dgraph-io/dgraph · error

Error while parsing Uid: %s of groot user

Error message

Error while parsing Uid: %s of groot user

What it means

After resolving groot's user uid, upsertGroot parses it with strconv.ParseUint. If the stored uid string is empty or not a valid unsigned integer, this wrapped error is returned. It signals malformed uid data for the groot user rather than a caller mistake.

Source

Thrown at edgraph/access.go:595

	var userResp userQryResp
	if err := json.Unmarshal(resp.GetJson(), &userResp); err != nil {
		return errors.Wrap(err, "Couldn't unmarshal response from groot user query")
	}
	if len(userResp.GrootUser) == 0 {
		// no groot user found from query
		// Extract uid of created groot user from mutation
		newUserUidMap := resp.GetUids()
		grootUserUid = newUserUidMap["newuser"]
	} else if len(userResp.GrootUser) == 1 {
		// we found a groot user
		grootUserUid = userResp.GrootUser[0].Uid
	} else {
		return errors.Wrap(err, "Multiple groot users found")
	}

	uid, err := strconv.ParseUint(grootUserUid, 0, 64)
	if err != nil {
		return errors.Wrapf(err, "Error while parsing Uid: %s of groot user", grootUserUid)
	}
	ns, err := x.ExtractNamespace(ctx)
	if err != nil {
		return errors.Wrapf(err, "While upserting user with id %s", x.GrootId)
	}
	x.GrootUid.Store(ns, uid)
	glog.V(2).Infof("Successfully upserted groot account for namespace %d\n", ns)
	return nil
}

// extract the userId, groupIds from the accessJwt in the context
func extractUserAndGroups(ctx context.Context) (*userData, error) {
	accessJwt, err := x.ExtractJwt(ctx)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}
	return validateToken(accessJwt)
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 759e242be6)

Solutions

1. Log/print grootUserUid to see the bad value; empty string usually means the preceding mutation failed — check its err before this point
2. Re-run ACL bootstrap on a healthy cluster so the groot uid is assigned properly
3. Verify the ACL schema (dgraph.xid, dgraph.password, dgraph.group.acl predicates) exists after any restore/migration
4. Restart the zero/alpha group if uid assignment is failing transiently

try {
  await dg.alter(op) // triggers ACL bootstrap path
} catch (e) {
  if (/Error while parsing Uid/.test(e.message)) {
    // groot uid corrupt: re-bootstrap ACLs on a clean namespace
    console.error('corrupt groot uid, re-bootstrap ACLs:', e.cause ?? e)
  }
  throw e
}

When it happens

Trigger: upsertGroot runs, finds exactly one groot user (or a fresh mutation response), but newUserUidMap["newuser"] or userResp.GrootUser[0].Uid is empty/non-numeric — e.g. the mutation assigning uid 'newuser' failed silently or the query projected no uid.

Common situations: Mutation response missing 'uids' map because the create mutation errored; schema missing dgraph.xid/uid facets after restore; partially applied ACL schema from an older Dgraph version.

Related errors

• UID must to be greater than 0
• Multiple groot users found
• Argument cannot be "uid"
• error querying old ACL rules: %w
• unable to parse ACLs: %v

AI-assisted analysis of dgraph-io/dgraph@759e242be6 (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/2fe0dc16202387b5. Report an issue: GitHub.