What causes "failed to create artifact type payload" in apache/beam?

Check the wrapped err for the proto library's specific failure reason

failed to create artifact type payload

Error message

failed to create artifact type payload

What it means

After building the normalized ArtifactFilePayload, newMaterializeWithClient re-marshals it for the outgoing ArtifactInformation. proto.Marshal failure (practically only on internal/proto library errors) triggers this wrapped error.

Solutions

Check the wrapped err for the proto library's specific failure reason
Ensure a single consistent proto library version is linked into the build
Rebuild Beam vendored deps (go mod tidy / go mod vendor) to resolve proto runtime conflicts

Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Try / catch

if err := proto.Marshal(&filePayload); err != nil {
    // check proto library versions; rebuild vendored deps
    return err
}

Prevention

Pin a single protobuf-go version across the module
Run go mod tidy/vendor to avoid duplicate proto runtimes
Marshal a sample ArtifactFilePayload in unit tests to catch proto setup issues early

When it happens

Trigger: proto.Marshal(&filePayload) fails — rare with proto3 scalar fields; typically indicates a corrupted proto runtime/state or required-field violation with proto2-style setups.

Common situations: Extremely rare in practice; seen with mixed proto library versions (e.g. gogo/golang proto conflicts) in custom builds of Beam.

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

AI-assisted analysis of apache/beam@12126d8942 (2026-09-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/171e47d65c55ea97. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at sdks/go/pkg/beam/artifact/materialize.go:128

		filePayload := pipepb.ArtifactFilePayload{
			Path: path,
		}
		if dep.TypeUrn == URNFileArtifact {
			typePayload := pipepb.ArtifactFilePayload{}
			if err := proto.Unmarshal(dep.TypePayload, &typePayload); err != nil {
				return nil, errors.Wrap(err, "failed to parse artifact file payload")
			}
			filePayload.Sha256 = typePayload.Sha256
		} else if dep.TypeUrn == URNUrlArtifact {
			typePayload := pipepb.ArtifactUrlPayload{}
			if err := proto.Unmarshal(dep.TypePayload, &typePayload); err != nil {
				return nil, errors.Wrap(err, "failed to parse artifact url payload")
			}
			filePayload.Sha256 = typePayload.Sha256
		}
		newTypePayload, err := proto.Marshal(&filePayload)
		if err != nil {
			return nil, errors.Wrap(err, "failed to create artifact type payload")
		}
		artifacts = append(artifacts, &pipepb.ArtifactInformation{
			TypeUrn:     URNFileArtifact,
			TypePayload: newTypePayload,
			RoleUrn:     dep.RoleUrn,
			RolePayload: dep.RolePayload,
		})

		rolePayload, err := proto.Marshal(&pipepb.ArtifactStagingToRolePayload{
			StagedName: path,
		})
		if err != nil {
			return nil, errors.Wrap(err, "failed to create artifact role payload")
		}
		list = append(list, &artifact{
			client: client,
			dep: &pipepb.ArtifactInformation{
				TypeUrn:     dep.TypeUrn,

View on GitHub (pinned to 12126d8942)