required chaincodes are not installed on sufficient peers

Error message

required chaincodes are not installed on sufficient peers

What it means

After layouts are computed, discovery filters out layouts whose peer groups have no installed/available endorsers. If every layout is eliminated because the required chaincode (or collection principals) is not satisfied by enough peers' installed chaincode binaries, computeEndorsementResponse returns this error instead of an empty descriptor.

Source

Thrown at discovery/endorsement/endorsement.go:188

	layouts := computeLayouts(ctx.principalsSets, principalGroups, satGraph)
	if len(layouts) == 0 {
		return nil, errors.New("no peer combination can satisfy the endorsement policy")
	}

	criteria := &peerMembershipCriteria{
		possibleLayouts:  layouts,
		satGraph:         satGraph,
		chanMemberById:   ctx.channelMembersById,
		idOfMembers:      ctx.identitiesOfMembers,
		chaincodeMapping: ctx.chaincodeMapping,
	}

	groupToEndorserListMapping := endorsersByGroup(criteria)
	layouts = filterOutUnsatisfiedLayouts(groupToEndorserListMapping, layouts)

	if len(layouts) == 0 {
		return nil, errors.New("required chaincodes are not installed on sufficient peers")
	}

	return &discovery.EndorsementDescriptor{
		Chaincode:         ctx.chaincode,
		Layouts:           layouts,
		EndorsersByGroups: groupToEndorserListMapping,
	}, nil
}

func filterOutUnsatisfiedLayouts(endorsersByGroup map[string]*discovery.Peers, layouts []*discovery.Layout) []*discovery.Layout {
	// Iterate once again over all layouts and ensure every layout has enough peers in the EndorsersByGroups
	// as required by the quantity in the layout.
	filteredLayouts := make([]*discovery.Layout, 0, len(layouts))
	for _, layout := range layouts {
		var layoutInvalid bool
		for group, quantity := range layout.QuantitiesByGroup {
			peerList := endorsersByGroup[group]
			if peerList == nil || len(peerList.Peers) < int(quantity) {

View on GitHub (pinned to 2736b63f8f)

Solutions

Install the chaincode package on all peers referenced by the endorsement policy (peer lifecycle chaincode install)
Verify installed chaincode version matches the committed definition on every peer
Lower/adjust the endorsement policy or layout requirements to match the peers that have the chaincode installed
Re-run discovery after installation completes

Example fix

// before
# only peer0 has the chaincode; policy requires Org1+Org2
peer lifecycle chaincode install mycc_v1.tar.gz   # on peer0 only

// after
# install on every org's peers
for p in peer0.org1 peer0.org2; do
  peer lifecycle chaincode install mycc_v1.tar.gz --peerAddresses $p:7051
done

Defensive patterns

Strategy: retry

Validate before calling

// verify chaincode installed on peers of all policy orgs
for _, peer := range policyPeers {
    if !chaincodeInstalled(peer, chaincodeName, version) {
        return fmt.Errorf("%s not installed on %s", chaincodeName, peer)
    }
}

Try / catch

desc, err := client.PeersForEndorsement(req)
if err != nil {
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "not installed on sufficient peers") {
        time.Sleep(backoff) // re-check after lifecycle install propagates
        return client.PeersForEndorsement(req)
    }
    return nil, err
}

Prevention

Install chaincode packages on every peer referenced by the endorsement policy
Keep chaincode versions consistent across peers after upgrades
Add lifecycle install steps to new-peer provisioning runbooks
Verify installs with peer lifecycle chaincode queryinstalled before discovery-dependent operations

When it happens

Trigger: Peers satisfy the endorsement policy principals but the chaincode package is not installed (or wrong version) on them, so endorsersByGroup yields nothing usable; collections required peers lack the chaincode.

Common situations: Chaincode installed on some peers only while the policy spans others; peers upgraded to a new chaincode version while others lag; freshly joined peers missing chaincode packages; lifecycle approve/commit done but install skipped on a peer.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of hyperledger/fabric@2736b63f8f (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/1c9bfff865c27927. Report an issue: GitHub.