What causes "Invalid qualifier, available are: " in SonarSource/sonarqube?

Use qualifiers from the list appended to the error message (e.g. TRK, APP for the edition in use).

SonarSource/sonarqube · error · IllegalArgumentException

Invalid qualifier, available are:

Error message

Invalid qualifier, available are:

What it means

The api/projects/search WS validates requested qualifiers against the set available for the current edition (via getQualifiersFromEdition). If none of the requested qualifiers resolve to an available one, getQualifiersBasedOnEdition throws this IllegalArgumentException listing the valid qualifiers.

Solutions

Use qualifiers from the list appended to the error message (e.g. TRK, APP for the edition in use).
Check the SonarQube edition actually installed and align qualifiers with it.
Fix typos/case in qualifier codes (they are uppercase, e.g. TRK).
Omit the qualifiers parameter to use the endpoint default instead of passing unknown values.

Example fix

// before
GET /api/projects/search?qualifiers=TRK,VW // VW not available in this edition
// after
GET /api/projects/search?qualifiers=TRK

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

Set<String> available = editionSupportsApplications() ? Set.of("TRK", "APP") : Set.of("TRK");
if (!requestedQualifiers.stream().allMatch(available::contains)) {
  throw new IllegalArgumentException("Unknown qualifiers; use one of " + available);
}

Try / catch

try {
  response = ws.searchProjects("qualifiers=" + qualifiers);
} catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
  if (e.getMessage().startsWith("Invalid qualifier")) {
    response = ws.searchProjects(""); // drop qualifiers, use endpoint default
  } else throw e;
}

Prevention

Fetch valid qualifiers from the error message or edition documentation before querying.
Avoid hardcoding qualifiers in CI scripts; detect the edition at runtime.
Keep qualifier codes uppercase and copy them exactly (e.g. TRK, APP).

When it happens

Trigger: Calling api/projects/search with a 'qualifiers' parameter whose values do not intersect the edition's available qualifiers (e.g. requesting TRK only when the edition exposes different qualifiers, or misspelling a qualifier like 'TRUNK').

Common situations: Community vs commercial edition differences changing the qualifier set; hardcoded qualifiers in scripts/CI jobs written against a different edition; typos in qualifier codes.

Understand the failure class

Background: Invalid enum value errors: "Unknown type", "Invalid scope", "must be one of" — when a string is not on the library's allowed list — this error's family across 23 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of SonarSource/sonarqube@184c821202 (2026-09-09). Data as JSON: /api/errors/45173a43daefccf5. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at server/sonar-webserver-webapi/src/main/java/org/sonar/server/component/ws/SearchProjectsAction.java:301

      .favoriteProjectUuids(favoriteProjectUuids)
      .searchResults(esResults)
      .analysisByProjectUuid(analysisByProjectUuid)
      .applicationsLeakPeriods(applicationsLeakPeriod)
      .query(query)
      .build();
  }

  private Set<String> getQualifiersBasedOnEdition(ProjectMeasuresQuery query) {
    Set<String> availableQualifiers = getQualifiersFromEdition();
    Set<String> requestQualifiers = query.getQualifiers().orElse(availableQualifiers);

    Set<String> resolvedQualifiers = requestQualifiers.stream()
      .filter(availableQualifiers::contains)
      .collect(Collectors.toSet());
    if (!resolvedQualifiers.isEmpty()) {
      return resolvedQualifiers;
    } else {
      throw new IllegalArgumentException("Invalid qualifier, available are: " + String.join(",", availableQualifiers));
    }
  }

  private Set<String> getQualifiersFromEdition() {
    Optional<Edition> edition = editionProvider.get();

    if (edition.isEmpty()) {
      return Sets.newHashSet(ComponentQualifiers.PROJECT);
    }

    return switch (edition.get()) {
      case ENTERPRISE, DATACENTER, DEVELOPER -> Sets.newHashSet(ComponentQualifiers.PROJECT, ComponentQualifiers.APP);
      default -> Sets.newHashSet(ComponentQualifiers.PROJECT);
    };
  }

  private static boolean hasFavoriteFilter(List<Criterion> criteria) {
    return criteria.stream()

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