theonedev/onedev · error · ValidationException

Invalid reference number

Error message

Invalid reference number: <numberString>

What it means

EntityReference.parseReferenceNumber converts the text after '#' (or '-' in KEY-number form) into a Long entity number. If the segment is not a plain integer, a ValidationException with 'Invalid reference number' is thrown. This means the reference string was recognized structurally but its number part is malformed.

Solutions

1. Correct the reference string so the number after '#' or '-' is a plain integer (e.g. "#123", "PROJ-456").
2. Validate/strip the number portion before calling EntityReference.of.
3. If input comes from users, parse defensively and show a validation message.
4. If the whole string is just a bare number, ensure no stray characters are appended.

Example fix

// before
EntityReference.of("issue", "#12a", project);
// after
EntityReference.of("issue", "#12", project);

if (!referenceString.matches("(?:[A-Za-z0-9_/.-]+)?[#-]\\d+"))
    throw new IllegalArgumentException("Malformed reference: " + referenceString);

boolean isWellFormedReference(String s) {
    int i = s.indexOf('#');
    if (i == -1) i = s.indexOf('-');
    if (i == -1 || i == s.length() - 1) return false;
    return s.substring(i + 1).chars().allMatch(Character::isDigit);
}

try {
    EntityReference ref = EntityReference.of("issue", input, project);
} catch (ValidationException e) {
    // show e.getMessage() to the user as an input validation error
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling EntityReference.of(type, "#abc") or "PRJ-a1b2", or parsing strings like "#12x34" / "# 5" where the substring after the separator is not parseable by Long.valueOf.

Common situations: Typos in issue/PR references; users pasting text with trailing characters; programmatic string concatenation producing e.g. "#" + null; references copied from URLs with extra suffixes.

Understand the failure class

Background: "invalid id" errors: invalid identifier format — why libraries reject IDs before lookup, and how to fix them — this error's family across 37 libraries.

Related errors

• Invalid entity reference
• Field not found
• Invalid boolean
• Invalid decimal
• Invalid number

AI-assisted analysis of theonedev/onedev@d44925c47c (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/6d53b4d73efb3422. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at server-core/src/main/java/io/onedev/server/entityreference/EntityReference.java:59

		return number;
	}

	public static EntityReference of(String type, Project project, Long number) {
		if (type.length() == 0 || type.equalsIgnoreCase(IssueReference.TYPE))
			return new IssueReference(project, number);
		else if (type.equalsIgnoreCase(BuildReference.TYPE))
			return new BuildReference(project, number);
		else if (type.equalsIgnoreCase(WorkspaceReference.TYPE))
			return new WorkspaceReference(project, number);
		else
			return new PullRequestReference(project, number);
	}

	private static Long parseReferenceNumber(String numberString) {
		try {
			return Long.valueOf(numberString);
		} catch (NumberFormatException e) {
			throw new ValidationException("Invalid reference number: " + numberString);
		}
	}

	public static EntityReference of(String type, String referenceString, @Nullable Project currentProject) {
		var projectService = OneDev.getInstance(ProjectService.class);
		var index = referenceString.indexOf('#');
		if (index != -1) {
			var projectPath = referenceString.substring(0, index);
			var number = parseReferenceNumber(referenceString.substring(index + 1));
			if (projectPath.length() == 0) {
				if (currentProject != null)
					return EntityReference.of(type, currentProject, number);
				else
					throw new ValidationException("Reference project not specified: " + referenceString);
			} else {
				var project = projectService.findByPath(projectPath);
				if (project != null)
					return EntityReference.of(type, project, number);

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