hyperledger/fabric · error

error marshaling ChaincodeEvent

Error message

error marshaling ChaincodeEvent

What it means

This is the wrapped error from proto.Marshal inside GetBytesChaincodeEvent for a non-nil *peer.ChaincodeEvent whose serialization failed. errors.Wrap adds the 'error marshaling ChaincodeEvent' context on top of the underlying proto error.

Source

Thrown at protoutil/proputils.go:158

	return cppBytes, errors.Wrap(err, "error marshaling ChaincodeProposalPayload")
}

// GetBytesResponse gets the bytes of Response
func GetBytesResponse(res *peer.Response) ([]byte, error) {
	if res == nil {
		return nil, errors.New("error marshaling Response: proto: Marshal called with nil")
	}
	resBytes, err := proto.Marshal(res)
	return resBytes, errors.Wrap(err, "error marshaling Response")
}

// GetBytesChaincodeEvent gets the bytes of ChaincodeEvent
func GetBytesChaincodeEvent(event *peer.ChaincodeEvent) ([]byte, error) {
	if event == nil {
		return nil, errors.New("error marshaling ChaincodeEvent: proto: Marshal called with nil")
	}
	eventBytes, err := proto.Marshal(event)
	return eventBytes, errors.Wrap(err, "error marshaling ChaincodeEvent")
}

// GetBytesChaincodeActionPayload get the bytes of ChaincodeActionPayload from
// the message
func GetBytesChaincodeActionPayload(cap *peer.ChaincodeActionPayload) ([]byte, error) {
	if cap == nil {
		return nil, errors.New("error marshaling ChaincodeActionPayload: proto: Marshal called with nil")
	}
	capBytes, err := proto.Marshal(cap)
	return capBytes, errors.Wrap(err, "error marshaling ChaincodeActionPayload")
}

// GetBytesProposalResponse gets proposal bytes response
func GetBytesProposalResponse(pr *peer.ProposalResponse) ([]byte, error) {
	if pr == nil {
		return nil, errors.New("error marshaling ProposalResponse: proto: Marshal called with nil")
	}
	respBytes, err := proto.Marshal(pr)

View on GitHub (pinned to 2736b63f8f)

Solutions

1. Inspect the underlying cause via errors.Cause(err) for the true proto failure.
2. Run go mod tidy / consistent upgrade of github.com/hyperledger/fabric-protos-go and the proto runtime across all modules.
3. Re-derive the event from the block/transaction data instead of reusing a hand-built struct.
4. If the event was actually nil, add the nil guard (see the 'Marshal called with nil' variant).

Example fix

// before
evBytes, err := protoutil.GetBytesChaincodeEvent(evt)
if err != nil {
    return fmt.Errorf("event failed: %s", err)
}
// after
evBytes, err := protoutil.GetBytesChaincodeEvent(evt)
if err != nil {
    return errors.Wrap(errors.Cause(err), "event serialization failed")
}

if evt == nil {
    return nil, errors.New("ChaincodeEvent is nil")
}

func isSerializableEvent(evt *peer.ChaincodeEvent) bool {
    return evt != nil
}

evBytes, err := protoutil.GetBytesChaincodeEvent(evt)
if err != nil {
    return errors.Wrap(errors.Cause(err), "ChaincodeEvent serialization failed")
}

When it happens

Trigger: proto.Marshal failing on a non-nil ChaincodeEvent — rare with well-formed generated messages; usually indicates a version mismatch between the generated peer protobuf code and the proto runtime, or a corrupted message built from bad bytes.

Common situations: Mixed Fabric module versions in one binary (e.g. fabric-protos-go upgraded inconsistently), reflection/codegen issues, or events reconstructed by manually decoding raw bytes.

Related errors

• error marshaling Response
• error marshaling ChaincodeActionPayload
• error marshaling ProposalResponse
• error marshaling Header
• error marshaling

AI-assisted analysis of hyperledger/fabric@2736b63f8f (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/7eee9177e974e049. Report an issue: GitHub.