What causes "empty collection-name is not allowed" in hyperledger/fabric?

Set a non-empty collection name in every StaticCollectionConfig entry

empty collection-name is not allowed

Error message

empty collection-name is not allowed

What it means

validateCollectionName rejects a private data collection whose name is the empty string. Collection names identify the collection in state metadata and gossip, so an empty name is invalid before any regex check is applied.

Source

Thrown at core/handlers/validation/builtin/v13/lscc_validation_logic.go:206

		// Collection object itself is stored as value so that we can
		// check whether the block to live is changed -- FAB-7810
		newCollectionsMap[newCollection.GetName()] = newCollection
	}

	if err := checkForMissingCollections(newCollectionsMap, oldCollectionConfigs); err != nil {
		return err
	}

	if err := checkForModifiedCollectionsBTL(newCollectionsMap, oldCollectionConfigs); err != nil {
		return err
	}

	return nil
}

func validateCollectionName(collectionName string) error {
	if collectionName == "" {
		return fmt.Errorf("empty collection-name is not allowed")
	}
	match := validCollectionNameRegex.FindString(collectionName)
	if len(match) != len(collectionName) {
		return fmt.Errorf("collection-name: %s not allowed. A valid collection name follows the pattern: %s",
			collectionName, AllowedCharsCollectionName)
	}
	return nil
}

// validateRWSetAndCollection performs validation of the rwset
// of an LSCC deploy operation and then it validates any collection
// configuration
func (vscc *Validator) validateRWSetAndCollection(
	lsccrwset *kvrwset.KVRWSet,
	cdRWSet *ccprovider.ChaincodeData,
	lsccArgs [][]byte,
	lsccFunc string,
	ac vc.Capabilities,

View on GitHub (pinned to 2736b63f8f)

Solutions

Set a non-empty collection name in every StaticCollectionConfig entry
Validate the collections JSON before submission: each entry must have a name matching the allowed-characters pattern
Use the fabric CLI's collections-config parser locally to catch empty names early

Example fix

// before
{"name": "", "policy": "OR('Org1MSP.peer')"}
// after
{"name": "collectionOne", "policy": "OR('Org1MSP.peer')"}

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

function validateCollectionName(name) {
  if (!name || name.length === 0) {
    throw new Error('empty collection-name is not allowed');
  }
}

Type guard

function hasCollectionName(c) {
  return typeof c.name === 'string' && c.name.length > 0;
}

Try / catch

try {
  await contract.submitTransaction('DeployChaincode', ...args);
} catch (err) {
  if (String(err).includes('empty collection-name')) {
    // set a valid name on every collection entry
  }
  throw err;
}

Prevention

Require a name field in the collections-config schema and reject empty strings
Avoid leaving protobuf Name fields unset when building configs in code
Lint collections JSON before every deploy/upgrade

When it happens

Trigger: Submitting a collection config where a StaticCollectionConfig has Name == "", via lifecycle --collections-config or a programmatically built CollectionConfigPackage.

Common situations: Building collection configs programmatically and leaving the Name field unset; JSON with {"name": ""}; deserialization that drops an empty field.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of hyperledger/fabric@2736b63f8f (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/2be26d39c4e8b090. Report an issue: GitHub.