risingwavelabs/risingwave · error

Invalid actor traces format

Error message

Invalid actor traces format

What it means

The `risectl` await-tree dump command validates the --actor-traces-format flag and only accepts "text" or "json" (omitting it defaults to json). Any other string causes this anyhow error, aborting before contacting the meta node.

Solutions

1. Pass exactly "text" or "json" as the format value.
2. Omit the flag entirely to use the default (json).
3. Check script variables feeding the flag for empty/misspelled values.

Example fix

// before
risectl await-tree dump --actor-traces-format pretty
// after
risectl await-tree dump --actor-traces-format text

fn validate_traces_format(v: &Option<String>) -> bool {
    matches!(v.as_deref(), None | Some("text") | Some("json"))
}

let res = risectl::cmd_impl::await_tree::dump(&ctx, fmt).await;
if let Err(e) = res {
    eprintln!("await-tree dump failed: {e}; use --actor-traces-format text|json");
}

When it happens

Trigger: Running `risectl await-tree dump --actor-traces-format <value>` with a value other than "text" or "json", e.g. "Text", "pretty", "txt" or an empty-but-set string.

Common situations: Typo or wrong casing in the CLI flag value; copying a format name from another tool; scripts passing a variable that is empty or malformed.

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

• exactly one of job_id or fragment_id must be provided
• cannot decode user key
• error parsing with props json
• missing 'connector' in with clause
• No offsets provided to inject

AI-assisted analysis of risingwavelabs/risingwave@6469eb736d (2026-09-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/0b03636998ab3f48. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at src/ctl/src/cmd_impl/await_tree.rs:30

// See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
// limitations under the License.

use risingwave_common::util::StackTraceResponseExt;
use risingwave_pb::common::WorkerType;
use risingwave_pb::id::WorkerId;
use risingwave_pb::monitor_service::StackTraceRequest;
use risingwave_pb::monitor_service::stack_trace_request::ActorTracesFormat;
use risingwave_rpc_client::MonitorClientPool;
use rw_diagnose_tools::await_tree::AnalyzeSummary;
use thiserror_ext::AsReport as _;

use crate::CtlContext;

pub async fn dump(context: &CtlContext, actor_traces_format: Option<String>) -> anyhow::Result<()> {
    let actor_traces_format = match actor_traces_format.as_deref() {
        Some("text") => ActorTracesFormat::Text,
        Some("json") | None => ActorTracesFormat::Json,
        _ => return Err(anyhow::anyhow!("Invalid actor traces format")),
    };

    // Query the meta node for the await tree of all nodes in the cluster.
    let meta_client = context.meta_client().await?;
    let all = meta_client
        .get_cluster_stack_trace(actor_traces_format)
        .await?;

    if all.actor_traces.is_empty()
        && all.rpc_traces.is_empty()
        && all.batch_traces.is_empty()
        && all.compaction_task_traces.is_empty()
        && all.inflight_barrier_traces.is_empty()
    {
        eprintln!("No actors are running, or `--async-stack-trace` not set?");
    }
    println!("{}", all.output());

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