theonedev/onedev · warning · ExplicitException

Description too long

Error message

Description too long

What it means

OneDev throws this ExplicitException when a user tries to save a pull request description longer than PullRequest.MAX_DESCRIPTION_LEN characters. The check runs inside changeDescription before persisting, because the description column has a hard length limit. It is a deliberate validation guard, not a bug.

Source

Thrown at server-core/src/main/java/io/onedev/server/service/impl/DefaultPullRequestChangeService.java:125

			
			PullRequestChange change = new PullRequestChange();
			change.setDate(new Date());
			change.setRequest(request);
			change.setData(new PullRequestTitleChangeData(prevTitle, title));
			change.setUser(user);
			create(change, null);
			
			dao.persist(request);
		}
	}

	@Transactional
	@Override
	public void changeDescription(User user, PullRequest request, @Nullable String description) {
		String prevDescription = request.getDescription();
		if (!Objects.equals(description, prevDescription)) {
			if (description != null && description.length() > PullRequest.MAX_DESCRIPTION_LEN)
				throw new ExplicitException("Description too long");
			request.setDescription(description);
			request.setDescriptionRevisionCount(request.getDescriptionRevisionCount() + 1);
			referenceChangeService.addReferenceChange(user, request, description);

			PullRequestChange change = new PullRequestChange();
			change.setRequest(request);
			change.setUser(user);
			change.setData(new PullRequestDescriptionChangeData(prevDescription, request.getDescription()));
			create(change, null);
			dao.persist(request);

			var revision = new PullRequestDescriptionRevision();
			revision.setRequest(request);
			revision.setUser(user);
			revision.setOldContent(prevDescription);
			revision.setNewContent(description);
			dao.persist(revision);
		}

View on GitHub (pinned to d44925c47c)

Solutions

1. Shorten the description to at most PullRequest.MAX_DESCRIPTION_LEN characters before calling changeDescription
2. Truncate or abbreviate the text programmatically (e.g. StringUtils.abbreviate(description, PullRequest.MAX_DESCRIPTION_LEN))
3. If the full content matters, link to an external document or attach it as a file/comment instead of the description

Example fix

// before
prService.changeDescription(user, request, hugeGeneratedNotes); // throws "Description too long"
// after
String desc = StringUtils.abbreviate(hugeGeneratedNotes, PullRequest.MAX_DESCRIPTION_LEN);
prService.changeDescription(user, request, desc);

if (description != null && description.length() > PullRequest.MAX_DESCRIPTION_LEN)
    throw new IllegalArgumentException("description exceeds " + PullRequest.MAX_DESCRIPTION_LEN + " chars");

boolean isAcceptableDescription(String d) {
    return d == null || d.length() <= PullRequest.MAX_DESCRIPTION_LEN;
}

try {
    changeService.changeDescription(user, request, description);
} catch (ExplicitException e) {
    // show "Description too long" to the user / truncate and retry
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling DefaultPullRequestChangeService.changeDescription(user, request, description) (directly or via the REST/UI edit-description endpoint) with a non-null description string whose length() exceeds PullRequest.MAX_DESCRIPTION_LEN.

Common situations: Pasting large markdown documents, generated release notes, or long logs into the PR description; API scripts that programmatically set descriptions from unbounded text.

Understand the failure class

Background: "value must be between 0 and 1" / "out of range" / "must not be negative" errors: fixing range-validation failures across open-source libraries — this error's family across 42 libraries.

Related errors

• Pull request submitter cannot be reviewer
• Error validating param auto merge commit message:
• This pull request is not eligible for auto-merge, as it can
• Error validating auto merge commit message:
• Title is required

AI-assisted analysis of theonedev/onedev@d44925c47c (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/3f0fb9b86a12c24e. Report an issue: GitHub.