Relation creation error: Could not retrieve corresponding…

Error message

Relation creation error: Could not retrieve corresponding entries

What it means

DirectoryRelationsTable::createFromGroupUser builds a directory relation linking a group entry to a user entry in directory_entries. It first looks up the group's and the user's directory entries by foreign_key; if either lookup returns null it throws a generic Exception, because the relation cannot be created without both parent and child entries.

Solutions

Ensure users are synced/created before processing group memberships in your sync flow.
Verify both directory_entries rows exist: query DirectoryEntries for foreign_key = user_id and group_id before calling createFromGroupUser.
Re-run a full directory sync to rebuild missing directory_entries rows.
Investigate why the entry is missing — often a previous sync error or manual deletion from directory_entries.

Example fix

// before
$this->DirectoryRelations->createFromGroupUser($groupUser);
// after
$exists = $this->DirectoryEntries->find()->where(['foreign_model' => Alias::MODEL_USERS, 'foreign_key' => $groupUser->user_id])->first();
if ($exists) {
    $this->DirectoryRelations->createFromGroupUser($groupUser);
}

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

$DirectoryEntries = TableRegistry::getTableLocator()->get('Passbolt/DirectorySync.DirectoryEntries');
$ok = $DirectoryEntries->find()->where(['foreign_model' => Alias::MODEL_GROUPS, 'foreign_key' => $groupUser->group_id])->first()
  && $DirectoryEntries->find()->where(['foreign_model' => Alias::MODEL_USERS, 'foreign_key' => $groupUser->user_id])->first();

Type guard

$hasEntries = fn(GroupsUser $gu): bool =>
    (bool)$this->DirectoryEntries->find()->where(['foreign_model' => Alias::MODEL_GROUPS, 'foreign_key' => $gu->group_id])->first()
    && (bool)$this->DirectoryEntries->find()->where(['foreign_model' => Alias::MODEL_USERS, 'foreign_key' => $gu->user_id])->first();

Try / catch

try {
    $this->DirectoryRelations->createFromGroupUser($groupUser);
} catch (Exception $e) {
    // missing directory_entries row — queue for a full re-sync instead of crashing
}

Prevention

Sync users before processing group memberships
Verify both directory_entries rows exist before creating relations
Run full re-syncs periodically to rebuild missing entries
Never manually delete directory_entries rows without a following full sync

When it happens

Trigger: Calling createFromGroupUser($groupUser) during a group-user sync when either the group's directory entry (foreign_model Groups, foreign_key group_id) or the user's entry (foreign_model Users, foreign_key user_id) is missing from directory_entries.

Common situations: Partial LDAP sync where the group was synced but the member user wasn't (or vice versa); entries purged by orphan cleanup between syncs; sync order processing group memberships before users are created; deleted LDAP user still present in group memberships.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Not found" and "does not exist" errors: why "Task not found", "No such folder", and "Can't find" fire when a lookup comes back empty — this error's family across 14 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of passbolt/passbolt_api@31c1bbc10f (2026-09-17). Data as JSON: /api/errors/27638a7d9fd87128. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at plugins/PassboltEe/DirectorySync/src/Model/Table/DirectoryRelationsTable.php:161

     */
    public function createFromGroupUser(GroupsUser $groupUser): mixed
    {
        $DirectoryEntries = TableRegistry::getTableLocator()->get('Passbolt/DirectorySync.DirectoryEntries');

        $groupEntry = $DirectoryEntries
            ->find()
            ->select('id')
            ->where(['foreign_model' => Alias::MODEL_GROUPS, 'foreign_key' => $groupUser->group_id])
            ->first();

        $userEntry = $DirectoryEntries
            ->find()
            ->select('id')
            ->where(['foreign_model' => Alias::MODEL_USERS, 'foreign_key' => $groupUser->user_id])
            ->first();

        if (!$groupEntry || !$userEntry) {
            throw new Exception('Relation creation error: Could not retrieve corresponding entries');
        }

        $relation = [
            'id' => $groupUser->id,
            'parent_key' => $groupEntry->get('id'),
            'child_key' => $userEntry->get('id'),
        ];

        return $this->createOrUpdate($relation);
    }

    /**
     * Create or update.
     *
     * @param array $data data
     * @return \Cake\Datasource\EntityInterface|\Passbolt\DirectorySync\Model\Entity\DirectoryIgnore|mixed|bool|false
     */
    public function createOrUpdate(array $data): mixed

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