remotion-dev/remotion · error · RemotionInvalidArgumentException

Invalid Lambda invocation parameters: {e}

Error message

Invalid Lambda invocation parameters: {e}

What it means

Raised when boto3 rejects the parameters to client.invoke() with a ParamValidationError (before the call). This means FunctionName or Payload has an invalid type/shape - not an AWS service error. ClientError (network/auth/service) is re-raised separately.

Source

Thrown at packages/lambda-python/remotion_lambda/remotionclient.py:487

    def _invoke_lambda(self, function_name: str, payload: str) -> Dict[str, Any]: # Added type hints
        """Invokes the Remotion Lambda function and parses its response."""
        client = self._create_lambda_client()
        result_raw: Optional[str] = None # Renamed to avoid confusion with `decoded_result`
        decoded_result: Dict[str, Any] = {}

        try:
            # boto3.client('lambda').invoke returns a dictionary.
            # 'Payload' is a StreamingBody object.
            response: Dict[str, Any] = client.invoke(FunctionName=function_name, Payload=payload)
            streaming_body: StreamingBody = response['Payload']
            result_raw = streaming_body.read().decode('utf-8')
            parsed_results = self._parse_stream(result_raw)
            decoded_result = parsed_results[-1] if parsed_results else {}
        except ClientError as e:
            raise e
        except ParamValidationError as e:
            raise RemotionInvalidArgumentException(
                f"Invalid Lambda invocation parameters: {e}"
            ) from e
        except json.JSONDecodeError as e:
            raise RemotionException(
                f"Failed to decode final Lambda response: {e}. Raw response: {result_raw}"
            ) from e
        except UnicodeDecodeError as e:
            raise RemotionException(
                f"Failed to decode Lambda response payload: {e}"
            ) from e

        if 'errorMessage' in decoded_result:
            raise RemotionRenderingOutputError(
                f"Lambda function returned an error: {decoded_result['errorMessage']}"
            )

        if 'type' in decoded_result and decoded_result['type'] == 'error':
            raise RemotionRenderingOutputError(

View on GitHub (pinned to 78fe4bb3fd)

Solutions

1. Inspect __cause__ for the exact ParamValidationError report.
2. Confirm function_name is a non-empty string matching a deployed Lambda.
3. Ensure the payload passed to render APIs serializes to a non-empty JSON string.
4. Recreate the client with valid region/Session so the internal Lambda client is correctly configured.

Example fix

// before
client = RemotionClient(region='us-east-1', serve_url=..., function_name='')
client.render_media(...)

# after
client = RemotionClient(
    region='us-east-1',
    serve_url=serve_url,
    function_name='remotion-render-remotionlambda-...-us-east-1',
)
client.render_media(...)

def preflight_invoke(function_name: str, payload: str) -> None:
    if not (isinstance(function_name, str) and function_name.strip()):
        raise ValueError(f'invalid function_name: {function_name!r}')
    if not isinstance(payload, (str, bytes)):
        raise ValueError(f'invalid payload type: {type(payload).__name__}')

def is_invokable(function_name, payload) -> bool:\n    return (isinstance(function_name, str) and bool(function_name.strip())\n            and isinstance(payload, (str, bytes)))

try:\n    client.render_media(...)\nexcept RemotionInvalidArgumentException as e:\n    log.error('invoke param error: %s', e.__cause__)\n    raise

When it happens

Trigger: Calling _invoke_lambda with a non-string function_name, an empty function name, a Payload that is not bytes/str/file-like, or an internal Lambda client that was constructed with bad parameters.

Common situations: function_name resolved to None because the constructor validation was bypassed; payload pre-serialization bug producing None; mocking the Lambda client with broken stubs; integration tests passing wrong types.

Related errors

• 'serve_url' parameter is required and cannot be empty or whi
• 'function_name' parameter is required and cannot be empty or
• Invalid S3 client parameters for get_bucket_location: {e}
• Invalid S3 client parameters for create_bucket: {e}
• Invalid S3 client parameters for put_object: {e}

AI-assisted analysis of remotion-dev/remotion@78fe4bb3fd (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/87de0c56ecb81ec5. Report an issue: GitHub.