normalize directive is not supported in the rdf output forma

Error message

normalize directive is not supported in the rdf output format

What it means

The normalize directive flattens nested results into a single array, which only exists in JSON output. validateSubGraphForRDF rejects any sub-graph with sg.Params.Normalize set when serializing to RDF.

Source

Thrown at query/outputrdf.go:223

		return buf
	}
	buf := make([]byte, 0, overhead+len(val))
	buf = append(buf, '<')
	buf = append(buf, val...)
	buf = append(buf, '>')
	return buf
}

func validateSubGraphForRDF(sg *SubGraph) error {
	if sg.IsGroupBy() {
		return errors.New("groupby is not supported in rdf output format")
	}
	uidCount := sg.Attr == "uid" && sg.Params.DoCount && sg.IsInternal()
	if uidCount {
		return errors.New("uid count is not supported in the rdf output format")
	}
	if sg.Params.Normalize {
		return errors.New("normalize directive is not supported in the rdf output format")
	}
	if sg.Params.IgnoreReflex {
		return errors.New("ignorereflex directive is not supported in the rdf output format")
	}
	if sg.SrcFunc != nil && sg.SrcFunc.Name == "checkpwd" {
		return errors.New("chkpwd function is not supported in the rdf output format")
	}
	if sg.Params.Facet != nil && !sg.Params.ExpandAll {
		return errors.New("facets are not supported in the rdf output format")
	}
	return nil
}

func quotedNumber(val []byte) []byte {
	const overhead = 2 // opening and closing quotes
	if len(val) > math.MaxInt-overhead {
		// Extremely unlikely, but handle overflow case
		tmpVal := make([]byte, 0)

View on GitHub (pinned to 759e242be6)

Solutions

Remove the @normalize directive
Switch to JSON output format
Do the flattening/reshaping client-side after receiving RDF

Example fix

// before
{ me(func: eq(name, "Alice")) @normalize { friend { name } } }
// after
{ me(func: eq(name, "Alice")) { friend { name } } }

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

// Go: strip or reject @normalize when RDF output requested
if strings.Contains(query, "@normalize") {
    query = strings.ReplaceAll(query, " @normalize", "")
}

Type guard

func usesNormalize(dql string) bool {
    return strings.Contains(dql, "@normalize")
}

Try / catch

res, err := txn.QueryRDF(ctx, dql)
if err != nil && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "normalize directive is not supported") {
    return txn.Query(ctx, strings.ReplaceAll(dql, "@normalize", ""))
}

Prevention

Only add @normalize to JSON-output queries
Keep a single query-builder that knows the target output format
Flatten results client-side for RDF exports

When it happens

Trigger: Adding `@normalize` to a query (e.g. `query q($x: string) { me(func: eq(name, $x)) @normalize { name friend { name } } }`) while requesting RDF output.

Common situations: Templates that append @normalize for JSON shape control but keep a fixed RDF output header.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of dgraph-io/dgraph@759e242be6 (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/3122474507f1337f. Report an issue: GitHub.