alibaba/spring-ai-alibaba · error · IOException

Failed to inspect metadata record {}

Error message

Failed to inspect metadata record {}

What it means

requiresRecordNormalization inspects each record property to detect container values incompatible with the declared type. If that inspection (accessor invocation or Jackson type resolution) throws IllegalArgumentException, it is wrapped as an IOException reporting the record class name, since normalization cannot proceed safely.

Source

Thrown at spring-ai-alibaba-graph-core/src/main/java/com/alibaba/cloud/ai/graph/serializer/plain_text/jackson/SerializationHelper.java:239

		return value;
	}

	private static boolean requiresRecordNormalization(SerializerProvider provider, Record record,
			List<BeanPropertyDefinition> properties) throws IOException {
		for (BeanPropertyDefinition property : properties) {
			AnnotatedMember accessor = property.getAccessor();
			if (accessor == null) {
				continue;
			}
			try {
				accessor.fixAccess(provider.isEnabled(MapperFeature.OVERRIDE_PUBLIC_ACCESS_MODIFIERS));
				Object propertyValue = accessor.getValue(record);
				if (hasIncompatibleContainerValue(property.getPrimaryType(), propertyValue)) {
					return true;
				}
			}
			catch (IllegalArgumentException ex) {
				throw new IOException("Failed to inspect metadata record " + record.getClass().getName(), ex);
			}
		}
		return false;
	}

	private static boolean hasIncompatibleContainerValue(JavaType declaredType, Object value) {
		if (declaredType.isCollectionLikeType() && value instanceof Collection<?> collection) {
			return hasIncompatibleValue(declaredType.getContentType(), collection);
		}
		if (declaredType.isMapLikeType() && value instanceof Map<?, ?> map) {
			return hasIncompatibleValue(declaredType.getKeyType(), map.keySet())
					|| hasIncompatibleValue(declaredType.getContentType(), map.values());
		}
		return false;
	}

	private static boolean hasIncompatibleValue(JavaType declaredType, Collection<?> values) {
		if (declaredType == null || declaredType.getRawClass() == Object.class) {

View on GitHub (pinned to f82da0b50f)

Solutions

1. Read the wrapped cause to identify the failing property and correct the record's field values before adding it to metadata
2. Move validation out of accessors into the compact constructor so access is always safe
3. Ensure the record's generic/container types are concrete and Jackson-resolvable
4. If the record only carries data for persistence, simplify it to plain components without access-time checks

Example fix

// before: inspect-time throw
public int count() { if (count < 0) throw new IllegalArgumentException("negative"); return count; }
// after: validate at construction
public record Counter(int count) { public Counter { if (count < 0) throw new IllegalArgumentException("negative"); } }

try { accessor.invoke(record); return true; } catch (IllegalArgumentException e) { return false; }

boolean isInspectable(Object record) {
    try { for (PropertyAccessor a : accessors) a.getValue(record); return true; } catch (IllegalArgumentException e) { return false; }
}

try { metadata.put(key, record); } catch (IOException e) { if (e.getMessage().startsWith("Failed to inspect metadata record")) { metadata.put(key, objectMapper.convertValue(sanitized(record), Map.class)); } else throw e; }

When it happens

Trigger: normalizeMetadataValue -> requiresRecordNormalization: invoking a record accessor for property inspection threw IllegalArgumentException — typically an accessor with embedded validation failing on current field values.

Common situations: Records whose accessors enforce invariants that are currently violated (e.g. after reflection-based construction); corrupt in-memory state passed as metadata; Jackson type introspection failing on exotic generic declarations.

Understand the failure class

Background: json.Marshal / "failed to marshal" errors in Go: why "unsupported type" happens and how to fix it — this error's family across 22 libraries.

Related errors

• Failed to serialize metadata record {}
• serialization Http body map failed
• 序列化 defaultParameters 失败
• 序列化 supportedParameters 失败
• Failed to apply serializer for metadata property {}

AI-assisted analysis of alibaba/spring-ai-alibaba@f82da0b50f (2026-09-09). Data as JSON: /api/errors/f8b24306b908fbcf. Report an issue: GitHub.