apache/beam · error · RuntimeException

Unable to parse re-serialize options

Error message

Unable to parse re-serialize options

What it means

After injecting runtime values into the parsed options ObjectNode, the method re-serializes the root with PipelineOptionsFactory.MAPPER.writeValueAsString. This error wraps any IOException from that write step — a rare internal serialization failure (e.g. an unserializable value just inserted). The message wording is misleading; it is a serialization, not a parse, failure.

Source

Thrown at sdks/java/core/src/main/java/org/apache/beam/sdk/options/ValueProviders.java:55

  @Deprecated
  public static String updateSerializedOptions(
      String serializedOptions, Map<String, String> runtimeValues) {
    ObjectNode root, options;
    try {
      root = PipelineOptionsFactory.MAPPER.readValue(serializedOptions, ObjectNode.class);
      options = (ObjectNode) root.get("options");
      checkStateNotNull(options, "Unable to locate 'options' in %s", serializedOptions);
    } catch (IOException e) {
      throw new RuntimeException(String.format("Unable to parse %s", serializedOptions), e);
    }

    for (Map.Entry<String, String> entry : runtimeValues.entrySet()) {
      options.put(entry.getKey(), entry.getValue());
    }
    try {
      return PipelineOptionsFactory.MAPPER.writeValueAsString(root);
    } catch (IOException e) {
      throw new RuntimeException("Unable to parse re-serialize options", e);
    }
  }
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 12126d8942)

Solutions

1. Ensure runtimeValues values are simple JSON-serializable strings before calling.
2. Inspect the wrapped IOException cause; fix whatever it reports.
3. Use the default PipelineOptionsFactory.MAPPER configuration, not a custom one with unsupported modules.
4. Retry after verifying the original root object was produced by the SDK serializer.

Example fix

// before
Map<String, String> values = Map.of("input", new File(path)); // wrong type

// after
Map<String, String> values = Map.of("input", path);

values.forEach((k, v) -> { if (!(v instanceof String)) throw new IllegalArgumentException("runtime value not a String: " + k); });

try { return ValueProviders.updateSerializedOptions(opts, values); }
catch (RuntimeException e) { log.error("options re-serialization failed", e.getCause()); throw e; }

When it happens

Trigger: Calling updateSerializedOptions with runtimeValues whose inserted values cannot be serialized by the mapper (e.g. objects that were mutated into non-string values), or an internal mapper/IOException during writeValueAsString.

Common situations: Extending/overriding the options update logic and inserting non-String entries into the ObjectNode; an ObjectMapper configured with a failing module; disk/IO-backed writer variants failing mid-write.

Understand the failure class

Background: "JSON serialization failed", "not JSON serializable", "Failed to serialize": why JSON marshaling errors happen and how to fix them — this error's family across 46 libraries.

• Parsing and encoding errors: unexpected token, malformed input — why parsers reject input and how to find the real culprit.

Related errors

• Found incorrectly annotated property methods, if a method is
• PipelineOptions objects are not serializable and should not
• Failed to serialize and deserialize property '%s' with value
• Unable to parse %s
• Unsupported field type: {type}

AI-assisted analysis of apache/beam@12126d8942 (2026-09-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/fb0cb6e12502af95. Report an issue: GitHub.