Happy Server - Standalone Docker setup fails: PGlite can't handle Uint8Array for Prisma Bytes column in machinesRoutes.ts

[gaius-codius]

Bug

The standalone Docker setup (using PGlite) fails immediately when the daemon tries to register a machine. POST /v1/machines returns 500 on every attempt.

Error

PrismaClientKnownRequestError: P2023
Invalid prisma.machine.findFirst() invocation:

Inconsistent column data: Conversion failed: expected a string or an array
in column 'dataEncryptionKey', found {"0":0,"1":135,"2":49,...}

Cause

In packages/happy-server/sources/app/api/routes/machinesRoutes.ts line 62:

dataEncryptionKey: dataEncryptionKey ? new Uint8Array(Buffer.from(dataEncryptionKey, 'base64')) : undefined,

Uint8Array gets serialized as a JSON object ({"0":0,"1":135,...}) instead of binary data. PGlite's Prisma adapter (pglite-prisma-adapter) doesn't handle Uint8Array for Bytes
columns.

Fix

Replace new Uint8Array(Buffer.from(...)) with just Buffer.from(...):

dataEncryptionKey: dataEncryptionKey ? Buffer.from(dataEncryptionKey, 'base64') : undefined,

Workaround

Use an external PostgreSQL instead of PGlite:

1. Run a Postgres container
2. Push the schema: npx prisma db push --schema=packages/happy-server/prisma/schema.prisma
3. Start the server with DATABASE_URL=postgresql://... and PGLITE_DIR= (empty, to override the Dockerfile default)

Note: PGLITE_DIR is baked into the Dockerfile as ENV PGLITE_DIR=/data/pglite. db.ts checks PGLITE_DIR before DATABASE_URL, so you must explicitly unset it or the server will still
use PGlite even with DATABASE_URL set.

Environment

• Happy CLI: 0.13.0
• Platform: Linux x64
• Node.js: v22.16.0
• Docker image: built from main branch per README instructions

[jeffhollan]

I hit this too

[f-liva]

Same failure here on happy-server-self-host@1.1.11 (pglite 0.3.16, adapter 0.7.2, Prisma 6.19.2), and I think this is a duplicate of #686 — but with one correction worth recording, because the fix proposed here doesn't address the cause.

The write side is fine. I patched only the read path in pglite-prisma-adapter and the data round-trips correctly, which wouldn't be possible if new Uint8Array(Buffer.from(...)) in machinesRoutes.ts were corrupting the stored value. The defect is in the adapter's convertBytes, which returns a Uint8Array where the surrounding doc comment explicitly requires a JSON-encodable value; it reaches the Prisma engine as {"0":..,"1":..} and raises P2023 on read:

 function convertBytes(serializedBytes) {
-	return parsePgBytes(serializedBytes);
+	return Array.from(parsePgBytes(serializedBytes));
 }

After that one line, GET /v1/sessions and GET /v1/machines return 200, sessions appear in the mobile app, and the returned dataEncryptionKey values are intact (105 bytes, uniform, high entropy, correct 0x00 version prefix).

Details, probe output showing that PGlite hands the custom parser a hex string rather than a Uint8Array when the adapter's parsers option is installed, and before/after verification: #686.

The external-Postgres workaround in the original post is still the right escape hatch if you'd rather not patch a transitive dependency.