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Serialization Incompatible With Timestamp

URI: https://docs.ankatech.co/errors/serialization-incompatible-with-timestamp
HTTP Status: 400 Bad Request

When you see this

The request explicitly asked for serialization = COMPACT while the tenant's time-stamping policy had definitively decided to stamp the signature. Compact serialization cannot carry an RFC 3161 qualified timestamp: the standards place the timestamp in the JWS Unprotected Header, which only the JWS JSON Serialization has. Rather than silently override the requested serialization or silently drop a mandated stamp, the request is refused. The check runs before any signing work, so no private key is used and nothing is produced.

Common Causes

  • A signing request pinning serialization to COMPACT against a tenant whose time-stamping policy is REQUIRED and whose time-stamping connection is present.
  • A client that always sends COMPACT by default, on a deployment where time-stamping was subsequently made mandatory.

Response Example

{
  "type": "https://docs.ankatech.co/errors/serialization-incompatible-with-timestamp",
  "title": "Serialization Incompatible With Timestamp",
  "status": 400,
  "detail": "This deployment requires an RFC 3161 qualified timestamp on signatures, which can only be carried by the JWS JSON Serialization. Request JSON serialization or omit the serialization field to let the server choose the standards-correct representation.",
  "instance": "/api/v3/crypto/sign",
  "correlationId": "550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000",
  "timestamp": 1730000000,
  "extensions": {
    "errorCode": "SERIALIZATION_INCOMPATIBLE_WITH_TIMESTAMP"
  }
}

Content-Type: application/problem+json — the response follows RFC 9457 Problem Details.

How to Resolve

  1. Omit the serialization field and let the server choose the standards-correct representation. An omitted value is upgraded to JWS JSON when a stamp is required.
  2. Or request serialization = JSON explicitly.
  3. If compact output is a hard requirement for the consumer of the signature, the tenant's time-stamping policy is what has to change — a mandated stamp and compact serialization cannot both be satisfied.

For full schema definitions, examples, and interactive testing, see the Developer Hub Reference.