bytebase/bytebase · error

instance target %q does not belong to project %q

Error message

instance target %q does not belong to project %q

What it means

After parsing the instance resource name from a CreateDatabaseConfig target, unfoldSpecTargets checks that the instance's project component matches the project the plan belongs to. This error means the create-database target points at an instance owned by a different project — cross-project targeting is not allowed when creating databases through a plan.

Source

Thrown at backend/component/review/evaluator.go:520

				return err
			}
			targets = append(targets, specTarget{
				database:    db,
				sheetSha256: sheetSha256,
			})
		}
		return nil
	}

	for _, spec := range specs {
		switch config := spec.Config.(type) {
		case *storepb.PlanConfig_Spec_CreateDatabaseConfig:
			targetProjectID, instanceID, err := common.GetInstanceResourceName(config.CreateDatabaseConfig.Target)
			if err != nil {
				return nil, errors.Wrapf(err, "failed to parse instance from target %q", config.CreateDatabaseConfig.Target)
			}
			if targetProjectID != nil && *targetProjectID != projectID {
				return nil, errors.Errorf("instance target %q does not belong to project %q", config.CreateDatabaseConfig.Target, projectID)
			}
			if err := validateInstanceTarget(ctx, stores, targetProjectID, instanceID); err != nil {
				return nil, err
			}
			// For CREATE_DATABASE, create a synthetic database message
			// since the database doesn't exist yet
			targets = append(targets, specTarget{
				database: &store.DatabaseMessage{
					InstanceID:             instanceID,
					DatabaseName:           config.CreateDatabaseConfig.Database,
					EffectiveEnvironmentID: new(config.CreateDatabaseConfig.Environment),
				},
				sheetSha256: "",
			})

		case *storepb.PlanConfig_Spec_ChangeDatabaseConfig:
			if err := appendTargets(config.ChangeDatabaseConfig.Targets, config.ChangeDatabaseConfig.SheetSha256); err != nil {
				return nil, err

View on GitHub (pinned to 1870550677)

Solutions

1. Change the spec target to an instance resource name under the same project as the plan ("projects/<plan-project>/instances/<i>")
2. If the instance genuinely lives in another project, move the instance into this project or create the plan in that project instead
3. Regenerate the plan from the UI/API instead of editing targets by hand

Example fix

// before (plan in project "app")
"target": "projects/infra/instances/prod"
// after
"target": "projects/app/instances/prod"

targetProject, targetInstance, err := common.GetInstanceResourceName(target)
if err == nil && targetProject != nil && *targetProject != plan.ProjectID {
	return fmt.Errorf("instance %q belongs to project %s, not %s", target, *targetProject, plan.ProjectID)
}

When it happens

Trigger: A plan in project A has a spec whose CreateDatabaseConfig.Target is "projects/B/instances/x"; the targetProjectID parsed from the target differs from the plan's projectID.

Common situations: Plans copied between projects; UI retaining a stale target after the plan was moved; manual plan imports across projects; tenant projects referencing shared instances.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Must be a positive integer", "Invalid value", "Unsupported": the invalid-argument-value error family, when a library rejects the value you pass — this error's family across 35 libraries.

Related errors

• database target %q does not belong to project %q
• failed to parse instance from target %q
• ClickHouse does not support collation, but got %s
• Snowflake does not support character set, but got %s
• Snowflake does not support collation, but got %s

AI-assisted analysis of bytebase/bytebase@1870550677 (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/431fa05749e5d9da. Report an issue: GitHub.