v2rayA/v2rayA · error

outbound group is required

Error message

outbound group is required

What it means

A custom inbound must be bound to an outbound group; ci.Outbound names which group (e.g. "proxy" or "direct"-style group) the inbound traffic is fed into. PostCustomInbound rejects an empty Outbound field.

Source

Thrown at service/server/controller/customInbound.go:44

	if ci.Protocol != "socks" && ci.Protocol != "http" {
		common.ResponseError(ctx, logError(fmt.Errorf("protocol must be socks or http")))
		return
	}
	if ci.Port <= 0 || ci.Port > 65535 {
		common.ResponseError(ctx, logError(fmt.Errorf("invalid port")))
		return
	}
	if ci.Tag == "" {
		common.ResponseError(ctx, logError(fmt.Errorf("tag is required")))
		return
	}
	if net.ParseIP("0.0.0.0:"+fmt.Sprint(ci.Port)) == nil {
		// basic port check already done above
	}

	// Validate outbound binding
	if ci.Outbound == "" {
		common.ResponseError(ctx, logError(fmt.Errorf("outbound group is required")))
		return
	}
	if ci.OutboundType != "direct" && ci.OutboundType != "routingA" {
		common.ResponseError(ctx, logError(fmt.Errorf("outboundType must be 'direct' or 'routingA'")))
		return
	}

	// Verify the outbound group exists
	outbounds := configure.GetOutbounds()
	outboundExists := false
	for _, ob := range outbounds {
		if ob == ci.Outbound {
			outboundExists = true
			break
		}
	}
	if !outboundExists {
		common.ResponseError(ctx, logError(fmt.Errorf("outbound group '%s' does not exist", ci.Outbound)))

View on GitHub (pinned to 71e5442fc5)

Solutions

1. Set outbound to an existing outbound group name (commonly "proxy")
2. Update client payloads to always include the outbound field
3. Check configure.GetOutbounds() (GET outbounds) for valid group names before posting

Example fix

// before
{"protocol":"socks","port":1080,"tag":"in1","outbound":"","outboundType":"direct"}
// after
{"protocol":"socks","port":1080,"tag":"in1","outbound":"proxy","outboundType":"direct"}

if ci.Outbound == "" { return errors.New("outbound group is required") }

func hasOutbound(ci CustomInbound) bool { return ci.Outbound != "" }

if err := postCustomInbound(ci); strings.Contains(err.Error(), "outbound group is required") { ci.Outbound = "proxy"; retry }

When it happens

Trigger: POST /custom-inbound with ci.Outbound == "" — the outbound field is omitted or explicitly empty.

Common situations: Clients unaware the outbound binding is mandatory; copying payloads from older API versions where the outbound defaulted implicitly.

Understand the failure class

Background: "missing required argument" and "the following required arguments were not provided": what required-argument errors mean and how to fix them — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

• protocol must be socks or http
• invalid port
• tag is required
• outboundType must be 'direct' or 'routingA'
• routingA rules are required when outboundType is 'routingA'

AI-assisted analysis of v2rayA/v2rayA@71e5442fc5 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/f6f6bd80fde9206a. Report an issue: GitHub.