denoland/deno · error · Error

ERR_HTTP2_INVALID_STREAM

ERR_HTTP2_INVALID_STREAM

Error message

The stream has been destroyed

What it means

http2stream.sendTrailers(headers) throws ERR_HTTP2_INVALID_STREAM ('The stream has been destroyed') as its first guard when stream.destroyed or stream.closed is true. Trailers are trailing HEADERS frames and can only be sent on a live (half-closed) stream; once the peer sent RST_STREAM or the stream closed, there is nothing to attach them to.

Source

Thrown at ext/node/polyfills/http2.ts:2466

    if (this.destroyed) {
      // deno-lint-ignore deno-internal/prefer-primordials
      this.push(null);
      return;
    }
    if (!this[kState].didRead) {
      this._readableState.readingMore = false;
      this[kState].didRead = true;
    }
    if (!this.pending) {
      FunctionPrototypeCall(streamOnResume, this);
    } else {
      this.once("ready", streamOnResume);
    }
  }

  sendTrailers(headers) {
    if (this.destroyed || this.closed) {
      throw new ERR_HTTP2_INVALID_STREAM();
    }
    if (this[kSentTrailers]) {
      throw new ERR_HTTP2_TRAILERS_ALREADY_SENT();
    }
    if (!this[kState].trailersReady) {
      throw new ERR_HTTP2_TRAILERS_NOT_READY();
    }

    assertIsObject(headers, "headers");
    headers = ObjectAssign({ __proto__: null }, headers);

    debugStreamObj(this, "sending trailers");

    this[kUpdateTimer]();

    const headersList = buildNgHeaderString(
      headers,
      assertValidPseudoHeaderTrailer,

View on GitHub (pinned to 9ad36f7a2c)

Solutions

1. Check liveness before sending: if (!stream.destroyed && !stream.closed) stream.sendTrailers(headers)
2. Send trailers only from inside the 'wantTrailers' listener, which only fires while the stream is alive
3. Wrap the send in try/catch and treat ERR_HTTP2_INVALID_STREAM as a benign lost-stream race

Example fix

// before
stream.on('wantTrailers', async () => {
  const checksum = await hashBody(); // client may abort meanwhile
  stream.sendTrailers({ 'x-checksum': checksum }); // throws if closed
});

// after
stream.on('wantTrailers', async () => {
  const checksum = await hashBody();
  if (!stream.destroyed && !stream.closed) {
    stream.sendTrailers({ 'x-checksum': checksum });
  }
});

const sendTrailersIfLive = (stream: Http2Stream, headers: Record<string, string>) => {
  if (!stream.destroyed && !stream.closed) {
    stream.sendTrailers(headers);
    return true;
  }
  return false;
};

const isLiveHttp2Stream = (s: Http2Stream): boolean =>
  !s.destroyed && !s.closed;

try {
  stream.sendTrailers(headers);
} catch (err) {
  if ((err as NodeJS.ErrnoException).code === 'ERR_HTTP2_INVALID_STREAM') {
    // client reset the stream; the trailers are simply lost — safe to ignore
  } else throw err;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling sendTrailers after the client aborted (RST_STREAM) mid-request; awaiting an async operation (db commit, hash) inside the 'wantTrailers' handler that resolves after the stream closed; sending trailers from a 'close' handler.

Common situations: Servers computing checksum/metadata trailers from a slow source while an impatient client times out and resets the stream; shared trailer-sending helpers invoked in finally blocks; retries that race stream teardown.

Related errors

• ERR_HTTP2_TRAILERS_ALREADY_SENT
• ERR_HTTP2_TRAILERS_NOT_READY
• ERR_HTTP2_HEADERS_SENT
• ERR_INVALID_HTTP_TOKEN
• ERR_INVALID_CHAR

AI-assisted analysis of denoland/deno@9ad36f7a2c (2026-08-20). Data as JSON: /api/errors/4786850b1a74ad2d. Report an issue: GitHub.