The required parameter 'channelID' is empty. Rerun the comma

Error message

The required parameter 'channelID' is empty. Rerun the command with -C flag

What it means

The peer CLI chaincode invoke command requires a target channel, supplied via the -C (or --channelID) flag. chaincodeInvoke checks the global channelID variable before doing any work and fails fast if it is empty, because the proposal must be sent to a specific channel's endorsers.

Source

Thrown at internal/peer/chaincode/invoke.go:48

	flagList := []string{
		"name",
		"ctor",
		"isInit",
		"channelID",
		"peerAddresses",
		"tlsRootCertFiles",
		"connectionProfile",
		"waitForEvent",
		"waitForEventTimeout",
	}
	attachFlags(chaincodeInvokeCmd, flagList)

	return chaincodeInvokeCmd
}

func chaincodeInvoke(cmd *cobra.Command, cf *ChaincodeCmdFactory, cryptoProvider bccsp.BCCSP) error {
	if channelID == "" {
		return errors.New("The required parameter 'channelID' is empty. Rerun the command with -C flag")
	}
	// Parsing of the command line is done so silence cmd usage
	cmd.SilenceUsage = true

	var err error
	if cf == nil {
		cf, err = InitCmdFactory(cmd.Name(), true, true, cryptoProvider)
		if err != nil {
			return err
		}
	}
	defer cf.BroadcastClient.Close()

	return chaincodeInvokeOrQuery(cmd, true, cf)
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 2736b63f8f)

Solutions

Re-run the command with the channel flag: peer chaincode invoke -C <channel-name> ...
Set the channel explicitly in the script/automation, e.g. CHANNEL_NAME=mychannel and add -C $CHANNEL_NAME.
If wrapping the CLI, validate the channel argument before exec-ing the peer binary.

Example fix

// before
peer chaincode invoke -n mycc -c '{"Args":["put","a","1"]}' -C ""
// after
peer chaincode invoke -C mychannel -n mycc -c '{"Args":["put","a","1"]}'

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

if [ -z "$CHANNEL_NAME" ]; then echo "error: -C channelID required" >&2; exit 1; fi
peer chaincode invoke -C "$CHANNEL_NAME" ...

Type guard

function hasChannelID(args) { return typeof args.C === 'string' && args.C.length > 0; }

Prevention

Always include -C in chaincode invoke invocations and templates.
Use a shared script/function that injects CHANNEL_NAME.
Lint shell scripts for peer commands missing -C.

When it happens

Trigger: Running `peer chaincode invoke` (or the chaincodeInvoke command via a wrapper) without passing -C/--channelID, or passing an empty string for it.

Common situations: Scripting the invoke and forgetting the flag; copying a query command line that used -c for a chaincode name and omitting -C; old scripts written before -C became effectively mandatory; environment-variable-driven automation where the channel value is unset.

Understand the failure class

Background: "--flag is required" and "must specify" CLI errors: how missing-required-flag validation works and how to fix it — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of hyperledger/fabric@2736b63f8f (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/ef33b127da90e3af. Report an issue: GitHub.