What causes "invalid chaincode ID" in hyperledger/fabric?

Fix the client configuration so the chaincode name is a non-empty value at invoke time.

invalid chaincode ID

Error message

invalid chaincode ID

What it means

The chaincode name taken from the header extension (hdrExt.ChaincodeId.Name) is an empty string. VSCC treats an empty ID as a sanity-check failure, logs it, and invalidates the transaction with TxValidationCode_INVALID_OTHER_REASON.

Source

Thrown at core/committer/txvalidator/v14/vscc_validator.go:101

		return peer.TxValidationCode_BAD_RWSET, errors.WithMessage(err, "txRWSet.FromProtoBytes failed")
	}

	// Verify the header extension and response payload contain the ChaincodeId
	if hdrExt.ChaincodeId == nil {
		return peer.TxValidationCode_INVALID_OTHER_REASON, errors.New("nil ChaincodeId in header extension")
	}

	if respPayload.ChaincodeId == nil {
		return peer.TxValidationCode_INVALID_OTHER_REASON, errors.New("nil ChaincodeId in ChaincodeAction")
	}

	// get name and version of the cc we invoked
	ccID := hdrExt.ChaincodeId.Name
	ccVer := respPayload.ChaincodeId.Version

	// sanity check on ccID
	if ccID == "" {
		err = errors.New("invalid chaincode ID")
		logger.Errorf("%+v", err)
		return peer.TxValidationCode_INVALID_OTHER_REASON, err
	}
	if ccID != respPayload.ChaincodeId.Name {
		err = errors.Errorf("inconsistent ccid info (%s/%s)", ccID, respPayload.ChaincodeId.Name)
		logger.Errorf("%+v", err)
		return peer.TxValidationCode_INVALID_OTHER_REASON, err
	}
	// sanity check on ccver
	if ccVer == "" {
		err = errors.New("invalid chaincode version")
		logger.Errorf("%+v", err)
		return peer.TxValidationCode_INVALID_OTHER_REASON, err
	}

	var wrNamespace []string
	alwaysEnforceOriginalNamespace := v.cr.Capabilities().V1_2Validation()
	if alwaysEnforceOriginalNamespace {

View on GitHub (pinned to 2736b63f8f)

Solutions

Fix the client configuration so the chaincode name is a non-empty value at invoke time.
Add client-side validation that rejects invoke requests with empty chaincodeName before submitting.
Resubmit the transaction with the correct chaincode name.

Example fix

// before
ccName := os.Getenv("CHAINCODE_NAME") // may be ""
// after
ccName := os.Getenv("CHAINCODE_NAME")
if ccName == "" { return errors.New("chaincode name required") }

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

if chaincodeName == "" {
    return fmt.Errorf("chaincode name must be non-empty before invoking transaction on channel %s", channelID)
}

Type guard

func validChaincodeName(name string) bool {
	return strings.TrimSpace(name) != ""
}

Try / catch

if ccID == "" {
    logger.Warnf("tx rejected: invalid chaincode ID")
    return peer.TxValidationCode_INVALID_OTHER_REASON, nil
}

Prevention

Fail fast in client config loading when chaincode name is empty.
Use explicit config with required-field checks rather than raw env reads.
Add integration tests that assert a name is present in every invoke request.

When it happens

Trigger: ChaincodeHeaderExtension was marshalled with a ChaincodeID whose Name field is empty (or absent), e.g. a client passed an empty chaincode name to the SDK's invoke/send-transaction call.

Common situations: Misconfigured client where the chaincode name is read from an unset environment variable or config key (empty string); typos producing a blank name; generic tooling invoking transactions without resolving the target chaincode.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of hyperledger/fabric@2736b63f8f (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/5c1dc7a901bc769f. Report an issue: GitHub.