unionlabs/union · error

error while incrementing period: %w

Error message

error while incrementing period: %w

What it means

During `uniond export` (genesis export for zero height), the app re-initializes every delegation by replaying the distribution module's BeforeDelegationCreated hook to rebuild validator periods — logic mirrored from cosmos-sdk's simapp export. The inline comment states the stock hook always returns nil, so this panic is a defensive assertion that only fires if the DistrKeeper's hooks start returning errors (fork or SDK drift).

Source

Thrown at uniond/app/export.go:153

		}

		if err := app.DistrKeeper.Hooks().AfterValidatorCreated(ctx, valBz); err != nil {
			panic(err)
		}
		return false
	})

	// reinitialize all delegations
	for _, del := range dels {
		valAddr, err := sdk.ValAddressFromBech32(del.ValidatorAddress)
		if err != nil {
			panic(err)
		}
		delAddr := sdk.MustAccAddressFromBech32(del.DelegatorAddress)

		if err := app.DistrKeeper.Hooks().BeforeDelegationCreated(ctx, delAddr, valAddr); err != nil {
			// never called as BeforeDelegationCreated always returns nil
			panic(fmt.Errorf("error while incrementing period: %w", err))
		}

		if err := app.DistrKeeper.Hooks().AfterDelegationModified(ctx, delAddr, valAddr); err != nil {
			// never called as AfterDelegationModified always returns nil
			panic(fmt.Errorf("error while creating a new delegation period record: %w", err))
		}
	}

	// reset context height
	ctx = ctx.WithBlockHeight(height)

	/* Handle staking state. */

	// iterate through redelegations, reset creation height
	err = app.StakingKeeper.IterateRedelegations(ctx, func(_ int64, red stakingtypes.Redelegation) (stop bool) {
		for i := range red.Entries {
			red.Entries[i].CreationHeight = 0
		}

View on GitHub (pinned to 031785bb6d)

Solutions

1. Confirm you are running the stock uniond build — on stock builds this branch is unreachable
2. Inspect app.DistrKeeper.Hooks() (and any wrapping hook middleware) for overrides that can return errors
3. Align the cosmos-sdk version with the one union vendors, since hook signatures/behavior changed across SDK releases
4. If you maintain a fork whose hooks can fail, make them nil-safe for the export path or handle the error instead of panicking

# Exercise the export path on a disposable copy before relying on it
uniond export --home /backup/union-snapshot --for-zero-height > /dev/null && echo export-ok

When it happens

Trigger: Running uniond export on a build where app.DistrKeeper.Hooks().BeforeDelegationCreated can return a non-nil error: a custom distribution keeper override adding validation, or a cosmos-sdk version upgrade that changes hook semantics.

Common situations: Forks that add error paths to distribution hooks; vendored cosmos-sdk version bumped without re-auditing export assumptions; test harnesses that inject failing hooks.

Related errors

• error while creating a new delegation period record: %w
• expected validator, not found
• failed to read upgrade info from disk %s
• newValAddr is not of type bytes.HexBytes
• newValPubKey is not of type crypto.PubKey

AI-assisted analysis of unionlabs/union@031785bb6d (2026-08-16). Data as JSON: /api/errors/e3f91d8c58939ffe. Report an issue: GitHub.