`devInspectTransactionBlock` does not return readable MoveAbort error messages

[svssathvik7]

I'm using the Sui SDK to dry run a transaction with devInspectTransactionBlock, and while I do receive a MoveAbort error, the actual reason/message is not clearly available in the response. The error object is an instance of Error, and when I try to access or parse the underlying execution error (like MoveAbort code or function), I only get a generic message string.

Here’s a minimal code snippet demonstrating the issue:

try {
  const dryRunResult = await this.client.devInspectTransactionBlock({
    sender: this.htlcActorAddress,
    transactionBlock: tx
  });

  if (dryRunResult.error) {
    throw new Error(`Dry run failed ${dryRunResult.error}`);
  }
} catch (error: any) {
  const match = error.message?.match(/MoveAbort\(.*?\), (\d+)/);
  console.log("error code", match);
  throw new Error(`Failed to dry run initiate transaction`);
}

But when i log the error, I get:

Dry run failed ExecutionError: ExecutionError { inner: ExecutionErrorInner { kind: MoveAbort(...), code: 7 } }

However, I can't programmatically extract a readable message or explanation of what caused the abort. Logging JSON.stringify(error) gives {}, and the .message is just a string.

[AtulYadav25]

The logs:

Dry run failed ExecutionError: ExecutionError { inner: ExecutionErrorInner { kind: MoveAbort(...), code: 7 } }

indicate that the transaction failed with error code 7, Looking into the repo source code, this maps to:

export enum ExecutionError_ExecutionErrorKind {
	/**
	 * @generated from protobuf enum value: EXECUTION_ERROR_KIND_UNKNOWN = 0;
	 */
	EXECUTION_ERROR_KIND_UNKNOWN = 0,
        /**
	 * Circular object ownership.
	 *
	 * @generated from protobuf enum value: CIRCULAR_OBJECT_OWNERSHIP = 7;
	 */
	CIRCULAR_OBJECT_OWNERSHIP = 7,
}

File Path: packages\sui-grpc\src\proto\sui\rpc\v2beta2\execution_status.ts

This happens when an object ends up owning itself, either directly or indirectly, creating a cycle in the ownership graph.
Sui’s object model requires ownership to form a tree (acyclic hierarchy). Circular ownership is invalid because it would break execution.

[hayes-mysten]

Improving the error handling for RPC errors from executing/dryrunning/dev-inspecting transactions is definitely something that should be improved. I don't have a timeline on when we will be able to improve it, but its something we are aware is not optimal.

We are working on creating common API surfaces that work across different APIS (json RPC, GraphQL, grpc), hopefully some of this work can also standardize/improve patterns around how these errors are surfaced