[jwrosewell]

Problem

James Rosewell's rule for the 11 November 2026 release is "The point of the release is consistency." When no Sequence Element has produced a sequence number, the JSON Builder fails with an error, and each language that has the error gave it its own wording. Go said "the JSON Builder Element found no sequence number, so a Sequence Element needs to be placed before it in the Pipeline" (pipeline/elements/jsonbuilder/jsonbuilder.go lines 109 to 111 on rc).

What the specification says

specifications#139, merged into rc as d72eb074, gives the exact text. json-builder.md at d72eb074, lines 120 to 142:

If no Sequence Element has produced a sequence number when the Element runs, the Element MUST fail with an error and MUST NOT set its JSON value. The error MUST carry the message below, which is the text every implementation gives, so that the message reads the same in every language and makes life easier for 51Degrees support.

The JSON Builder needs a sequence number. Place a Sequence Element before the JSON Builder in the Pipeline.

PHP names this Element the JSON Bundler, so PHP gives the same message with JSON Bundler in place of JSON Builder, reading "The JSON Bundler needs a sequence number. Place a Sequence Element before the JSON Bundler in the Pipeline." Nothing else differs. Where an implementation wraps the error in another, such as a Pipeline Configuration Exception that carries the first error as its cause, the error the caller reads carries the message.

The message is the whole text of the error. An implementation MUST NOT add anything to it, such as a link to documentation. A prefix that a language's error type writes in front of every error of that type when the error is shown, such as the type's name, is not part of the message.

What changed

Two commits, the test first (13639c6) and then the message (2787857). Nothing else changes.

• pipeline/elements/jsonbuilder/jsonbuilder.go lines 109 to 111, Process returns a *core.ConfigurationError whose Message is now the text. Its Error() puts the "pipeline configuration error: " prefix that every ConfigurationError gives in front of the message (pipeline/core/errors.go lines 45 to 50), so the error the caller reads carries the text, after that prefix. Go usually writes error strings in lower case with no full stop, and this one keeps the specification's capitals and full stops because the text has to be the same in every language. The repository runs no linter that checks this.

• TestJSONBuilderSequenceNumber in pipeline/elements/jsonbuilder/sequence_test.go, the constant at lines 36 to 39 and the checks at lines 121 to 128 now asserts, in every case that must fail and whether the Pipeline returns the error or only records it, that the ConfigurationError's Message equals the exact text and that Error() ends with it. Before, it checked only that "Sequence Element" appeared, which the old wording also passed.

Tests and builds

• Red, the test commit 13639c6 with the message change left out, on a temporary branch, https://github.com/51Degrees/51degrees-go/actions/runs/43020847533. Each case that must fail reports "the error message is ... want ..." with the old message against the text.
• Full build on the head 2787857, https://github.com/51Degrees/51degrees-go/actions/runs/43022856728, GREEN. Every Setting 'PullRequestSha' line in its job logs (4 of them) reads 2787857. macOS was left out of this draft's full build under the 9 November decision. The rc head is built with macOS before it merges into main.

What remains

specifications#139, which states the text, has merged into rc as d72eb074. The same text goes into the other languages in 51degrees-dotnet#135, 51degrees-java#104, 51degrees-node#74, 51degrees-python#101, 51degrees-php#69 and 51degrees-rust#383. Nothing else is outstanding here.