linera-io/linera-protocol · error

Invalid application ID

Error message

Invalid application ID

What it means

While building a ResourceControlPolicy in the linera CLI (free_application_ids field), each --free-application-ids string is parsed with ApplicationId's FromStr and collected into a BTreeSet. The expect panics when any supplied string is not a valid canonical ApplicationId, aborting the policy/command before anything is written.

Source

Thrown at linera-service/src/cli/main.rs:719

                                                existing_policy.maximum_oracle_response_bytes,
                                            ),
                                        maximum_http_response_bytes: maximum_http_response_bytes
                                            .unwrap_or(existing_policy.maximum_http_response_bytes),
                                        http_request_timeout_ms: http_request_timeout_ms
                                            .unwrap_or(existing_policy.http_request_timeout_ms),
                                        http_request_allow_list: http_request_allow_list
                                            .map(BTreeSet::from_iter)
                                            .unwrap_or(existing_policy.http_request_allow_list),
                                        free_application_ids: free_application_ids
                                            .map(|ids| {
                                                ids.into_iter().map(|s| s.parse()).collect::<Result<
                                                    BTreeSet<_>,
                                                    _,
                                                >>(
                                                )
                                            })
                                            .transpose()
                                            .expect("Invalid application ID")
                                            .unwrap_or(existing_policy.free_application_ids),
                                        flags: flags
                                            .map(|values| {
                                                values
                                                    .into_iter()
                                                    .map(|s| s.parse())
                                                    .collect::<Result<BTreeSet<_>, _>>()
                                            })
                                            .transpose()
                                            .expect("Invalid protocol flag")
                                            .unwrap_or(existing_policy.flags),
                                    };
                                    info!("{policy}");
                                    if committee.policy() == &policy {
                                        return Ok(ClientOutcome::Committed(None));
                                    }
                                }
                                _ => unreachable!(),

View on GitHub (pinned to 6c226ddcb3)

Solutions

1. Copy the exact full application ID string as printed by `linera query-application` (the `application_id` field, plain hex, no 0x, no quotes)
2. Extract it programmatically instead of by hand: jq -r '.application_id' from JSON output, or use the value returned by publish
3. Pre-validate each ID in your script before invoking the CLI (parse/regex check for full-length hex)
4. If parsing still fails, confirm you are on the same network/genesis the application was published to

Example fix

# before
linera ... --free-application-ids 0xe5ab00...  # 0x prefix + truncated

# after
APP_ID=$(linera query-application --abi-... | jq -r '.application_id')
linera ... --free-application-ids "$APP_ID"

# Validate the ID shape before invoking the CLI.
APP_ID='...'
if ! [[ "$APP_ID" =~ ^[0-9a-f]{40,}$ ]]; then echo "not a canonical application id" >&2; exit 1; fi

When it happens

Trigger: Passing --free-application-ids with a value that fails ApplicationId::from_str: truncated hex, a bytecode ID or blob hash instead of an application ID, a value with '0x' prefix, whitespace, or a JSON-quoted string.

Common situations: Copy-pasting the wrong identifier from `linera query-application` output (which prints bytecode_id, publisher, and application_id separately); hand-truncating the long hex string in scripts; passing IDs from a different network/genesis whose format is not parseable.

Related errors

• expected whitespace after 'query' keyword
• expected an operation name after 'query', e.g. 'query MyQuer
• The input has not matched: {input}
• Invalid protocol flag
• Invalid parsing of GenericApplicationId

AI-assisted analysis of linera-io/linera-protocol@6c226ddcb3 (2026-08-22). Data as JSON: /api/errors/a8626642d7475643. Report an issue: GitHub.