What causes "Edge search must specify a nonempty list of edge types." in phacility/phabricator?

Supply at least one recognized edge type key: `'types' => array('task.project')`

phacility/phabricator · warning · Exception

Edge search must specify a nonempty list of edge types.

Error message

Edge search must specify a nonempty list of edge types.

What it means

Thrown by `edge.search` when the `types` parameter is missing, empty, or not a list of strings. Edge types constrain which relationships the query traverses (e.g. `task.project`, `revision.reviewers`); there is no 'all edges' mode over Conduit because the edge table mixes dozens of relation types, so a nonempty list is mandatory before the type map lookup.

Source

Thrown at src/infrastructure/edges/conduit/EdgeSearchConduitAPIMethod.php:98

    $object_query = id(new PhabricatorObjectQuery())
      ->setViewer($viewer)
      ->withNames($source_phids);

    $object_query->execute();
    $objects = $object_query->getNamedResults();
    foreach ($source_phids as $phid) {
      if (empty($objects[$phid])) {
        throw new Exception(
          pht(
            'Source PHID "%s" does not identify a valid object, or you do '.
            'not have permission to view it.',
            $phid));
      }
    }
    $source_phids = mpull($objects, 'getPHID');

    if (!$edge_types) {
      throw new Exception(
        pht(
          'Edge search must specify a nonempty list of edge types.'));
    }

    $edge_map = $this->getConduitEdgeTypeMap();

    $constant_map = array();
    $edge_constants = array();
    foreach ($edge_types as $edge_type) {
      if (!isset($edge_map[$edge_type])) {
        throw new Exception(
          pht(
            'Edge type "%s" is not a recognized edge type.',
            $edge_type));
      }

      $constant = $edge_map[$edge_type]->getEdgeConstant();

View on GitHub (pinned to 5720a38cfe)

Solutions

Supply at least one recognized edge type key: `'types' => array('task.project')`
Discover valid keys by calling `edge.search` with no arguments — the method returns the table of conduit keys, names, and inverses

Example fix

// before
$client->callMethod('edge.search', array(
  'sourcePHIDs' => array('PHID-PROJ-xyz'),
));

// after
$client->callMethod('edge.search', array(
  'sourcePHIDs' => array('PHID-PROJ-xyz'),
  'types' => array('task.project'),
));

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

if (empty($params['types']) || !is_array($params['types'])) {
  throw new InvalidArgumentException(
    'edge.search requires a nonempty types list, e.g. array("task.project")');
}
$result = $client->callMethod('edge.search', $params);

Prevention

Make the types list a required key in your conduit call builders
Fetch the valid key table once (edge.search with no args) and assert your configured keys against it at startup

When it happens

Trigger: `edge.search` with only `sourcePHIDs` and no `types`; `'types' => array()`; passing `null` or a scalar where the list is expected; Python/JS clients omitting the key entirely because it looks optional.

Common situations: Copy-paste Conduit call templates where the types line was dropped; dynamically built parameter dicts whose types array conditionally ends up empty; misunderstanding that destinationPHIDs alone does not imply the edge type.

Understand the failure class

Background: Missing required parameter errors: what 'X is required' and 'the required X param is missing' mean, and how to fix them — this error's family across 27 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of phacility/phabricator@5720a38cfe (2026-08-21). Data as JSON: /api/errors/8b1416d79f458d88. Report an issue: GitHub.