What causes "batch submit orders failed" in nautechsystems/nautilus_trader?

Check the classified failure: if NotSent, all legs were rejected locally and can be safely resubmitted after fixing the cause.

nautechsystems/nautilus_trader · error · anyhow::Error

batch submit orders failed

Error message

batch submit orders failed

What it means

Submitting a batch (order list) of regular orders over the OKX private WebSocket failed. ws_private.batch_submit_orders returned Err; the adapter first emits OrderRejected events for every leg when the failure is NotSent (definitely never reached OKX), or logs an 'Ambiguous batch submit failure' warning for Ambiguous/VenueRejected outcomes, then returns the error with this context.

Source

Thrown at crates/adapters/okx/src/execution.rs:2402

                            dispatch_state.order_identities.remove(cid);
                            emitter.emit_order_rejected_event(
                                strategy_id,
                                instrument_id,
                                *cid,
                                &reason,
                                ts_event,
                                false,
                            );
                        }
                    }
                    CommandFailure::Ambiguous(reason) | CommandFailure::VenueRejected(reason) => {
                        log::warn!(
                            "Ambiguous batch submit failure for {} orders on {instrument_id}, awaiting reconciliation: {reason}",
                            client_order_ids.len()
                        );
                    }
                }
                return Err(anyhow::Error::new(e).context("batch submit orders failed"));
            }

            Ok(())
        });

        Ok(())
    }

    fn modify_order(&self, cmd: ModifyOrder) -> anyhow::Result<()> {
        if is_spread_instrument(cmd.instrument_id) {
            self.emitter.emit_order_modify_rejected_event(
                cmd.strategy_id,
                cmd.instrument_id,
                cmd.client_order_id,
                cmd.venue_order_id,
                "OKX spread orders do not support modify requests",
                self.clock.get_time_ns(),
            );

View on GitHub (pinned to 18893faf8b)

Solutions

Check the classified failure: if NotSent, all legs were rejected locally and can be safely resubmitted after fixing the cause.
If Ambiguous/VenueRejected, wait for/run reconciliation before resubmitting — orders may have been placed, and blind resubmission can double position.
Validate every leg with the same rules OKX enforces (price/quantity precision, post-only, trade mode) before submit_order_list.
Ensure the private WS session is connected and authenticated; retry after reconnect if it was down.

Example fix

// before: resubmitting immediately after an ambiguous failure
trader.submit_order_list(cmd);
// after: reconcile first when outcome is unknown
match failure {
    CommandFailure::NotSent(_) => trader.submit_order_list(cmd),
    CommandFailure::Ambiguous(_) | CommandFailure::VenueRejected(_) => {
        trader.reconcile_state(instrs).await; // then decide per-leg
    }
}

Defensive patterns

Strategy: retry

Validate before calling

// Validate every leg before submitting the list atomically
for order in orders.iter() {
    validate_order(order, trade_mode, OrderSubmission::List)
        .expect("leg invalid; list would be denied");
}

Try / catch

// Distinguish NotSent (safe to resend) from Ambiguous (reconcile first)
if let Err(e) = trader.submit_order_list(cmd) {
    match classify_okx_ws_failure(&e) {
        CommandFailure::NotSent(_) => retry_list(cmd),
        CommandFailure::Ambiguous(_) | CommandFailure::VenueRejected(_) => {
            reconcile_before_resubmit();
        }
    }
}

Prevention

Never blind-resubmit a list after an Ambiguous failure — orders may be live.
Pre-validate all legs so one bad leg does not poison the batch.
Keep batch sizes within OKX WS message limits.
Ensure WS private is connected and authenticated before list submissions.

When it happens

Trigger: submit_order_list on a non-spread instrument; ws_private.batch_submit_orders returned Err: WS disconnected (NotSent), ack timeout leaving success unknown (Ambiguous), or OKX rejecting the batch message (VenueRejected).

Common situations: Submitting multi-leg lists during WS reconnects; per-leg parameter rejections (bad price/size/post-only flags) surfacing as batch errors; sending lists larger than OKX WS batch limits; ambiguous outcomes requiring reconciliation to determine what actually landed.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of nautechsystems/nautilus_trader@18893faf8b (2026-09-08). Data as JSON: /api/errors/8236213460d82598. Report an issue: GitHub.