hyperledger/fabric · error

error marshaling Response

Error message

error marshaling Response

What it means

This is the wrapped error from proto.Marshal inside GetBytesResponse: serialization of the *peer.Response failed for a reason other than a nil pointer. The library wraps the underlying proto error with errors.Wrap to add the 'error marshaling Response' context.

Source

Thrown at protoutil/proputils.go:149

	return prpBytes, errors.Wrap(err, "error marshaling ProposalResponsePayload")
}

// GetBytesChaincodeProposalPayload gets the chaincode proposal payload
func GetBytesChaincodeProposalPayload(cpp *peer.ChaincodeProposalPayload) ([]byte, error) {
	if cpp == nil {
		return nil, errors.New("error marshaling ChaincodeProposalPayload: proto: Marshal called with nil")
	}
	cppBytes, err := proto.Marshal(cpp)
	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)

View on GitHub (pinned to 2736b63f8f)

Solutions

1. Unwrap with github.com/pkg/errors Cause()/Unwrap() to see the real proto error.
2. Verify the peer package and proto runtime versions are compatible (go.mod pinning).
3. Rebuild/obtain the Response from a fresh proto message instead of reusing deserialized bytes of unknown provenance.
4. If the pointer was actually nil, add the nil check shown for the 'Marshal called with nil' variant.

Example fix

// before
resBytes, err := protoutil.GetBytesResponse(res)
if err != nil {
    return err
}
// after
resBytes, err := protoutil.GetBytesResponse(res)
if err != nil {
    return errors.Wrapf(errors.Cause(err), "serializing peer.Response (res=%v)", res)
}

if res == nil {
    return nil, errors.New("peer.Response is nil")
}

func isSerializableResponse(res *peer.Response) bool {
    return res != nil
}

resBytes, err := protoutil.GetBytesResponse(res)
if err != nil {
    return errors.Wrap(errors.Cause(err), "Response serialization failed")
}

When it happens

Trigger: proto.Marshal returns a non-nil err while serializing a non-nil *peer.Response — typically with gogo/proto this is rare and indicates a malformed message or reflection failure; the message alone is the wrapped context (check the cause via errors.Cause).

Common situations: Corrupted in-memory Response objects built by deserializing invalid bytes, codegen/runtime version mismatches between the generated peer package and the proto library, or unexpected field types set via unsafe casting.

Related errors

• error marshaling ChaincodeEvent
• 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/bc91ebfd29553415. Report an issue: GitHub.