What causes "No such policy" in hyperledger/fabric?

Guard the policy pointer for nil before evaluation

No such policy

Error message

No such policy

What it means

EvaluateIdentities has the same nil-receiver guard as EvaluateSignedData: evaluating identities through a nil *policy means the policy object was never constructed, and the caller gets 'No such policy'.

Source

Thrown at common/cauthdsl/policy.go:100

// EvaluateSignedData takes a set of SignedData and evaluates whether
// 1) the signatures are valid over the related message
// 2) the signing identities satisfy the policy
func (p *policy) EvaluateSignedData(signatureSet []*protoutil.SignedData) error {
	if p == nil {
		return errors.New("no such policy")
	}

	ids := policies.SignatureSetToValidIdentities(signatureSet, p.deserializer)

	return p.EvaluateIdentities(ids)
}

// EvaluateIdentities takes an array of identities and evaluates whether
// they satisfy the policy
func (p *policy) EvaluateIdentities(identities []msp.Identity) error {
	if p == nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("No such policy")
	}

	ok := p.evaluator(identities, make([]bool, len(identities)))
	if !ok {
		return errors.New("signature set did not satisfy policy")
	}
	return nil
}

func (p *policy) Convert() (*cb.SignaturePolicyEnvelope, error) {
	if p.signaturePolicyEnvelope == nil {
		return nil, errors.New("nil policy field")
	}

	return p.signaturePolicyEnvelope, nil
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 2736b63f8f)

Solutions

Guard the policy pointer for nil before evaluation
Correct the policy lookup/construction so a valid *policy is obtained
Define the missing policy in channel configuration

Example fix

// before
var p *policy
err := p.EvaluateIdentities(ids)
// after
if p == nil {
    return errors.New("no policy configured")
}
err := p.EvaluateIdentities(ids)

Defensive patterns

Strategy: type-guard

Validate before calling

if p == nil {
    return errors.New("cannot evaluate: policy object is nil")
}

Type guard

func isEvaluatable(p *policy) bool { return p != nil && p.evaluator != nil }

Try / catch

err := pol.EvaluateIdentities(ids)
if err != nil && err.Error() == "No such policy" {
    return errors.New("policy handle is nil; re-resolve from the policy manager")
}

Prevention

Propagate policy-construction errors instead of retaining a nil handle
Centralize policy lookup so nil results are rejected once
Add nil checks at every call site rather than relying on the library guard

When it happens

Trigger: Calling EvaluateIdentities on a nil *policy — the result of a failed/absent policy resolution — instead of a compiled policy.

Common situations: Same as error 75: missing channel policy definitions, mistyped policy IDs, or code paths that ignore construction errors and keep a nil policy handle.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of hyperledger/fabric@2736b63f8f (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/bb114ae314a87850. Report an issue: GitHub.