influxdata/influxdb · error · CatalogError

failed to parse trigger from

Error message

failed to parse trigger from {trigger_spec}{}

What it means

This error is thrown by the influxdb3 catalog when a processing-engine trigger specification string cannot be parsed. The `trigger_spec` is a formatted string like `plugin:trigger_arguments` that the processing engine splits into plugin name and arguments; if the format is wrong, parsing fails. An optional context message is appended after a colon when the parser knows what was wrong.

Solutions

1. Check the trigger_spec string matches the expected `plugin_name:trigger_settings:trigger_arguments` format
2. Ensure the plugin name is valid and the trigger arguments are correctly encoded for the trigger type (cron, every, table, all tables)
3. Use the influxdb3 CLI to create the trigger instead of hand-building the spec
4. Check the appended `: context` part of the message for the specific parse failure reason

Example fix

// before
let spec = "my_plugin"; // missing trigger settings/arguments
create_trigger(spec, ...);
// after
let spec = "my_plugin:every:1s:my_plugin_args"; // full spec format
create_trigger(spec, ...);

fn is_valid_trigger_spec(spec: &str) -> bool {
    let parts: Vec<&str> = spec.split(':').collect();
    parts.len() >= 3 && !parts[0].is_empty()
}

match create_trigger(spec) {
    Err(CatalogError::TriggerSpecificationParseError { context, .. }) => eprintln!("bad trigger spec: {context:?}"),
    Err(e) => return Err(e.into()),
    Ok(t) => t,
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling catalog APIs that create a processing engine trigger (e.g. `CreateTrigger` / processing-engine trigger creation) with a malformed trigger specification string, such as missing the plugin identifier or having wrongly encoded/missing trigger arguments.

Common situations: Hand-writing trigger specs in `influxdb3 create trigger` commands; shell quoting or braces mangling the spec (a literal unformatted `{trigger_spec}{}` in the message indicates a bad Display/format call site or empty spec); upgrading InfluxDB 3 where the spec grammar changed.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Invalid ... format", "must be in format X", "does not look like a ..." — invalid argument format errors across CLI tools and libraries — this error's family across 17 libraries.

• Parsing and encoding errors: unexpected token, malformed input — why parsers reject input and how to find the real culprit.

Related errors

• cannot parse token permission
• catalog update error
• failed to parse as integer
• invalid error behavior
• Processing engine error

AI-assisted analysis of influxdata/influxdb@06200ef96b (2026-09-19). Data as JSON: /api/errors/8e46fcbe0c481eb2. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at influxdb3_catalog/src/error.rs:270

    ProcessingEngineUnimplemented { feature_description: String },

    #[error(
        "Processing Engine Trigger {} not in DB {}",
        trigger_name,
        database_name
    )]
    ProcessingEngineTriggerNotFound {
        database_name: String,
        trigger_name: String,
    },

    #[error("failed to parse trigger from {}", trigger_spec)]
    ProcessingEngineTriggerSpecParseError { trigger_spec: String },

    #[error("last cache size must be greater than 0")]
    InvalidLastCacheSize,

    #[error("failed to parse trigger from {trigger_spec}{}", .context.as_ref().map(|context| format!(": {context}")).unwrap_or_default())]
    TriggerSpecificationParseError {
        trigger_spec: String,
        context: Option<String>,
    },

    #[error("invalid error behavior {0}")]
    InvalidErrorBehavior(String),

    #[error("cannot parse token permission, {0}")]
    CannotParsePermissionForToken(String),

    #[error("token name already exists, {0}")]
    TokenNameAlreadyExists(String),

    #[error("token hash already exists")]
    TokenHashAlreadyExists,

    #[error("missing admin token, cannot update")]

View on GitHub (pinned to 06200ef96b)