nautechsystems/nautilus_trader · error

Chain anchor ID must be nonzero

Error message

Chain anchor ID must be nonzero

What it means

`validate_config` requires `config.chain_anchor.chain_id` to be nonzero. A zero chain ID is never a valid EVM chain identifier and would make anchor verification meaningless, so it is rejected up front. The error is thrown by `anyhow::ensure!` when `anchor.chain_id == 0`.

Source

Thrown at crates/adapters/blockchain/src/rpc/verification.rs:1213

            anyhow::ensure!(
                identities[right]
                    .failure_domain_ids
                    .iter()
                    .all(|domain| !left_domains.contains(domain)),
                "Provider failure domains must be pairwise disjoint"
            );
        }
    }

    let endpoints = [
        normalize_endpoint(authoritative_url)?,
        normalize_endpoint(config.verifiers[0].http_rpc_url.expose_secret())?,
        normalize_endpoint(config.verifiers[1].http_rpc_url.expose_secret())?,
    ];
    ensure_distinct(endpoints.iter().map(String::as_str), "provider endpoints")?;

    let anchor = &config.chain_anchor;
    anyhow::ensure!(anchor.chain_id != 0, "Chain anchor ID must be nonzero");
    anyhow::ensure!(
        !anchor.chain_name.trim().is_empty(),
        "Chain anchor name is required"
    );
    let checkpoint_hash = B256::from_str(&anchor.checkpoint_hash)
        .map_err(|_| anyhow::anyhow!("Chain checkpoint hash must contain 32 hexadecimal bytes"))?;
    anyhow::ensure!(
        checkpoint_hash != B256::ZERO,
        "Chain checkpoint hash must be nonzero"
    );
    anyhow::ensure!(
        anchor.max_head_skew_blocks != 0
            && anchor.max_head_age_secs != 0
            && anchor.max_future_drift_secs != 0,
        "Chain head skew, age, and future-drift limits must be nonzero"
    );
    anyhow::ensure!(
        !config.manifest_version.trim().is_empty(),

View on GitHub (pinned to 18893faf8b)

Solutions

1. Set `chain_anchor.chain_id` to the actual EIP-155 chain ID of the target network (e.g. 1 for Ethereum mainnet).
2. Query the target RPC (`eth_chainId`) to confirm the correct value before configuring.
3. Ensure the config deserializer surfaces missing/absent fields instead of silently defaulting chain_id to 0.
4. Replace any 0 placeholder with the real value before deploying.

Example fix

// before
[verification.chain_anchor]
chain_id = 0

// after
[verification.chain_anchor]
chain_id = 1

fn check_chain_id(anchor: &ChainAnchor) -> Result<(), String> {
    if anchor.chain_id == 0 {
        return Err("chain_anchor.chain_id must be a nonzero EIP-155 chain ID".into());
    }
    Ok(())
}

fn has_valid_chain_id(anchor: &ChainAnchor) -> bool {
    anchor.chain_id != 0
}

match validate_config(&cfg) {
    Err(e) if e.to_string().contains("Chain anchor ID must be nonzero") => {
        eprintln!("Set verification.chain_anchor.chain_id to the real chain ID: {e}");
        std::process::exit(1);
    }
    other => other,
}

When it happens

Trigger: Loading a verification config where `verification.chain_anchor.chain_id` is 0, omitted and defaulted to 0, or left as a placeholder value.

Common situations: Copy-pasting a config template without filling in the chain ID; deserializing a JSON/TOML block where the field is absent and defaults to 0; targeting a dev/test chain and mistyping the ID; using 0 as a 'not set yet' sentinel.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Invalid value" and "allowed values are" config errors: what your library rejected and how to fix it — this error's family across 41 libraries.

Related errors

• `router_addresses` must contain at least one router address
• Quote spend limit for {token_in} -> {token_out} is denominat
• Independent Blockchain execution verification is required
• Verification chain anchor ID does not match the configured c
• Verification chain anchor name does not match the configured

AI-assisted analysis of nautechsystems/nautilus_trader@18893faf8b (2026-09-08). Data as JSON: /api/errors/040678cd138f3752. Report an issue: GitHub.