temporalio/temporal · error

%s is not a valid timestamp: %w

Error message

%s is not a valid timestamp: %w

What it means

Generic helper validateTimestamp wraps timestamppb.Timestamp.CheckValid() failures with the field name (e.g. 'start time', 'end time'). A timestamp fails CheckValid when it is nil-valued fields, out-of-range seconds/nanos, or otherwise not a valid RFC3339-representable time.

Source

Thrown at service/frontend/workflow_handler.go:7038

			if err := d.CheckValid(); err != nil {
				return fmt.Errorf("phase is not a valid duration: %w", err)
			}
		}
	}
	return nil
}

func validateScheduleTimestamps(spec *schedulepb.ScheduleSpec) error {
	if err := validateTimestamp(spec.GetStartTime(), "start time"); err != nil {
		return err
	}
	return validateTimestamp(spec.GetEndTime(), "end time")
}

func validateTimestamp(value *timestamppb.Timestamp, field string) error {
	if value != nil {
		if err := value.CheckValid(); err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("%s is not a valid timestamp: %w", field, err)
		}
	}
	return nil
}

func validateScheduleRemainingActions(schedule *schedulepb.Schedule) error {
	if schedule.GetState().GetRemainingActions() < 0 {
		return errors.New("remaining actions cannot be negative")
	}
	return nil
}

func validateScheduleOverlapPolicy(policy enumspb.ScheduleOverlapPolicy, field string) error {
	if _, ok := enumspb.ScheduleOverlapPolicy_name[int32(policy)]; !ok {
		return fmt.Errorf("%s has unsupported overlap policy %v", field, policy)
	}
	return nil
}

View on GitHub (pinned to bde624efd1)

Solutions

1. Use timestamppb.New(t) from a valid time.Time
2. Check ts.CheckValid() or timestamppb.Timestamp IsValid before the call
3. Verify epoch conversion math (seconds vs milliseconds) when hand-building timestamps

Example fix

// before
ts := &timestamppb.Timestamp{Seconds: 99999999999999999999}
// after
ts := timestamppb.New(time.Now().UTC().Add(24 * time.Hour))

if ts != nil && ts.CheckValid() != nil { return fmt.Errorf("invalid timestamp for %s", field) }

func validTimestamp(ts *timestamppb.Timestamp) bool { return ts == nil || ts.IsValid() }

if err := validateTimestamp(spec.GetEndTime(), "end time"); err != nil { return serviceerror.NewInvalidArgument(err.Error()) }

When it happens

Trigger: Schedule API calls passing a ScheduleSpec with StartTime/EndTime (or other validated timestamps) built from malformed or out-of-range protobuf Timestamp values.

Common situations: Converting from milliseconds-since-epoch incorrectly; overflow when converting int64 seconds; passing a zero timestamp from an uninitialized struct.

Related errors

• interval is not a valid duration: %w
• phase is not a valid duration: %w
• %s has unsupported overlap policy %v
• remaining actions cannot be negative
• batchParams is nil

AI-assisted analysis of temporalio/temporal@bde624efd1 (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/f40540c5daa5285d. Report an issue: GitHub.