hyperledger/fabric · error

error marshaling ProposalResponse

Error message

error marshaling ProposalResponse

What it means

This is the wrapped error from proto.Marshal inside GetBytesProposalResponse for a non-nil ProposalResponse whose serialization failed. errors.Wrap adds the 'error marshaling ProposalResponse' context to the underlying proto error.

Solutions

1. Inspect errors.Cause(err) for the actual proto failure.
2. Pin consistent versions of fabric-protos-go and the proto runtime; rebuild.
3. Rebuild the ProposalResponse via the generated constructors/API rather than manual decoding.
4. If the pointer was actually nil, add the nil guard from the 'Marshal called with nil' variant.

Example fix

// before
prBytes, err := protoutil.GetBytesProposalResponse(pr)
if err != nil {
    return err
}
// after
prBytes, err := protoutil.GetBytesProposalResponse(pr)
if err != nil {
    return errors.Wrap(errors.Cause(err), "cannot serialize ProposalResponse")
}

if pr == nil {
    return nil, errors.New("ProposalResponse is nil")
}

func isSerializableProposalResponse(pr *peer.ProposalResponse) bool {
    return pr != nil
}

prBytes, err := protoutil.GetBytesProposalResponse(pr)
if err != nil {
    return nil, errors.Wrap(errors.Cause(err), "ProposalResponse serialization failed")
}

When it happens

Trigger: proto.Marshal returning an error on a populated *peer.ProposalResponse — most often a codegen/runtime mismatch or a struct populated via reflection/decoding of invalid bytes.

Common situations: Dependency upgrades leaving fabric-protos-go and gogo/protobuf inconsistent, or ProposalResponses reconstructed from raw network bytes of unknown validity.

Related errors

• error marshaling ChaincodeActionPayload
• error marshaling ChaincodeEvent
• error marshaling Header
• error marshaling ProposalResponse: proto: Marshal called…
• error marshaling Response

AI-assisted analysis of hyperledger/fabric@2736b63f8f (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/07f0cb81599dc9b9. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at protoutil/proputils.go:177

}

// 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)
	return respBytes, errors.Wrap(err, "error marshaling ProposalResponse")
}

// GetBytesHeader get the bytes of Header from the message
func GetBytesHeader(hdr *common.Header) ([]byte, error) {
	if hdr == nil {
		return nil, errors.New("error marshaling Header: proto: Marshal called with nil")
	}
	bytes, err := proto.Marshal(hdr)
	return bytes, errors.Wrap(err, "error marshaling Header")
}

// GetBytesSignatureHeader get the bytes of SignatureHeader from the message
func GetBytesSignatureHeader(hdr *common.SignatureHeader) ([]byte, error) {
	if hdr == nil {
		return nil, errors.New("error marshaling SignatureHeader: proto: Marshal called with nil")
	}
	bytes, err := proto.Marshal(hdr)
	return bytes, errors.Wrap(err, "error marshaling SignatureHeader")

View on GitHub (pinned to 2736b63f8f)