apache/seatunnel · error · RuntimeException

Failed to flush data in prepareCommit

Error message

Failed to flush data in prepareCommit

What it means

AirtableSinkWriter.prepareCommit flushes buffered records as part of the checkpoint protocol; if flush() throws an IOException it is rethrown as a RuntimeException 'Failed to flush data in prepareCommit'. This fails the checkpoint (and ultimately the task), so no data is acknowledged to Airtable twice without retry semantics.

Source

Thrown at seatunnel-connectors-v2/connector-http/connector-http-airtable/src/main/java/org/apache/seatunnel/connectors/seatunnel/airtable/sink/AirtableSinkWriter.java:230

        // half of MAX can be less than the previous retry's wait, which would let
        // a later retry sleep for less than an earlier one. It also keeps the
        // wait at or above rateLimitBackoffMs for free, since the last uncapped
        // wait is never smaller than the configured backoff.
        long floor = waitMillis / 2;
        for (long scheduled = rateLimitBackoffMs; scheduled < MAX_BACKOFF_MILLIS; scheduled <<= 1) {
            if (scheduled > floor) {
                floor = scheduled;
            }
        }
        return waitMillis - ThreadLocalRandom.current().nextLong(waitMillis - floor + 1);
    }

    @Override
    public Optional<Void> prepareCommit() {
        try {
            flush();
        } catch (IOException e) {
            throw new RuntimeException("Failed to flush data in prepareCommit", e);
        }
        return Optional.empty();
    }

    @Override
    public void close() throws IOException {
        flush();
        if (Objects.nonNull(httpClient)) {
            httpClient.close();
        }
    }
}

View on GitHub (pinned to cf67b549a7)

Solutions

1. Look at the cause of the RuntimeException to see the underlying flush failure (status code vs network).
2. Reduce batch size / increase request interval so flushes complete within commit timeouts.
3. Ensure the Airtable token has adequate rate limits and quota.
4. Restart the job from the last successful checkpoint after fixing the root cause; sink is exactly-once via checkpoint recovery.

try { writer.prepareCommit(); } catch (RuntimeException e) { Throwable root = ExceptionUtils.getRootCause(e); log.error("Airtable flush failed at commit: {}", root.getMessage(), root); throw e; }

When it happens

Trigger: prepareCommit() is invoked at checkpoint/commit time and the pending flush fails for any reason: Airtable error status (see 1411), network failure (see 1412), or rate-limit retries exhausting.

Common situations: Checkpoint triggered while Airtable is rate-limiting heavily or during a network blip; large buffered batch exceeding Airtable request limits.

Understand the failure class

Background: "API request failed": what wrapped HTTP errors from external APIs mean and how to find the real cause — this error's family across 29 libraries.

Related errors

• COMMIT_FAILED
• Failed to flush data in prepareCommit
• Failed to flush data during prepareCommit()
• WRITE_FAILED
• Failed to broadcast FlushSignal from task {}

AI-assisted analysis of apache/seatunnel@cf67b549a7 (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/b469a1aeb8fefe66. Report an issue: GitHub.