SonarSource/sonarqube · error · IllegalArgumentException

Issue does not support impact

Error message

Issue does not support impact 

What it means

Thrown when setting severity via impact: the requested impact's SoftwareQuality is not among the issue's effective impacts. Only qualities the issue already carries (derived from its rule/type) can have their manual severity changed.

Solutions

1. Check the issue's current impacts (GET api/issues/show, impacts field) and only pass qualities listed there
2. Use the 'severity' parameter instead if you just want classic severity mapping
3. Pick a SoftwareQuality that corresponds to the issue's rule type

Example fix

// before
post('/api/issues/set_severity', {issue: key, impact: 'MAINTAINABILITY,HIGH'}); // issue is RELIABILITY-only
// after
const {issue} = await get('/api/issues/show', {key});
const q = issue.impacts[0].softwareQuality;
post('/api/issues/set_severity', {issue: key, impact: q + ',HIGH'});

const {issue} = await get('/api/issues/show', {key});
const supported = issue.impacts.map(i => i.softwareQuality);
if (!supported.includes(requestedQuality)) throw new Error(`issue does not support impact ${requestedQuality}`);

try { await post('/api/issues/set_severity', {issue: key, impact}); } catch (e) { if (e.status === 400 && e.message.startsWith('Issue does not support impact')) { /* use a supported quality or the severity param */ } else throw e; }

When it happens

Trigger: Calling POST api/issues/set_severity with impact=SECURITY,MAJOR (or similar) where the given SoftwareQuality is not present in the issue's impacts; e.g. requesting MAINTAINABILITY impact on an issue whose rule maps only to RELIABILITY.

Common situations: Automation applying a fixed impact payload to arbitrary issues; rule changes altering which impacts an issue supports; mixing legacy severity with the new MQR impact model on mismatched issue types.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Must be a positive integer", "Invalid value", "Unsupported": the invalid-argument-value error family, when a library rejects the value you pass — this error's family across 35 libraries.

Related errors

• Cannot resolve issue at line
• Cannot sort on field :
• Component of type ' ' is not supported
• Entity of type ' ' is not supported
• Fail to read locations from DB for issue

AI-assisted analysis of SonarSource/sonarqube@184c821202 (2026-09-09). Data as JSON: /api/errors/89d1c16439402bd0. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at server/sonar-webserver-webapi/src/main/java/org/sonar/server/issue/ws/SetSeverityAction.java:162

    SearchResponseData response;
    if (severity != null) {
      response = setManualSeverity(session, issue, issueDto, severity, context);
    } else {
      response = setManualImpact(session, issue, issueDto, impact, context);
    }
    return response;
  }

  private SearchResponseData setManualImpact(DbSession session, DefaultIssue issue, IssueDto issueDto, String impact,
    IssueChangeContext context) {
    Map<SoftwareQuality, org.sonar.api.issue.impact.Severity> effectiveImpacts = issueDto.getEffectiveImpacts();
    Pair<SoftwareQuality, org.sonar.api.issue.impact.Severity> manualImpact = parseImpact(impact);

    org.sonar.api.issue.impact.Severity manualImpactSeverity = manualImpact.getValue();
    SoftwareQuality softwareQuality = manualImpact.getKey();

    if (!effectiveImpacts.containsKey(softwareQuality)) {
      throw new IllegalArgumentException("Issue does not support impact " + softwareQuality);
    }
    createImpactsIfMissing(issue, effectiveImpacts);
    if (issueFieldsSetter.setImpactManualSeverity(issue, softwareQuality, manualImpactSeverity, context)) {
      String manualSeverity = null;
      boolean severityHasChanged = false;
      if (convertToRuleType(softwareQuality) == RuleTypeMapper.toApiRuleType(issue.type())) {
        manualSeverity = convertToRuleSeverity(manualImpactSeverity);
        severityHasChanged = issueFieldsSetter.setManualSeverity(issue, manualSeverity, context);
      }
      BranchDto branch = issueUpdater.getBranch(session, issue);
      SearchResponseData response = issueUpdater.saveIssueAndPreloadSearchResponseData(session, issueDto, issue, context, branch);
      if (branch.getBranchType().equals(BRANCH) && response.getComponentByUuid(issue.projectUuid()) != null) {
        issueChangeEventService.distributeIssueChangeEvent(issue, severityHasChanged ? manualSeverity : null, Map.of(softwareQuality, manualImpactSeverity), null, null,
          branch, getProjectKey(issue, response));
      }
      return response;
    }
    return new SearchResponseData(issueDto);

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