pinpoint-apm/pinpoint · error · IllegalStateException

unsupported message

Error message

unsupported message 

What it means

SpanGrpcDataSender's onDispatch consumer converts queued MetricType data to protobuf and requires a PSpan-capable message; if the converted message is neither a supported span type it throws IllegalStateException "unsupported message". The stream only accepts span messages, so other types are a programming/routing error.

Source

Thrown at agent-module/profiler/src/main/java/com/navercorp/pinpoint/profiler/sender/grpc/SpanGrpcDataSender.java:87

            final GeneratedMessageV3 message = messageConverter.toMessage(data);
            if (isDebug) {
                logger.debug("Send message={}", debugLog(message));
            }
            if (message instanceof PSpanChunk) {
                final PSpanChunk spanChunk = (PSpanChunk) message;
                final PSpanMessage spanMessage = PSpanMessage.newBuilder().setSpanChunk(spanChunk).build();
                stream.onNext(spanMessage);
                attemptRenew();
                return;
            }
            if (message instanceof PSpan) {
                final PSpan pSpan = (PSpan) message;
                final PSpanMessage spanMessage = PSpanMessage.newBuilder().setSpan(pSpan).build();
                stream.onNext(spanMessage);
                attemptRenew();
                return;
            }
            throw new IllegalStateException("unsupported message " + data);
        }
    };


    public SpanGrpcDataSender(String host, int port,
                              int executorQueueSize,
                              MessageConverter<SpanType, GeneratedMessageV3> messageConverter,
                              ReconnectExecutor reconnectExecutor,
                              ChannelFactory channelFactory,
                              StreamState failState,
                              long maxRpcAgeMillis) {
        super(host, port, executorQueueSize, messageConverter, channelFactory);
        this.spanStub = SpanGrpc.newStub(managedChannel);

        this.interval = newIntervalFunction(maxRpcAgeMillis);
        this.rpcExpiredAt = new AtomicLong(System.currentTimeMillis());

        this.reconnectExecutor = Objects.requireNonNull(reconnectExecutor, "reconnectExecutor");

View on GitHub (pinned to 744c3d3075)

Solutions

1. Send only span-type data (converting to PSpan/PSpanMessage) to SpanGrpcDataSender
2. Route stat/metric data to StatGrpcDataSender instead
3. Extend onDispatch to handle and convert the new message type if it belongs on the span stream

Example fix

// before
spanSender.send(agentUriStat);
// after
statSender.send(agentUriStat);

if (!(messageConverter.toMessage(data) instanceof PSpan)) { throw new IllegalStateException("SpanGrpcDataSender only accepts span data"); }

GeneratedMessageV3 msg = messageConverter.toMessage(data);
if (msg instanceof PSpan pSpan) { stream.onNext(PSpanMessage.newBuilder().setSpan(pSpan).build()); }

try { dispatch(data); } catch (IllegalStateException e) { log.error("Unsupported message on span stream: {}", data, e); }

When it happens

Trigger: Dispatching a data object through SpanGrpcDataSender whose messageConverter output is not the expected PSpan (or sibling span message) — e.g. sending a SpanChunk/agent URI stat to the span sender.

Common situations: Misconfigured sender wiring where span and stat senders are swapped, a custom MessageConverter returning an unexpected message type, or new telemetry types routed to the span stream without updating onDispatch.

Understand the failure class

Background: Type mismatch errors: IllegalArgumentException, TypeError and type guards across 150 open-source libraries — this error's family across 150 libraries.

Related errors

• list size not same
• spanEventList is empty.
• first SpanEvent is null
• unsupported type:${dataType}
• Unexpected TraceId type: ${traceId}

AI-assisted analysis of pinpoint-apm/pinpoint@744c3d3075 (2026-09-07). Data as JSON: /api/errors/03ffb186522539c7. Report an issue: GitHub.