immich-app/immich · critical · Error

Unable to determine worker type

Error message

Unable to determine worker type

What it means

EventRepository.setup calls configRepository.getWorker() to know which worker it is running as. If that returns a falsy value (worker type could not be resolved from config), it throws Error('Unable to determine worker type') before event-handler discovery proceeds. The worker identity is required to decide which handlers to register.

Source

Thrown at server/src/repositories/event.repository.ts:167

@Injectable()
export class EventRepository {
  private emitHandlers: EmitHandlers = {};

  constructor(
    private moduleRef: ModuleRef,
    private configRepository: ConfigRepository,
    private logger: LoggingRepository,
  ) {
    this.logger.setContext(EventRepository.name);
  }

  setup({ services }: { services: (new (...args: any[]) => unknown)[] }) {
    const reflector = this.moduleRef.get(Reflector, { strict: false });
    const items: Item<EmitEvent>[] = [];
    const worker = this.configRepository.getWorker();
    if (!worker) {
      throw new Error('Unable to determine worker type');
    }

    // discovery
    for (const Service of services) {
      const instance = this.moduleRef.get<any>(Service);
      const ctx = Object.getPrototypeOf(instance);
      for (const property of Object.getOwnPropertyNames(ctx)) {
        const descriptor = Object.getOwnPropertyDescriptor(ctx, property);
        if (!descriptor || descriptor.get || descriptor.set) {
          continue;
        }

        const handler = instance[property];
        if (typeof handler !== 'function') {
          continue;
        }

        const event = reflector.get<EventConfig>(MetadataKey.EventConfig, handler);

View on GitHub (pinned to 199723261c)

Solutions

1. Ensure at least one valid ImmichWorker remains after include/exclude (default is api + microservices).
2. Unset IMMICH_WORKERS_INCLUDE/EXCLUDE to fall back to defaults.
3. Check getWorker()/getEnv().workers to see what the process resolved to.

const inc = (process.env.IMMICH_WORKERS_INCLUDE ?? '').split(',').filter(Boolean);
const exc = new Set((process.env.IMMICH_WORKERS_EXCLUDE ?? '').split(',').filter(Boolean));
const effective = inc.filter((w) => !exc.has(w));
if (effective.length === 0) throw new Error('Worker set is empty after include/exclude.');

When it happens

Trigger: Starting Immich when the effective worker set is empty (e.g. IMMICH_WORKERS_INCLUDE and IMMICH_WORKERS_EXCLUDE cancel out to nothing) or the config bootstrap failed to assign a worker to the process.

Common situations: Misconfigured IMMICH_WORKERS_* env vars producing an empty set; running a process role that resolves to no recognized worker; config drift after an upgrade.

Related errors

• Invalid worker(s) found: ${workers.join(',')}
• Failed to read helmet file: ${helmetFile}
• Invalid environment variables: \n - [${path}] ${issue.messa
• Failed to decode redis options
• Invalid telemetry found: ${telemetry}

AI-assisted analysis of immich-app/immich@199723261c (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/c27268bb7774a405. Report an issue: GitHub.