What causes "failed to process unified config: %w" in gofr-dev/gofr?

Inspect the wrapped inner error for the specific inconsistent entry.

failed to process unified config: %w

Error message

failed to process unified config: %w

What it means

The parsed RBAC config passed validation but processUnifiedConfig failed while converting the unified config into the internal role/permission maps. The internal error is wrapped and typically indicates inconsistent references between roles, permissions, or endpoints.

Source

Thrown at pkg/gofr/rbac/config.go:173

	}

	// Set dependencies
	config.Logger = logger
	config.Metrics = metrics
	config.Tracer = tracer

	// Initialize mux router for pattern matching
	// Use StrictSlash(false) to match the application router's behavior
	config.muxRouter = mux.NewRouter().StrictSlash(false)

	// Validate config before processing
	if err := config.validate(); err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("invalid RBAC config: %w", err)
	}

	// Process unified config to build internal maps
	if err := config.processUnifiedConfig(); err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to process unified config: %w", err)
	}

	return &config, nil
}

// validate validates the RBAC configuration.
func (c *Config) validate() error {
	// Validate endpoints: non-public endpoints must have RequiredPermissions
	// Also validate that paths use mux patterns only (no wildcards or old regex)
	for i, endpoint := range c.Endpoints {
		if !endpoint.Public && len(endpoint.RequiredPermissions) == 0 {
			return fmt.Errorf("endpoint[%d]: %w: %s", i, ErrEndpointMissingPermissions, endpoint.Path)
		}

		// Validate path pattern
		if err := c.validateEndpointPath(endpoint.Path, i); err != nil {
			return err
		}

View on GitHub (pinned to 187eb24962)

Solutions

Inspect the wrapped inner error for the specific inconsistent entry.
Verify every role/permission referenced by endpoints is defined in the config.
Diff a previously working config against the current one to spot renamed or removed definitions.
Reduce the config to a minimal working set and add entries back until the failure reappears.

Example fix

// before: endpoint references undefined role
{ "path": "/api/admin", "roles": ["superadmin"] } // 'superadmin' not defined
// after: define the role first
{ "roles": { "superadmin": ["*"] }, "endpoints": [{ "path": "/api/admin", "roles": ["superadmin"] }] }

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

defined := map[string]bool{}
for _, r := range cfg.Roles { defined[r.Name] = true }
for i, ep := range cfg.Endpoints {
    for _, role := range ep.Roles {
        if !defined[role] {
            return fmt.Errorf("endpoint[%d] %s references undefined role %q", i, ep.Path, role)
        }
    }
}

Try / catch

if _, err := rbac.LoadPermissions(path, logger, metrics, tracer); err != nil {
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "failed to process unified config") {
        return fmt.Errorf("unified config references are inconsistent: %w", err)
    }
    return err
}

Prevention

Keep role and permission definitions in one file to avoid drift.
Cross-check references (roles ↔ permissions, endpoints ↔ roles) in CI.
Grep for renamed identifiers after refactors.
Bisect the config down to a minimal set when the inner error is unclear.

When it happens

Trigger: EnableRBAC/LoadPermissions with a unified config whose roles/permission references are inconsistent (e.g. an endpoint or role referencing a permission that cannot be resolved while building internal maps).

Common situations: Renaming a role in one place but not another; typos in permission identifiers; a config merged from multiple sources where cross-references broke.

Understand the failure class

Background: Schema validation failed / invalid input schema: payload rejected because its shape doesn't match the expected schema — this error's family across 28 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of gofr-dev/gofr@187eb24962 (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/95877c5c64962b69. Report an issue: GitHub.