hyperledger/fabric · error

chaincode install failed: received nil proposal response

Error message

chaincode install failed: received nil proposal response

What it means

submitInstallProposal() got a nil *ProposalResponse from EndorserClient.ProcessProposal along with a nil error — an anomalous gRPC client state. The install could not be endorsed and there is no response object to inspect.

Source

Thrown at internal/peer/lifecycle/chaincode/install.go:158

		return err
	}

	signedProposal, err := signProposal(proposal, i.Signer)
	if err != nil {
		return errors.WithMessage(err, "failed to create signed proposal for chaincode install")
	}

	return i.submitInstallProposal(signedProposal)
}

func (i *Installer) submitInstallProposal(signedProposal *pb.SignedProposal) error {
	proposalResponse, err := i.EndorserClient.ProcessProposal(context.Background(), signedProposal)
	if err != nil {
		return errors.WithMessage(err, "failed to endorse chaincode install")
	}

	if proposalResponse == nil {
		return errors.New("chaincode install failed: received nil proposal response")
	}

	if proposalResponse.Response == nil {
		return errors.New("chaincode install failed: received proposal response with nil response")
	}

	if proposalResponse.Response.Status != int32(cb.Status_SUCCESS) {
		return errors.Errorf("chaincode install failed with status: %d - %s", proposalResponse.Response.Status, proposalResponse.Response.Message)
	}
	logger.Infof("Installed remotely: %v", proposalResponse)

	icr := &lb.InstallChaincodeResult{}
	err = proto.Unmarshal(proposalResponse.Response.Payload, icr)
	if err != nil {
		return errors.Wrap(err, "failed to unmarshal proposal response's response payload")
	}
	logger.Infof("Chaincode code package identifier: %s", icr.PackageId)

View on GitHub (pinned to 2736b63f8f)

Solutions

1. Retry the install command; transient transport faults can produce empty responses.
2. Check peer connectivity and TLS settings (CORE_PEER_TLS_ENABLED, roots, addresses).
3. Inspect peer logs around the request time for dropped/aborted endorsements.
4. If using custom client code, ensure the endorser client never returns (nil, nil) — always an error with nil.

Example fix

// before: test stub
return nil, nil
// after
return nil, errors.New("endorsement failed: connection reset")

// check endorser connectivity first
cc, err := grpc.Dial(peerAddr, tlsOpts...)
if err != nil { return err }
endorser := pb.NewEndorserClient(cc)
_ = endorser

func validProposalResponse(r *pb.ProposalResponse) bool { return r != nil }

var resp *pb.ProposalResponse
err := backoff.Retry(func() error {
    var e error
    resp, e = endorser.ProcessProposal(ctx, sp)
    if resp == nil && e == nil { return errors.New("nil response, retrying") }
    return e
}, backoff.WithMaxRetries(backoff.NewExponentialBackOff(), 3))

When it happens

Trigger: ProcessProposal(context.Background(), signedProposal) returns (nil, nil) during chaincode install; in practice seen when a customized/intercepted endorser client returns nil, or edge cases in transport failure handling.

Common situations: Custom endorser client stubs in tests returning nil; proxy layers swallowing errors; Fabric client library edge-case bugs.

Related errors

• received nil proposal response
• chaincode install failed: received proposal response with ni
• orderer `%s` hung up without sending status
• implicit policy evaluation failed - %d sub-policies were sat
• proposal hash does not match

AI-assisted analysis of hyperledger/fabric@2736b63f8f (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/471f2744d6ad7e90. Report an issue: GitHub.