FAILED_PRECONDITION
GCP FAILED_PRECONDITION means the operation cannot run because required resource or workflow state is not currently satisfied.
Last reviewed: February 9, 2026|Editorial standard: source-backed technical guidance
What Does Failed Precondition Mean?
The request is syntactically valid, but execution is blocked until explicit prerequisite state is repaired, so blind retries will keep failing.
Common Causes
- -Target resource lifecycle phase does not permit the requested mutation yet.
- -Required parent or dependency operation has not completed successfully.
- -Configuration flags, locks, or policy prerequisites are missing or inconsistent.
- -Client retries immediately without repairing the state condition that triggered the error.
How to Fix Failed Precondition
- 1Read error details to identify the exact missing or invalid prerequisite state.
- 2Repair the blocking condition first (resource phase, dependency, lock, or config).
- 3Re-run the operation only after verifying prerequisite state transitioned to valid.
- 4Add orchestration guards so dependent steps cannot execute before prerequisites succeed.
Step-by-Step Diagnosis for Failed Precondition
- 1Capture error details and identify whether the blocker is lifecycle state, dependency order, or configuration gate.
- 2Inspect current resource status and prerequisite chain for incomplete or failed upstream steps.
- 3Differentiate state-blocking failures from concurrency (
ABORTED) and transient transport (UNAVAILABLE) failures. - 4Repair the explicit precondition and rerun the same request path with unchanged input.
Precondition State and Dependency Validation
- -Audit dependency readiness before mutation (example: child update executes before parent enablement reaches ready state).
- -Inspect lock and policy gates tied to operation state (example: delete blocked while retention lock remains active).
Retry Decision Classification
- -Classify retry strategy using canonical guidance (example: do not blindly retry FAILED_PRECONDITION; repair state first).
- -Escalate to higher-level transaction retry only when error is true concurrency conflict (
ABORTED) rather than state invalidity.
How to Verify the Fix
- -Re-execute the blocked operation and confirm FAILED_PRECONDITION is cleared.
- -Validate prerequisite resources now report the expected ready/compatible state.
- -Confirm dependent workflow stages complete without repeating state-gate failures.
How to Prevent Recurrence
- -Encode prerequisite checks as explicit workflow gates before mutating API calls.
- -Model dependency DAGs in deployment automation to prevent out-of-order execution.
- -Alert on repeated FAILED_PRECONDITION events as indicators of orchestration drift.
Pro Tip
- -persist machine-readable precondition diagnostics from failures and convert them into preflight policies for future runs.
Decision Support
Compare Guide
409 Conflict vs 412 Precondition Failed: When to Use Each
Choose 412 when If-Match or If-Unmodified-Since checks fail; choose 409 for state conflicts without failed precondition headers during concurrent updates.
Playbook
Conflict and Concurrency Playbook (409 / 412 / OptimisticLock)
Use this playbook to separate true write conflicts from stale precondition failures, then apply safe re-fetch, optimistic-lock, and retry choices.
Official References
Provider Context
This guidance is specific to GCP services. Always validate implementation details against official provider documentation before deploying to production.