hyperledger/fabric · error

failed to marshal args

Error message

failed to marshal args

What it means

This error is returned by InstalledQuerier.createProposal in the `peer chaincode queryinstalled` command when protobuf serialization of the empty lb.QueryInstalledChaincodesArgs message fails. The args message is empty, so marshaling practically never fails; the wrap exists to surface any proto subsystem failure with context before building the ChaincodeInput proposal for the _lifecycle system chaincode.

Source

Thrown at internal/peer/lifecycle/chaincode/queryinstalled.go:156

func (i *InstalledQuerier) printResponse(proposalResponse *pb.ProposalResponse) error {
	qicr := &lb.QueryInstalledChaincodesResult{}
	err := proto.Unmarshal(proposalResponse.Response.Payload, qicr)
	if err != nil {
		return errors.Wrap(err, "failed to unmarshal proposal response's response payload")
	}
	fmt.Fprintln(i.Writer, "Installed chaincodes on peer:")
	for _, chaincode := range qicr.InstalledChaincodes {
		fmt.Fprintf(i.Writer, "Package ID: %s, Label: %s\n", chaincode.PackageId, chaincode.Label)
	}
	return nil
}

func (i *InstalledQuerier) createProposal() (*pb.Proposal, error) {
	args := &lb.QueryInstalledChaincodesArgs{}

	argsBytes, err := proto.Marshal(args)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, errors.Wrap(err, "failed to marshal args")
	}

	ccInput := &pb.ChaincodeInput{
		Args: [][]byte{[]byte("QueryInstalledChaincodes"), argsBytes},
	}

	cis := &pb.ChaincodeInvocationSpec{
		ChaincodeSpec: &pb.ChaincodeSpec{
			ChaincodeId: &pb.ChaincodeID{Name: lifecycleName},
			Input:       ccInput,
		},
	}

	signerSerialized, err := i.Signer.Serialize()
	if err != nil {
		return nil, errors.WithMessage(err, "failed to serialize identity")
	}

View on GitHub (pinned to 2736b63f8f)

Solutions

1. Rebuild the peer CLI from unmodified Fabric source so the _lifecycle protobuf types are generated consistently.
2. Check that the protobuf dependency versions (google.golang.org/protobuf vs github.com/golang/protobuf) are aligned in your build.
3. Inspect the wrapped underlying proto error (errors.Wrap keeps the cause) to identify the exact marshal failure and fix the offending message type registration.

if _, err := proto.Marshal(&lb.QueryInstalledChaincodesArgs{}); err != nil { return fmt.Errorf("proto runtime broken: %w", err) }

if err := runQueryInstalled(); err != nil {
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "failed to marshal args") {
        log.Fatalf("proto registry/build issue: %v", err)
    }
    return err
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling Query -> createProposal when proto.Marshal(args) returns a non-nil error; essentially only occurs if the proto registry/runtime is corrupted or the generated type registration is broken in a custom build.

Common situations: Custom or patched Fabric builds with mismatched _lifecycle protobuf definitions; vendoring issues where generated pb.go files are out of sync with the protobuf library version; exotic proto compilation/tag errors.

Related errors

• cannot query joinbysnapshot status, due to %s
• error unmarshalling
• error encoding output
• error unmarshalling original config
• error unmarshalling updated config

AI-assisted analysis of hyperledger/fabric@2736b63f8f (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/5cd5b555d067851f. Report an issue: GitHub.