hyperledger/fabric · error

no principal sets remained after filtering

Error message

no principal sets remained after filtering

What it means

Returned by popComparablePrincipalSets when it is called with an empty slice of ComparablePrincipalSets — internally this happens in mergePrincipalSets after filtering left no candidate principal sets. It signals that after reducing/merging the endorsement (and state-based) principal sets, no valid set remains to recommend peers for endorsement.

Source

Thrown at discovery/endorsement/endorsement.go:690

}

func mergePrincipalSets(cpss []inquire.ComparablePrincipalSets) (inquire.ComparablePrincipalSets, error) {
	// Obtain the first ComparablePrincipalSet first
	var cps inquire.ComparablePrincipalSets
	cps, cpss, err := popComparablePrincipalSets(cpss)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, errors.WithStack(err)
	}

	for _, cps2 := range cpss {
		cps = inquire.Merge(cps, cps2)
	}
	return cps, nil
}

func popComparablePrincipalSets(sets []inquire.ComparablePrincipalSets) (inquire.ComparablePrincipalSets, []inquire.ComparablePrincipalSets, error) {
	if len(sets) == 0 {
		return nil, nil, errors.New("no principal sets remained after filtering")
	}
	cps, cpss := sets[0], sets[1:]
	return cps, cpss, nil
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 2736b63f8f)

Solutions

1. Review how the state-based endorsement policy interacts with the namespace policy and align their required principals (same orgs/roles)
2. Relax the key-level policy (e.g. OR instead of AND across conflicting orgs)
3. Recommit the chaincode with a consistent endorsement policy so merging retains at least one principal set
4. If hit programmatically, guard mergePrincipalSets inputs to ensure at least one non-empty ComparablePrincipalSets is passed

Example fix

// before
mergePrincipalSets([]inquire.ComparablePrincipalSets{}) // panics/errors
// after
if len(sets) == 0 { return nil, errors.New("no principal sets remained after filtering") }

if len(cpss) == 0 { return errors.New("no principal sets to merge") }
for _, s := range cpss { if len(s) == 0 { return errors.New("empty principal set in merge input") } }

func mergeable(sets []inquire.ComparablePrincipalSets) bool {
  return len(sets) > 0
}

peers, err := client.PeersForEndorsement(ctx, interest)
if err != nil && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "no principal sets remained after filtering") {
  // realign namespace vs state-based policies and retry
}

When it happens

Trigger: mergePrincipalSets iterates the accumulated ComparablePrincipalSets and after removal/filtering passes the remaining slice is empty when popComparablePrincipalSets pops the next set; effectively all candidate principal sets were eliminated during merging (e.g. state-based sets intersected to nothing with namespace sets).

Common situations: Combining namespace policy with state-based key policies whose principal requirements are mutually exclusive (e.g. different orgs required by AND); collection policies conflicting with namespace policy so the intersection is empty.

Related errors

• policy with reference '%s' on channel '%s' is not convertibl
• error converting policy with reference '%s' on channel '%s'
• failed unmarshalling alive message
• failed unmarshalling stateInfo message
• failed validating stateInfo message

AI-assisted analysis of hyperledger/fabric@2736b63f8f (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/90cf01df5d479d98. Report an issue: GitHub.