dgraph-io/dgraph · error

no new node was created

Error message

no new node was created

What it means

FromMutationResult builds the mutation response from the UIDs returned by the write. If no UIDs were created (len(uids)==0), there were no errors, and the mutation is not an upsert-with-Add, something went wrong silently, so this error is raised. For upserts, zero new nodes is legitimate (all data already existed), which is why upsert is exempted.

Source

Thrown at graphql/resolve/mutation_rewriter.go:781

	// Find any newly added/updated rootUIDs.
	uids, err := convertIDsWithErr(arw.MutatedRootUIDs(mutation, assigned, result))
	errs = schema.AppendGQLErrs(errs, err)

	// Find out if its an upsert with Add mutation.
	// In this case, it may happen that no new node is created, but there may still
	// be some updated nodes. We don't throw an error in this case.
	upsert := false
	upsertVal := mutation.ArgValue(schema.UpsertArgName)
	if upsertVal != nil {
		upsert = upsertVal.(bool)
	}

	// This error is only relevant in case this is not an Upsert with Add Mutation.
	// During upsert with Add mutation, it may happen that no new nodes are created and
	// everything is perfectly alright.
	if len(uids) == 0 && errs == nil && !upsert {
		errs = schema.AsGQLErrors(errors.Errorf("no new node was created"))
	}

	customClaims, err := mutation.GetAuthMeta().ExtractCustomClaims(ctx)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}

	authRw := &authRewriter{
		authVariables: customClaims.AuthVariables,
		varGen:        NewVariableGenerator(),
		selector:      queryAuthSelector,
		parentVarName: mutation.MutatedType().Name() + "Root",
	}
	authRw.hasAuthRules = hasAuthRules(mutation.QueryField(), authRw)

	if errs != nil {
		return nil, errs
	}

View on GitHub (pinned to 759e242be6)

Solutions

1. Verify the Add mutation input actually contains new nodes to create
2. If using upsert-with-Add, ensure the upsert flag is passed to FromMutationResult
3. Inspect the underlying DQL upsert block to see why no UIDs were returned
4. Check for library/version issues where the UID map is dropped before being returned

Example fix

// before
FromMutationResult(mutation, uids, preds, nil) // upsert omitted
// after
FromMutationResult(mutation, uids, preds, nil, WithUpsert(true))

if (!upsert && (!uids || Object.keys(uids).length === 0)) {
  throw new Error('no new node was created');
}

function hasCreatedNodes(uids) {
  return uids != null && typeof uids === 'object' && Object.keys(uids).length > 0;
}

try {
  result = FromMutationResult(mutation, uids, preds, errs);
} catch (err) {
  if (err.message.includes('no new node was created')) {
    // verify upsert flag or that input actually creates nodes
  }
}

When it happens

Trigger: An Add mutation reported no errors but returned zero UIDs and was not part of an upsert block — e.g. the underlying Dgraph write created no nodes.

Common situations: Upsert flag incorrectly not set for upsert-with-add flows; add mutation silently matched existing nodes without creating; backend returned empty UID map due to a bug or version mismatch.

Related errors

• error while parsing [%v]
• can't convert input to map
• can't convert input.what to string
• can't convert input to map
• can't convert input to map

AI-assisted analysis of dgraph-io/dgraph@759e242be6 (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/6d6565598cd8d6c5. Report an issue: GitHub.