pinpoint-apm/pinpoint · warning

invalid span application:{}

Error message

invalid span application:{}

What it means

FilteredMapBuilder.addTransaction skips a span whose resolved spanApplication service type either does not record statistics (isRecordStatistics() false) or is an RPC client, logging 'invalid span application'. The builder treats this as malformed span metadata — such spans cannot contribute meaningful histogram/link statistics — so the span is excluded from the filtered map rather than crashing the build.

Source

Thrown at web/src/main/java/com/navercorp/pinpoint/web/applicationmap/map/FilteredMapBuilder.java:232

                timestamp, slotTime, 1);
    }

    private record TraceSpanKey(ServerTraceId traceId, long spanId) {
    }

    public FilteredMapBuilder addTransaction(List<SpanBo> transaction) {
        final MultiValueMap<Long, SpanBo> transactionSpanMap = createTransactionSpanMap(transaction);

        for (SpanBo span : transaction) {
            final Application parentApplication = createParentApplication(span, transactionSpanMap);
            final Application spanApplication = getSpanApplication(span);

            // records the Span's response time statistics
            responseHistogramsBuilder.addHistogram(spanApplication, span, span.getCollectorAcceptTime());

            if (!spanApplication.getServiceType().isRecordStatistics() || spanApplication.getServiceType().isRpcClient()) {
                // span's serviceType is probably not set correctly
                logger.warn("invalid span application:{}", spanApplication);
                continue;
            }

            if (parentApplication.getServiceType().isUser()) {
                // Outbound data
                if (logger.isTraceEnabled()) {
                    logger.trace("span user:{} {} -> span:{} {}", parentApplication, span.getAgentId(), spanApplication, span.getAgentId());
                }
                final LinkDataMap sourceLinkData = linkDataDuplexMap.getSourceLinkDataMap();
                addLinkData(sourceLinkData, span, parentApplication, spanApplication);

                if (logger.isTraceEnabled()) {
                    logger.trace("span target user:{} {} -> span:{} {}", parentApplication, span.getAgentId(), spanApplication, span.getAgentId());
                }
                // Inbound data
                final LinkDataMap targetLinkDataMap = linkDataDuplexMap.getTargetLinkDataMap();
                addLinkData(targetLinkDataMap, span, parentApplication, spanApplication);
            } else {

View on GitHub (pinned to 744c3d3075)

Solutions

1. Fix the ServiceType definition of the offending application's plugin: set the recordStatistics flag (or remove RpcClient flag) so spans are valid for statistics.
2. Update the agent/plugin to a version where the service type is declared correctly.
3. Check span data in storage for spans written with the bad service type; re-index or expire them after fixing the plugin.
4. If the span type is legitimately non-statistical, filter it out at ingestion instead of letting the map builder warn on every transaction.

Example fix

// before: custom ServiceType missing statistics flag
public static final ServiceType MY_SERVICE = new ServiceType(1010, "MY_SERVICE", "MY");

// after
public static final ServiceType MY_SERVICE = ServiceTypeFactory.of(1010, "MY_SERVICE", "MY", RECORD_STATISTICS);

// Before feeding spans to the map builder, validate the service type
if (!span.getApplicationServiceType().isRecordStatistics() || span.getApplicationServiceType().isRpcClient()) {
    logger.warn("skipping span with non-statistical service type: {}", span.getApplicationServiceType());
    return;
}

boolean isValidSpanApplication(Application app) {
    return app.getServiceType().isRecordStatistics() && !app.getServiceType().isRpcClient();
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling addTransaction (directly or via addTransactions/twoTier) with spans whose application service type has isRecordStatistics=false or isRpcClient=true, i.e. a ServiceType that is not configured for statistics recording.

Common situations: Custom or third-party ServiceType plugins with wrong flags (isRecordStatistics not set); agents running old plugin versions that mislabel service types; spans whose application names resolve to RPC-client types unexpectedly due to misconfiguration.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Must be a positive integer", "Invalid value", "Unsupported": the invalid-argument-value error family, when a library rejects the value you pass — this error's family across 35 libraries.

Related errors

• annotationKey name must not be empty
• matcher type must not be empty
• Unknown matcher type :
• service type name must not be empty
• Invalid type provider definition :

AI-assisted analysis of pinpoint-apm/pinpoint@744c3d3075 (2026-09-07). Data as JSON: /api/errors/3e6c4b4adc7eb801. Report an issue: GitHub.