What causes "Source and target organizations must be different" in Significant-Gravitas/AutoGPT?

Select a different target organization and resubmit.

Significant-Gravitas/AutoGPT · warning · ValueError

Source and target organizations must be different

Error message

Source and target organizations must be different

What it means

ValueError from create_transfer_request() when source_org_id == target_org_id. Transferring a resource to the organization that already owns it is rejected as a no-op before any DB lookup; it is a 400-class client error.

Source

Thrown at autogpt_platform/backend/backend/api/features/transfers/db.py:39

    user_id: str,
    reason: str | None = None,
) -> TransferResponse:
    """Create a new transfer request from source org to target org.

    Validates:
    - resource_type is one of the allowed types
    - source and target orgs are different
    - target org exists
    - the resource exists and belongs to the source org
    """
    if resource_type not in _VALID_RESOURCE_TYPES:
        raise ValueError(
            f"Invalid resource_type '{resource_type}'. "
            f"Must be one of: {', '.join(sorted(_VALID_RESOURCE_TYPES))}"
        )

    if source_org_id == target_org_id:
        raise ValueError("Source and target organizations must be different")

    target_org = await prisma.organization.find_unique(where={"id": target_org_id})
    if target_org is None or target_org.deletedAt is not None:
        raise NotFoundError(f"Target organization {target_org_id} not found")

    await _validate_resource_ownership(resource_type, resource_id, source_org_id)

    tr = await prisma.transferrequest.create(
        data={
            "resourceType": resource_type,
            "resourceId": resource_id,
            "sourceOrganizationId": source_org_id,
            "targetOrganizationId": target_org_id,
            "initiatedByUserId": user_id,
            "status": "PENDING",
            "reason": reason,
        }
    )

View on GitHub (pinned to 9c8bb5550f)

Solutions

Select a different target organization and resubmit.
Fix the client form: exclude the source org from the target picker and validate inequality before submit.
If you are testing, use two distinct seeded org IDs.

Example fix

// before
if (sourceOrgId && targetOrgId) submitTransfer(sourceOrgId, targetOrgId);

// after
if (sourceOrgId && targetOrgId && sourceOrgId !== targetOrgId) {
  submitTransfer(sourceOrgId, targetOrgId);
}

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

def is_distinct_transfer(source_org_id: str, target_org_id: str) -> bool:
    return bool(source_org_id) and bool(target_org_id) and source_org_id != target_org_id

Try / catch

try:
    resp = await create_transfer_request(...)
except ValueError as e:
    if "must be different" in str(e):
        show_form_error("Choose a different target organization")
        return
    raise

Prevention

Exclude the source org from the target-organization picker in the UI.
Validate inequality client-side before enabling submit.

When it happens

Trigger: Transfer form submitted with the same organization selected in both source and target pickers, or client code defaulting both IDs to the user's current active org.

Common situations: UI dropdown bug defaulting target to the active org; users re-submitting a form after switching org context so both fields capture the same ID.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of Significant-Gravitas/AutoGPT@9c8bb5550f (2026-08-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/1818f2d8ad832be8. Report an issue: GitHub.