What causes "Invalid search engine type: %s. Valid types are: %s." in phacility/phabricator?

Use an identifier from the 'Valid types are' list in the error, exactly as printed.

phacility/phabricator · error · Exception

Invalid search engine type

Error message

Invalid search engine type: %s. Valid types are: %s.

What it means

The service's `type` value does not match any installed fulltext storage engine identifier. Engines are collected with PhutilClassMapQuery over PhabricatorFulltextStorageEngine subclasses — `mysql` is built in, and `elasticsearch` exists only when the PhabricatorElasticsearchExtension is present. The message lists the identifiers actually available in this install.

Solutions

Use an identifier from the 'Valid types are' list in the error, exactly as printed.
For Elasticsearch, install/enable PhabricatorElasticsearchExtension first, then set `type => 'elasticsearch'`.
If no extension is intended, use the built-in `type => 'mysql'`.

Example fix

// before
array('type' => 'Elasticsearch'),
// after (extension enabled)
array('type' => 'elasticsearch'),

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

$valid = array_keys(
  PhabricatorSearchService::loadAllFulltextStorageEngines());
if (!in_array($spec['type'], $valid, true)) {
  throw new Exception(
    'Engine "'.$spec['type'].'" not installed. Valid: '.implode(', ', $valid));
}

Type guard

function isInstalledSearchEngine($type) {
  $engines = PhabricatorSearchService::loadAllFulltextStorageEngines();
  return isset($engines[$type]);
}

Prevention

Check the engine list (`bin/search` output or the Search Servers UI) before referencing a type in config.
Treat identifiers as case-sensitive exact strings: 'mysql', 'elasticsearch'.
Install and enable the Elasticsearch extension before, not after, writing cluster.search.

When it happens

Trigger: Setting `'type' => 'Elasticsearch'` or `'elastic'` (identifiers are case-sensitive), or setting `'elasticsearch'` without the Elasticsearch extension installed/enabled. The check runs at config-save time via PhabricatorClusterSearchConfigType::validateValue.

Common situations: Configuring search before installing the extension that provides the engine; engine identifiers renamed across Phabricator versions; copying config snippets from blog posts with different casing.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of phacility/phabricator@5720a38cfe (2026-08-21). Data as JSON: /api/errors/cabdfc0669752a31. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at src/infrastructure/cluster/config/PhabricatorClusterSearchConfigType.php:49

            'type'      => 'string',
            'hosts'     => 'optional list<map<string, wild>>',
            'roles'     => 'optional map<string, wild>',
            'port'      => 'optional int',
            'protocol'  => 'optional string',
            'path'      => 'optional string',
            'version'   => 'optional int',
          ));
      } catch (Exception $ex) {
        throw new Exception(
          pht(
            'Search engine configuration has an invalid service '.
            'specification (at index "%s"): %s.',
            $index,
            $ex->getMessage()));
      }

      if (!array_key_exists($spec['type'], $engines)) {
        throw new Exception(
          pht(
            'Invalid search engine type: %s. Valid types are: %s.',
            $spec['type'],
            implode(', ', array_keys($engines))));
      }

      if (isset($spec['hosts'])) {
        foreach ($spec['hosts'] as $hostindex => $host) {
          try {
            PhutilTypeSpec::checkMap(
              $host,
              array(
                'host'     => 'string',
                'roles'     => 'optional map<string, wild>',
                'port'      => 'optional int',
                'protocol'  => 'optional string',
                'path'      => 'optional string',
                'version'   => 'optional int',

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