hyperledger/fabric · error

failed creating a comparable principal set

Error message

failed creating a comparable principal set

What it means

Thrown by computePrincipalSets when NewComparablePrincipalSet returns nil while converting a principal set produced by a chaincode's (namespace or collection) endorsement policy via SatisfiedBy(). The policy yielded a principal the inquire package cannot represent, so discovery cannot rank peers against the endorsement policy and fails the PeersForEndorsement request.

Source

Thrown at discovery/endorsement/endorsement.go:297

				sessionLogger.Debugf("Client requested to disregard the namespace policy for chaincode %s,"+
					" and no collection policies are present", chaincode.Name)
				continue
			}
			sessionLogger.Debugf("Client requested to disregard the namespace policy for chaincode %s,"+
				" however there exist %d collection policies taken into account", chaincode.Name, len(policies)-1)
			policies = policies[1:]
		}
		inquireablePoliciesForChaincodeAndCollections = append(inquireablePoliciesForChaincodeAndCollections, policies...)
	}

	var cpss []inquire.ComparablePrincipalSets

	for _, policy := range inquireablePoliciesForChaincodeAndCollections {
		var cmpsets inquire.ComparablePrincipalSets
		for _, ps := range policy.SatisfiedBy() {
			cps := inquire.NewComparablePrincipalSet(ps)
			if cps == nil {
				return nil, errors.New("failed creating a comparable principal set")
			}
			cmpsets = append(cmpsets, cps)
		}
		if len(cmpsets) == 0 {
			return nil, errors.New("endorsement policy cannot be satisfied")
		}
		cpss = append(cpss, cmpsets)
	}

	stateBasedCPS, err := computeStateBasedPrincipalSets(interest.Chaincodes, sessionLogger)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, errors.WithStack(err)
	}

	if len(stateBasedCPS) > 0 {
		cpss = append(cpss, stateBasedCPS)
	}

View on GitHub (pinned to 2736b63f8f)

Solutions

1. Inspect the chaincode endorsement policy for unsupported principal types and redefine it using standard MSPRole/OU/peer principals
2. Re-commit the chaincode (or update collection config) with a standard policy, e.g. AND('Org1MSP.peer','Org2MSP.peer')
3. Upgrade Fabric so the inquire package supports the principal type in use
4. Verify the policy definition tooling emits valid common.SignaturePolicyEnvelope protos

Example fix

// before
policy := "OR(ROLE('member', unknownDomain))" // malformed principal
// after
policy := "AND('Org1MSP.peer', 'Org2MSP.peer')"

for _, ps := range policy.SatisfiedBy() {
  if inquire.NewComparablePrincipalSet(ps) == nil {
    return errors.New("endorsement policy contains unsupported principals")
  }
}

func convertible(policy policies.InquireablePolicy) bool {
  for _, ps := range policy.SatisfiedBy() {
    if inquire.NewComparablePrincipalSet(ps) == nil { return false }
  }
  return true
}

peers, err := client.PeersForEndorsement(ctx, interest)
if err != nil && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "failed creating a comparable principal set") {
  // inspect and redefine the committed endorsement policy
}

When it happens

Trigger: A committed chaincode endorsement policy (namespace or collection policy) contains principal types or structures that inquire.NewComparablePrincipalSet cannot convert (unsupported MSPPrincipal classification, nil/invalid principals inside the policy protobuf).

Common situations: Endorsement policies written with nonstandard principals by custom tooling; corrupted or hand-edited policy definitions; channel policies using principal categories not supported at this Fabric version.

Related errors

• failed creating a comparable principal set for state based e
• state based endorsement policy cannot be satisfied
• endorsement policy cannot be satisfied
• policy '%s' must be defined for channel '%s' before chaincod
• policy with reference '%s' on channel '%s' is not convertibl

AI-assisted analysis of hyperledger/fabric@2736b63f8f (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/28e1ecc6c36922a2. Report an issue: GitHub.