Content Type Definition is invalid for ${uid}'.\n${e.errors}

Error message

Content Type Definition is invalid for ${uid}'.\n${e.errors}

What it means

Thrown by createContentType() when `validateContentTypeDefinition(definition)` raises a yup ValidationError. This means the raw content-type definition object (schema + actions + lifecycles) failed structural validation — e.g. missing required schema.info fields, invalid attribute shapes, wrong kind. The yup error list is appended so the developer sees every violated constraint.

Source

Thrown at packages/core/core/src/domain/content-type/index.ts:27

  actions: Record<string, unknown>;
  lifecycles: Record<string, unknown>;
};

const {
  CREATED_AT_ATTRIBUTE,
  UPDATED_AT_ATTRIBUTE,
  PUBLISHED_AT_ATTRIBUTE,
  FIRST_PUBLISHED_AT_ATTRIBUTE,
  CREATED_BY_ATTRIBUTE,
  UPDATED_BY_ATTRIBUTE,
} = contentTypesUtils.constants;

const createContentType = (uid: string, definition: ContentTypeDefinition) => {
  try {
    validateContentTypeDefinition(definition);
  } catch (e) {
    if (e instanceof yup.ValidationError) {
      throw new Error(`Content Type Definition is invalid for ${uid}'.\n${e.errors}`);
    }

    throw e;
  }

  const { schema, actions, lifecycles } = cloneDeep(definition);

  // general info
  Object.assign(schema, {
    uid,
    modelType: 'contentType',
    kind: schema.kind || 'collectionType',
    __schema__: pickSchema(definition.schema),
    modelName: definition.schema.info.singularName,
    actions,
    lifecycles,
  });

View on GitHub (pinned to 4a4101264d)

Solutions

Read the appended yup `e.errors` list — each line names the failing field and constraint; fix each in schema.json.
Ensure schema.info contains at least singularName and pluralName in kebab-case, and that `kind` is 'collectionType' or 'singleType'.
Validate attribute definitions against the Strapi attribute schema (use the Content-Type Builder UI to regenerate).
After a Strapi version bump, re-run the content type through the builder or migration tooling.

Example fix

// before (schema.json)
{
  "info": { "name": "Article" }, // missing singular/plural names
  "attributes": { "title": { "type": "strin" } }
}

// after
{
  "info": { "singularName": "article", "pluralName": "articles", "displayName": "Article" },
  "attributes": { "title": { "type": "string" } }
}

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

import { validateContentTypeDefinition } from '@strapi/utils';
try { validateContentTypeDefinition(definition); }
catch (e) { console.error('Content type invalid:', e.errors); throw e; }

Type guard

const hasRequiredInfo = (d: any): boolean =>
  d?.schema?.info?.singularName && d?.schema?.info?.pluralName && d?.schema?.attributes;

Try / catch

try { createContentType(uid, definition); }
catch (e) {
  if (e instanceof Error && /Content Type Definition is invalid/.test(e.message)) {
    // e.message contains the yup error list; surface to content-type author
  } else throw e;
}

Prevention

Always include schema.info.singularName and pluralName in kebab-case.
Validate definitions with validateContentTypeDefinition in unit tests.
Generate content types with the builder to keep schema shapes valid.

When it happens

Trigger: A content type is registered (via a plugin, component, or API) whose definition fails validateContentTypeDefinition: missing schema.info.singularName, unknown attribute configuration, wrong `kind` value, or malformed options. createContentType catches the yup ValidationError and rethrows this aggregated Error.

Common situations: Hand-writing schema.json and omitting required info fields (singularName/pluralName); using a custom-field or attribute option unsupported in the current Strapi version; plugin providing a content type with an outdated schema shape after an upgrade; content-type-builder-generated file manually corrupted.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of strapi/strapi@4a4101264d (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d8a80231625630c2. Report an issue: GitHub.