apache/seatunnel · error · UnsupportedOperationException

File format 'debezium_json' does not support reading.

Error message

File format 'debezium_json' does not support reading.

What it means

The DEBEZIUM_JSON FileFormat enum member only supports writing (DebeziumJsonWriteStrategy). Invoking getReadStrategy() throws UnsupportedOperationException since debezium_json is not a supported file source format.

Source

Thrown at seatunnel-connectors-v2/connector-file/connector-file-base/src/main/java/org/apache/seatunnel/connectors/seatunnel/file/config/FileFormat.java:160

        public WriteStrategy getWriteStrategy(FileSinkConfig fileSinkConfig) {
            return new CanalJsonWriteStrategy(fileSinkConfig);
        }

        @Override
        public ReadStrategy getReadStrategy() {
            throw new UnsupportedOperationException(
                    "File format 'canal_json' does not support reading.");
        }
    },
    DEBEZIUM_JSON("debezium_json") {
        @Override
        public WriteStrategy getWriteStrategy(FileSinkConfig fileSinkConfig) {
            return new DebeziumJsonWriteStrategy(fileSinkConfig);
        }

        @Override
        public ReadStrategy getReadStrategy() {
            throw new UnsupportedOperationException(
                    "File format 'debezium_json' does not support reading.");
        }
    },
    MAXWELL_JSON("maxwell_json") {
        @Override
        public WriteStrategy getWriteStrategy(FileSinkConfig fileSinkConfig) {
            return new MaxWellJsonWriteStrategy(fileSinkConfig);
        }

        @Override
        public ReadStrategy getReadStrategy() {
            throw new UnsupportedOperationException(
                    "File format 'maxwell_json' does not support reading.");
        }
    },
    MARKDOWN("md", "markdown") {
        @Override
        public WriteStrategy getWriteStrategy(FileSinkConfig fileSinkConfig) {

View on GitHub (pinned to cf67b549a7)

Solutions

1. Switch the source format to a readable one (text, csv, json, parquet, orc, etc.).
2. To ingest Debezium CDC streams, use a CDC source connector (e.g. MySQL-CDC) rather than reading debezium_json files.
3. Check FileFormat support matrix in docs before choosing a format.
4. Pre-validate the format with a config check that only allows read-capable formats for sources.

Example fix

// before
format = "debezium_json"
// after
format = "json"

FileFormat fmt = FileFormat.valueOf(config.get("format"));
try {
    fmt.getReadStrategy();
} catch (UnsupportedOperationException e) {
    throw new IllegalArgumentException("debezium_json is write-only; choose a readable format");
}

boolean isReadable(FileFormat fmt) {
    try { fmt.getReadStrategy(); return true; }
    catch (UnsupportedOperationException e) { return false; }
}

try {
    fmt.getReadStrategy();
} catch (UnsupportedOperationException e) {
    log.error("debezium_json cannot be read by the file connector; use a CDC source", e);
    throw new IllegalArgumentException(e);
}

When it happens

Trigger: File source config with format = "debezium_json", or code calling FileFormat.DEBEZIUM_JSON.getReadStrategy() during source startup/read-strategy resolution.

Common situations: Reusing a Debezium JSON sink config for a source; attempting to read Change-Data-Capture dumps exported as debezium_json files from disk.

Related errors

• File format 'canal_json' does not support reading.
• File format 'maxwell_json' does not support reading.
• FORMAT_NOT_SUPPORT
• File format 'markdown' does not support writing.
• FILE_TYPE_INVALID

AI-assisted analysis of apache/seatunnel@cf67b549a7 (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/991876eeeb22cf9e. Report an issue: GitHub.