hyperledger/fabric · error

failed to marshal args

Error message

failed to marshal args

What it means

createProposal marshals the lifecycle query args (QueryChaincodeDefinitionResult args struct) with proto.Marshal before building the proposal. This error means local serialization of the client-side args failed — essentially never seen in practice since these structs are plain generated protobufs.

Source

Thrown at internal/peer/lifecycle/chaincode/querycommitted.go:235

}

func (c *CommittedQuerier) createProposal() (*pb.Proposal, error) {
	var function string
	var args proto.Message

	if c.Input.Name != "" {
		function = "QueryChaincodeDefinition"
		args = &lb.QueryChaincodeDefinitionArgs{
			Name: c.Input.Name,
		}
	} else {
		function = "QueryChaincodeDefinitions"
		args = &lb.QueryChaincodeDefinitionsArgs{}
	}

	argsBytes, err := proto.Marshal(args)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, errors.Wrap(err, "failed to marshal args")
	}
	ccInput := &pb.ChaincodeInput{Args: [][]byte{[]byte(function), argsBytes}}

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

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

	proposal, _, err := protoutil.CreateProposalFromCIS(cb.HeaderType_ENDORSER_TRANSACTION, c.Input.ChannelID, cis, signerSerialized)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, errors.WithMessage(err, "failed to create ChaincodeInvocationSpec proposal")

View on GitHub (pinned to 2736b63f8f)

Solutions

1. Use a stock Fabric v2.x peer binary/CLI; rebuild from a clean checkout
2. Confirm the command's flag combination maps to a supported query function
3. Report to maintainers with full command line and stack trace if reproducible

if err := q.Query(); err != nil {
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "failed to marshal args") {
        return fmt.Errorf("client-side serialization bug; use stock fabric binaries")
    }
    return err
}

When it happens

Trigger: proto.Marshal of an empty/nil or corrupted args message fails; practically only possible if the args struct construction is broken (e.g. nil args variable assigned on an unhandled code path).

Common situations: Extremely rare; would indicate a custom-modified CLI or corrupted Fabric binary rather than user error.

Related errors

• could not marshal field %s
• failed to marshal updated readiness result
• failed to marshal args
• failed to unmarshal proposal response's response payload
• failed to unmarshal proposal response's response payload

AI-assisted analysis of hyperledger/fabric@2736b63f8f (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/7ddc6991d2388f3e. Report an issue: GitHub.