balderdashy/sails · warning

Invalid regex "${regex}" supplied to skipRegexesWrapper; ign

Error message

Invalid regex "${regex}" supplied to skipRegexesWrapper; ignoring.

What it means

`skipRegexesWrapper` wraps route handling with regex-based skip logic. Every value in the regexes array must be a real RegExp instance; any non-RegExp entry is dropped and this warning is logged, so that path pattern silently won't be skipped.

Source

Thrown at lib/router/bind.js:437

    };
  };

  /**
   * Wrap a route in a helper function that first checks whether the URL matches
   * any of a set of regexes, and if so, skips the defined handler.
   *
   * @param  {array}   regexes Array of regexes to match the URL against
   * @param  {Function} fn      Middleware function to run if URL does NOT match regexes
   * @return {Function} A middleware function
   */
  var skipRegexesWrapper = function(regexes, fn) {

    // Remove anything that's not a regex
    regexes = _.compact(regexes.map(function(regex) {
      if (regex instanceof RegExp) {
        return regex;
      }
      sails.log.warn('Invalid regex "' + regex + '" supplied to skipRegexesWrapper; ignoring.');
      return undefined;
    }));


    return function(req, res, next) {

      // Check for matches
      for (var i = 0; i < regexes.length; i++) {
        if (req.url.match(regexes[i])) {
          // If we find one, bail out
          return next();
        }
      }

      // - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
      // TODO: Need to double-check on this, but shouldn't this call `enhancedFn`, instead of just `fn`?
      // If so, then we can just make that change.  Otherwise, we need to do more here.
      // - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

View on GitHub (pinned to 7b76422cc2)

Solutions

1. Use RegExp literals instead of strings: `/^\/api\//` instead of `'/^\/api\//'`
2. Remove the invalid entries if skipping is not needed
3. Convert string patterns with `new RegExp(pattern)` at config definition

Example fix

// before
skipRegexes: ['^/api/']
// after
skipRegexes: [/^\/api\//]

function assertRegexes(arr) {
  arr.forEach(v => { if (!(v instanceof RegExp)) throw new TypeError('skipRegexes entries must be RegExp: ' + v); });
}

function isRegExpArray(v) {
  return Array.isArray(v) && v.every(x => x instanceof RegExp);
}

When it happens

Trigger: Passing strings (e.g. `'/^\/api/'`) or other non-RegExp values into a skipRegexes config or policy option that feeds `skipRegexesWrapper`.

Common situations: Configuring skip patterns as strings in config/policies.js or custom middleware instead of RegExp literals — a common mistake since routes elsewhere use strings.

Related errors

• E_VIEW_INFER
• The session middleware encountered an error and triggered it
• Ignored attempt to bind route (${path}) to unknown action ::
• Warning: route `${address}` should explicitly declare `skipA
• See http://sailsjs.com/docs/concepts/routes/url-slugs for mo

AI-assisted analysis of balderdashy/sails@7b76422cc2 (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/1f9afe92a094c540. Report an issue: GitHub.