What causes "Failed to parse object address ("%s") during processing." in phacility/phabricator?

Audit any local overrides of matchObjectAddress()/canAcceptMail() for divergent logic and make both use one shared matcher.

phacility/phabricator · error · Exception

Failed to parse object address ("%s") during processing.

Error message

Failed to parse object address ("%s") during processing.

What it means

In PhabricatorObjectMailReceiver::processReceivedMail(), matchObjectAddress() failed to re-parse the target address that had already been accepted by canAcceptMail(). The source comment marks this 'a surprise': it indicates inconsistent matching logic (nearly always in a custom receiver subclass) rather than bad input, and throws a plain Exception.

Source

Thrown at src/applications/metamta/receiver/PhabricatorObjectMailReceiver.php:38

   * this pattern is some sort of object ID.
   *
   * @param   string          A string matched by @{method:getObjectPattern}
   *                          fragment.
   * @param   PhabricatorUser The viewing user.
   * @return  void
   */
  abstract protected function loadObject($pattern, PhabricatorUser $viewer);


  final protected function processReceivedMail(
    PhabricatorMetaMTAReceivedMail $mail,
    PhutilEmailAddress $target) {

    $parts = $this->matchObjectAddress($target);
    if (!$parts) {
      // We should only make it here if we matched already in "canAcceptMail()",
      // so this is a surprise.
      throw new Exception(
        pht(
          'Failed to parse object address ("%s") during processing.',
          (string)$target));
    }

    $pattern = $parts['pattern'];
    $sender = $this->getSender();

    try {
      $object = $this->loadObject($pattern, $sender);
    } catch (PhabricatorPolicyException $policy_exception) {
      throw new PhabricatorMetaMTAReceivedMailProcessingException(
        MetaMTAReceivedMailStatus::STATUS_POLICY_PROBLEM,
        pht(
          'This mail is addressed to an object ("%s") you do not have '.
          'permission to see: %s',
          $pattern,
          $policy_exception->getMessage()));

View on GitHub (pinned to 5720a38cfe)

Solutions

Audit any local overrides of matchObjectAddress()/canAcceptMail() for divergent logic and make both use one shared matcher.
Reproduce with `bin/mail show-inbound --id N` to see the exact target address being parsed.
If no local customizations exist, report upstream including the target address from the exception.

Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Try / catch

try {
  $received->processReceivedMail();
} catch (Exception $ex) {
  // log the target address and receiver class with the exception;
  // this error signals a matching-logic inconsistency, not user error
  phlog($ex);
}

Prevention

In custom receivers, implement matching once and call it from both canAcceptMail() and processReceivedMail().
Add tests that feed the same address through canAcceptMail() and matchObjectAddress() and assert they agree.
After upgrading Phabricator, re-run your receiver tests before enabling mail.

When it happens

Trigger: A custom PhabricatorObjectMailReceiver subclass whose canAcceptMail()/matchObjectAddress() use different patterns or normalization, so an address accepted by one is rejected by the other; address normalization (case, domain, plus-addressing) changing between the two calls.

Common situations: Developing custom reply handlers or overriding object-address matching in extensions; upstream changes to matching combined with local overrides that were not updated.

Understand the failure class

Parsing and encoding errors: unexpected token, malformed input — why parsers reject input and how to find the real culprit.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of phacility/phabricator@5720a38cfe (2026-08-21). Data as JSON: /api/errors/5317ed40491dbf8c. Report an issue: GitHub.