phacility/phabricator · warning · PhutilArgumentUsageException

Message type "%s" is unknown, supported message types are: %

Error message

Message type "%s" is unknown, supported message types are: %s.

What it means

Thrown by the `bin/mail send-test` management workflow when the value passed to `--type` is not a key in the map returned by PhabricatorMailExternalMessage::getAllMessageTypes(). That map is built from all installed message-type classes, which in a stock install are PhabricatorMailEmailMessage ('email') and PhabricatorMailSMSMessage ('sms'). It is a PhutilArgumentUsageException, so the command aborts before doing any work; the message itself lists the exact supported type keys.

Source

Thrown at src/applications/metamta/management/PhabricatorMailManagementSendTestWorkflow.php:83

            'param' => 'message-type',
            'help' => pht(
              'Send the specified type of message (email, sms, ...).'),
          ),
        ));
  }

  public function execute(PhutilArgumentParser $args) {
    $console = PhutilConsole::getConsole();
    $viewer = $this->getViewer();

    $type = $args->getArg('type');
    if ($type === null || !strlen($type)) {
      $type = PhabricatorMailEmailMessage::MESSAGETYPE;
    }

    $type_map = PhabricatorMailExternalMessage::getAllMessageTypes();
    if (!isset($type_map[$type])) {
      throw new PhutilArgumentUsageException(
        pht(
          'Message type "%s" is unknown, supported message types are: %s.',
          $type,
          implode(', ', array_keys($type_map))));
    }

    $from = $args->getArg('from');
    if ($from) {
      $user = id(new PhabricatorPeopleQuery())
        ->setViewer($viewer)
        ->withUsernames(array($from))
        ->executeOne();
      if (!$user) {
        throw new PhutilArgumentUsageException(
          pht("No such user '%s' exists.", $from));
      }
      $from = $user;
    }

View on GitHub (pinned to 5720a38cfe)

Solutions

1. Re-run the command: the exception message enumerates every supported type key; use one of them exactly (normally 'email' or 'sms').
2. Omit --type entirely; the workflow defaults to PhabricatorMailEmailMessage::MESSAGETYPE ('email').
3. If you expect a custom type, grep the codebase for classes extending PhabricatorMailExternalMessage and check their MESSAGETYPE constant.
4. Verify the class is actually loaded in the install you are testing (correct web/phd vs CLI checkout, extensions enabled).

Example fix

// before
$ bin/mail send-test --to alincoln --type emial
// Exception: Message type "emial" is unknown, supported message types are: email, sms.

// after
$ bin/mail send-test --to alincoln --type email

// Before invoking send-test, check the type key against the same map the workflow uses:
$type_map = PhabricatorMailExternalMessage::getAllMessageTypes();
$type = $argv_type ?: PhabricatorMailEmailMessage::MESSAGETYPE;
if (!isset($type_map[$type])) {
  fwrite(STDERR, sprintf("Unsupported type '%s'. Supported: %s\n", $type, implode(', ', array_keys($type_map))));
  exit(1);
}

try {
  // invoke the workflow
} catch (PhutilArgumentUsageException $ex) {
  fwrite(STDERR, $ex->getMessage()."\n");
  exit(1);
}

When it happens

Trigger: Running `bin/mail send-test --type <value>` where <value> is a typo (e.g. 'emial'), a type whose backing class is not installed (e.g. 'sms' on an install without SMS support), or a custom PhabricatorMailExternalMessage subclass whose getMessageTypeKey() returns a different key than the one typed on the command line.

Common situations: Assuming SMS testing works before any SMS mailer/message class is present; developing a custom message type and guessing its key instead of reading the constant; copy-pasting a --type value from documentation for a different Phabricator version.

Related errors

• Specify one or more users to send a message to with "--to" a
• Use the '%s' flag to specify one or more messages to show.
• Use the '%s' flag to specify one or more messages to show.
• Argument "%s" is not a valid message ID.
• No such user '%s' exists.

AI-assisted analysis of phacility/phabricator@5720a38cfe (2026-08-21). Data as JSON: /api/errors/90f2e4928185f191. Report an issue: GitHub.