quarkusio/quarkus · error · IllegalArgumentException

The cause of an inactive result must also be inactive

Error message

The cause of an inactive result must also be inactive

What it means

ActiveResult models why a synthetic bean is currently inactive; an inactive result may optionally point to a cause, but that cause must itself be inactive (its value must be false). ActiveResult.inactive(reason, cause) throws IllegalArgumentException when a non-null cause reports value == true, preventing an internally inconsistent chain that would misrepresent activation state.

Source

Thrown at independent-projects/arc/runtime/src/main/java/io/quarkus/arc/ActiveResult.java:49

     * @return the inactive result
     */
    public static ActiveResult inactive(String reason) {
        return new ActiveResult(false, Objects.requireNonNull(reason), null);
    }

    /**
     * The synthetic bean is question is inactive for given {@code reason}.
     * The given {@code cause} is an {@link ActiveResult} for an underlying bean
     * that is inactive and causes this bean to also become inactive.
     *
     * @param reason the reason why the synthetic bean is inactive; must not be {@code null}
     * @param cause the cause why the synthetic bean is inactive; may be {@code null},
     *        but when it is not, it must be inactive as well
     * @return the inactive result with a cause
     */
    public static ActiveResult inactive(String reason, ActiveResult cause) {
        if (cause != null && cause.value) {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("The cause of an inactive result must also be inactive");
        }
        return new ActiveResult(false, Objects.requireNonNull(reason), cause);
    }

    private ActiveResult(boolean value, String inactiveReason, ActiveResult inactiveCause) {
        this.value = value;
        this.inactiveReason = inactiveReason;
        this.inactiveCause = inactiveCause;
    }

    /**
     * Returns whether the synthetic bean in question is active.
     *
     * @return whether the synthetic bean in question is active
     */
    public boolean value() {
        return value;
    }

View on GitHub (pinned to e1c734241f)

Solutions

1. Pass null as the cause when there is no inactive reason to chain.
2. Ensure the cause is created via ActiveResult.inactive(...) so it is guaranteed to be inactive.
3. Log or inspect the cause result's value before passing it; only forward results known to represent inactivity.
4. Check library versions — if you believe the cause is inactive but it reports active, verify the code that produced it.

Example fix

// before
ActiveResult result = ActiveResult.inactive("bean disabled", activeResult);

// after
ActiveResult result = ActiveResult.inactive("bean disabled",
        ActiveResult.inactive("upstream dependency disabled", null));

if (cause != null && cause.isActive()) {
    cause = null; // or rebuild as inactive before calling ActiveResult.inactive(reason, cause)
}

static ActiveResult asInactiveCause(ActiveResult r) {
    return (r != null && !r.isActive()) ? r : null;
}

try {
    return ActiveResult.inactive(reason, cause);
} catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
    return ActiveResult.inactive(reason, null);
}

When it happens

Trigger: Programmatically building an inactive ActiveResult (typically in custom synthetic bean/invoker handling) and passing an ActiveResult that was constructed with value=true (an 'active' result) as the cause argument.

Common situations: Chaining results from multiple activation checks and passing the wrong variable; caching a shared ActiveResult whose flag flipped; hand-rolling an ActiveResult via the private constructor path or a public factory misuse.

Related errors

• Creation logic not implemented
• Quarkus does not support CDI Full @Specializes annotation; t
• IllegalStateException wrapping ClassNotFoundException for ge
• Unable to derive the logger name at ${injectionPoint}
• Improper integration of '${LogFilterFactory.class.getName()}

AI-assisted analysis of quarkusio/quarkus@e1c734241f (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/e841f66a0d307818. Report an issue: GitHub.