What causes "Edge type "%s" is not a recognized edge type." in phacility/phabricator?

List all valid keys by calling `edge.search` with no parameters (it returns the full key/name/inverse table) or `--help` on the CLI equivalent

phacility/phabricator · warning · Exception

Edge type " " is not a recognized edge type.

Error message

Edge type "%s" is not a recognized edge type.

What it means

Thrown by `edge.search` when a `types` entry is not a recognized conduit edge-type key. Valid keys are the conduit keys registered by PhabricatorEdgeType subclasses (built via getConduitKey(), e.g. `task.project`, `task.subscriber`, `revision.reviewers`); arbitrary constants, numeric edge constants from older APIs, or invented names fail the map lookup. Each recognized key is then translated to its internal edge constant for the query.

Solutions

List all valid keys by calling `edge.search` with no parameters (it returns the full key/name/inverse table) or `--help` on the CLI equivalent
Replace numeric constants with their conduit keys (e.g. 41 -> `task.project` style keys from the map)
Verify spelling exactly — keys are lowercase, dot-separated, and singular/plural sensitive

Example fix

// before
$client->callMethod('edge.search', array(
  'sourcePHIDs' => array($task_phid),
  'types' => array(41),              // legacy numeric constant
));

// after
$client->callMethod('edge.search', array(
  'sourcePHIDs' => array($task_phid),
  'types' => array('task.project'), // conduit key from the type map
));

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

// Load the recognized keys once, then assert before every call
$meta = $client->callMethod('edge.search', array());
$valid_keys = array();
foreach ($meta['data'] as $row) { $valid_keys[$row['type']] = true; }
foreach ($types as $t) {
  if (!isset($valid_keys[$t])) {
    throw new InvalidArgumentException('Unknown edge type: '.$t);
  }
}

Type guard

function isConduitEdgeType($type, array $validKeys) {
  return is_string($type) && isset($validKeys[$type]);
}

Try / catch

try {
  $result = $client->callMethod('edge.search', $params);
} catch (ConduitClientException $ex) {
  if (strpos($ex->getMessage(), 'not a recognized edge type') !== false) {
    // refresh the key map, correct the type list, retry
  }
  throw $ex;
}

Prevention

Never use numeric edge constants from the database with edge.search; use conduit keys
Pin the edge type keys your integration uses and validate them against the live map after Phabricator upgrades

When it happens

Trigger: Passing legacy numeric edge constants (e.g. 1, 41) instead of string keys; guessing names like `'project'` or `'members'` instead of `'task.project'`/`'project.member'`; casing or pluralization mistakes (`'task.projects'`); copy-pasting constants from database `edge` table rows rather than from the conduit type map.

Common situations: Migrating old scripts that used `edge.edit`/manual constants to `edge.search`; developers reading the `worker`/edge database tables instead of the API surface; version drift where a key was renamed across Phabricator updates.

Understand the failure class

Background: Invalid enum value errors: "Unknown type", "Invalid scope", "must be one of" — when a string is not on the library's allowed list — this error's family across 23 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of phacility/phabricator@5720a38cfe (2026-08-21). Data as JSON: /api/errors/5f921543b775591b. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at src/infrastructure/edges/conduit/EdgeSearchConduitAPIMethod.php:109

            '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();

      $edge_constants[] = $constant;
      $constant_map[$constant] = $edge_type;
    }

    $edge_query = id(new PhabricatorEdgeObjectQuery())
      ->setViewer($viewer)
      ->withSourcePHIDs($source_phids)
      ->withEdgeTypes($edge_constants);

    if ($destination_phids) {
      $edge_query->withDestinationPHIDs($destination_phids);

View on GitHub (pinned to 5720a38cfe)