facebook/react · error · Error

Missing a temporary reference set but the RSC response retur

Error message

Missing a temporary reference set but the RSC response returned a temporary reference. Pass a temporaryReference option with the set that was used with the reply.

What it means

A Flight row prefixed 'T' is a temporary reference - a value that only existed for the duration of one request and was stored in a TemporaryReferenceSet on the server (e.g. values written during renderToReadableStream or a reply). Decoding it requires the same set, passed via the temporaryReferences option; if response._tempRefs is null the client has no table to look the id up in and throws, with the message explaining exactly which option to pass.

Source

Thrown at packages/react-client/src/ReactFlightClient.js:2608

        return Symbol.for(value.slice(2));
      }
      case 'h': {
        // Server Reference
        const ref = value.slice(2);
        return getOutlinedModel(
          response,
          ref,
          parentObject,
          key,
          loadServerReference,
        );
      }
      case 'T': {
        // Temporary Reference
        const reference = '$' + value.slice(2);
        const temporaryReferences = response._tempRefs;
        if (temporaryReferences == null) {
          throw new Error(
            'Missing a temporary reference set but the RSC response returned a temporary reference. ' +
              'Pass a temporaryReference option with the set that was used with the reply.',
          );
        }
        return readTemporaryReference(temporaryReferences, reference);
      }
      case 'Q': {
        // Map
        const ref = value.slice(2);
        return getOutlinedModel(response, ref, parentObject, key, createMap);
      }
      case 'W': {
        // Set
        const ref = value.slice(2);
        return getOutlinedModel(response, ref, parentObject, key, createSet);
      }
      case 'B': {
        // Blob

View on GitHub (pinned to eafeac097b)

Solutions

1. Create one TemporaryReferenceSet per request on the server, and pass that same set as the temporaryReferences option to the client decode API (createFromReadableStream/createFromFetch/decodeReply)
2. Keep the set alive for the lifetime of the request/response pair - it must be the identical instance used when encoding, not a fresh one
3. If you never intended temporary references, stop passing request-scoped or React Element values into the payload so no 'T' rows are emitted
4. Check your framework version's docs: the option name is temporaryReferences and it travels with the response options object

Example fix

// before
const payload = createFromReadableStream(stream); // throws on 'T' rows

// after
const temporaryReferences = await getTempRefsForRequest(requestId); // same set the server used
const payload = createFromReadableStream(stream, {temporaryReferences});

// Fail fast at decode setup if temp refs are in play but the set is missing
const options = usesTemporaryReferences
  ? {temporaryReferences: tempRefsForRequest}
  : {};
if (usesTemporaryReferences && !options.temporaryReferences) {
  throw new Error('Decode configuration error: temporaryReferences required');
}
const payload = createFromReadableStream(stream, options);

const hasTemporaryReferences = (
  opts: unknown,
): opts is {temporaryReferences: Map<string, unknown>} =>
  typeof opts === 'object' && opts !== null &&
  (opts as any).temporaryReferences instanceof Map;

When it happens

Trigger: The server serialized with a TemporaryReferenceSet (request-scoped values like React Elements or server-only objects) and the client calls createFromReadableStream/createFromFetch/decodeReply without passing {temporaryReferences: theSameSet}; or a reply round-trip where encodeReply used a set but the client decoder was not given it.

Common situations: Server Actions/encodeReply flows that transport request-scoped objects; hand-rolled RSC routers that manage the Flight stream manually and forget to thread the per-request set back to the client; upgrading a framework where temporary-reference handling moved into options you now must pass.

Related errors

• React Element cannot be passed to Server Functions from the
• Symbols cannot be passed to a Server Function without a temp
• Type ${typeof value} is not supported as an argument to a Se
• Invalid reference.
• Trying to call a function from "use server" but the callServ

AI-assisted analysis of facebook/react@eafeac097b (2026-08-21). Data as JSON: /api/errors/1c31504e21c0f820. Report an issue: GitHub.