext == "producer-throughput-details") {

			partition, ok = messagingQueue.Variables["partition"]
			if !ok {
				return nil, fmt.Errorf("invalid type for Partition")
			}
		}
	}

	var query string

	switch queryContext {
	case "producer":
		query = generateProducerSQL(start, end, topic, partition, queueType)
	case "consumer":
		consumerGroup, ok := messagingQueue.Variables["consumer_group"]
		if !ok {
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("invalid type for consumer group")
		}
		query = generateConsumerSQL(start, end, topic, partition, consumerGroup, queueType)
	case "producer-topic-throughput":
		query = generatePartitionLatencySQL(start, end, queueType)
	case "consumer_partition_latency":
		query = generateConsumerPartitionLatencySQL(start, end, topic, partition, queueType)
	case "producer-throughput-details":
		svcName, ok := messagingQueue.Variables["service_name"]
		if !ok {
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("invalid type for service")
		}
		query = generateProducerTopicLatencySQL(start, end, topic, svcName, queueType)
	case "consumer-throughput-overview":
		query = generateConsumerLatencySQL(start, end, queueType)
	case "consumer-throughput-details":
		svcName, ok := messagingQueue.Variables["service_name"]
		if !ok {
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("invalid type for service")

View on GitHub (pinned to 5069bf80b0)

Solutions

1. Ensure the request payload's Variables map contains a non-empty "consumer_group" entry (e.g. the consumer group selected in the UI filter).
2. If you construct messagingQueue programmatically, set mq.Variables["consumer_group"] = groupName before calling BuildClickHouseQuery.
3. Pre-validate required variables per queryContext before invoking the builder and return a clearer 400 to clients.
4. Check for stale cached dashboard specs that reference old variable names after upgrading SigNoz.

Example fix

// before
mq := messagingqueues.MetricQueryRangeParams{ ... } // Variables has no consumer_group
query, err := BuildClickHouseQuery(ctx, mq, "consumer")

// after
mq.Variables["consumer_group"] = "my-consumer-group"
query, err := BuildClickHouseQuery(ctx, mq, "consumer")

func hasRequiredVars(vars map[string]interface{}, keys ...string) error {
	for _, k := range keys {
		if v, ok := vars[k]; !ok || v == nil || fmt.Sprint(v) == "" {
			return fmt.Errorf("missing required variable %q", k)
		}
	}
	return nil
}
// before BuildClickHouseQuery:
if queryContext == "consumer" {
	if err := hasRequiredVars(mq.Variables, "consumer_group"); err != nil {
		return http.StatusBadRequest, err
	}
}

func isConsumerQueryReady(mq *messagingqueues.MetricQueryRangeParams) bool {
	_, ok := mq.Variables["consumer_group"]
	return ok
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling BuildClickHouseQuery with queryContext == "consumer" while the messagingQueue.Variables map lacks a "consumer_group" key (the comma-separated ok assertion fails). Reached via onboardProducers, onboardConsumers, or BuildQueryRangeParams.

Common situations: Dashboard/widget payload for a Kafka consumer panel missing the consumer_group variable after a template change; API requests built from a config where the consumer group filter was renamed or omitted; upgrading between versions that changed the expected variable key.

Understand the failure class

Background: Missing required parameter errors: what 'X is required' and 'the required X param is missing' mean, and how to fix them — this error's family across 27 libraries.

Related errors

• invalid type for service
• CodeLicenseUnavailable
• CodeForbidden
• CodeNotFound
• ErrCodeInvalidState

AI-assisted analysis of SigNoz/signoz@5069bf80b0 (2026-08-28). Data as JSON: /api/errors/6e879b7dbbb730c3. Report an issue: GitHub.