Regression in 7.5.6: gRPC responses decode with undefined code/details/empty metadata when used via @grpc/grpc-js / google-gax

[ekansh-tdc]

After upgrading protobufjs from 7.5.5 → 7.5.6 (and its sub-deps @protobufjs/codegen 2.0.4→2.0.5, @protobufjs/inquire 1.1.0→1.1.1, @protobufjs/utf8 1.1.0→1.1.1), gRPC unary calls made through @google-cloud/run's JobsClient started failing with an Error whose code, details, and metadata fields are all undefined / empty. Pinning protobufjs back to 7.5.5 resolves the issue.

Environment
protobufjs: 7.5.6 (broken) / 7.5.5 (works)
@google-cloud/run: 3.2.0 (unchanged)
@grpc/grpc-js: unchanged across the regression
google-gax, google-auth-library, gaxios, gtoken: all unchanged
Node.js: (fill in your prod Node version)
Runtime: Google Cloud Run (Next.js 16 server)
Package manager: bun (lockfile-resolved)
The lockfile diff shows protobufjs and its sub-modules are the only packages in the gRPC request path that changed between the working and broken states.

Symptom
Calling JobsClient.runJob(...) produces:

Error: undefined undefined: undefined
at (.../grpc-js)
at onReceiveStatus (.../grpc-js)
at onReceiveStatus (.../grpc-js)
at onReceiveStatus (.../grpc-js)
... (gRPC client internals)
at makeUnaryRequest (.../grpc-js)
...
{
code: undefined,
details: undefined,
metadata: Metadata { internalRepr: Map(0) {}, opaqueData: Map(0) {}, options: {} }
}
The thrown ServiceError has no status code, no details, and an empty metadata map — i.e. the trailers/status frame is being decoded into empty/undefined fields rather than being parsed correctly. A normal RPC failure carries a numeric code (e.g. 7 PERMISSION_DENIED) and a details string; an auth/transport failure usually surfaces as a different bare Error. This signature is distinct from both.

Reproduction
Minimal repro:

import { JobsClient } from '@google-cloud/run'

const client = new JobsClient()
await client.runJob({
  name: client.jobPath('my-project', 'us-central1', 'my-job')
})

Run on Cloud Run with protobufjs@7.5.6 resolved in the tree → throws the all-undefined error.
Pin protobufjs@7.5.5 (e.g. via "resolutions" / "overrides") → call succeeds.

Suspected cause
@google-cloud/run → google-gax → @grpc/grpc-js all rely on protobufjs to decode the gRPC trailing status frame. The fact that the decoded status object has code: undefined, details: undefined and an empty metadata Map suggests the trailer decode is silently producing an empty/zero-initialized object rather than throwing. Possibly related to the @protobufjs/codegen 2.0.4→2.0.5 or @protobufjs/utf8 1.1.0→1.1.1 patch (the latter could affect string field decoding in the status message).

Workaround
Pin protobufjs to 7.5.5:

package.json

{
  "overrides": {
    "protobufjs": "7.5.5"
  }
}

[dcodeIO]

Could be a bad bundler/runtime interaction with the updated @protobufjs/inquire micromodule.

@protobufjs/inquire@1.1.1 changed the optional require path from hidden eval("require") to a direct dynamic require(moduleName):

// 1.1.0
var mod = eval("quire".replace(/^/,"re"))(moduleName);

// 1.1.1
if (typeof require !== "function") return null;
var mod = require(moduleName);

That module is used by protobufjs to discover optional Node modules like buffer, long, and fs, so it is a plausible place for bundlers to diverge.

Could you try pinning only that package back to 1.1.0 while keeping protobufjs@7.5.6?

{
  "overrides": {
    "@protobufjs/inquire": "1.1.0"
  }
}

If that fixes it, the regression is likely in the inquire publish/bundler interaction rather than protobuf decoding itself.

[submarines-and]

For us, overriding only @protobufjs/inquire as suggested solves the problem for now.

For yarn:

  "resolutions": {
    "@protobufjs/inquire": "1.1.0"
  }

[gavinsharp]

Confirming the same regression with @google-cloud/firestore@8.3.0 on Next.js 16 + Turbopack. The "@protobufjs/inquire": "1.1.0" override fixes it for us.

Mechanism: Turbopack rewrites the new require(moduleName) into a synchronous throw MODULE_NOT_FOUND IIFE, so every inquire(...) returns null at runtime — util.Buffer, util.fs, util.Long all unset. With util.Buffer = null, protobufjs encodes to Uint8Array instead of Buffer, which trips @grpc/grpc-js's compression filter (it calls message.copy(...), a Buffer-only method). The resulting TypeError propagates as cancelWithStatus(undefined, undefined), producing the all-undefined empty status.

The 1.1.0 eval-based form survives Turbopack untouched because eval(...) is opaque to static analysis, and at runtime direct eval finds Node's require via the scope chain.

Impact: for server-streaming RPCs under gax retry (e.g. Firestore query.get()), each attempt fails instantly and the gax + SDK retry layers stretch it to ~45 s per request — caused a 50-minute production outage for us when a Dependabot bump landed.

There's also a latent @grpc/grpc-js bug here (silent-failure path on non-status rejections); I'll file that separately.

[dcodeIO]

One option here is to backport #2237 to 7.x, which does require("fs") instead of require(moduleName) for the respective modules and obtains Buffer from the global object. Does that look good to ya'll?