fix: match capture v1 rules for empty names, drop logs, retry identity and typed values by turnipdabeets · Pull Request #903 · PostHog/posthog-android

turnipdabeets · 2026-10-28T23:50:01Z

💡 Motivation and Context

Follow-ups on the capture v1 branch (#881) to match the fleet rules the other v1 SDKs follow:

Empty event names are dropped locally. capture(""), or a beforeSend that renames an event to "", is dropped before sending and logged once (debug). Capture drops these anyway; now they never leave the device. Only an exactly-empty name, same as iOS #989 and Flutter desktop fix(server): keep locally evaluated flags when one flag is inconclusive #681.
Drop logging is one count line per batch. No more debug line per dropped event (it named the event and uuid). The line now also counts the duplicate copies capture dropped (duplicates_dropped), matching iOS.
A retry keeps its request identity when other events are sent in between. Before, a send with a different set of events (for example the fatal-event path) replaced the pending identity, so the retried batch went out as attempt 1 with a new request id. Identities are now kept per endpoint and event set (capped at 16).
Typed per-call values win key by key. userProperties, userPropertiesSetOnce and groups are merged over a $set, $set_once or $groups map passed in the same call's properties, instead of being replaced by it.
A $groups map in properties adds to the groups set with group() instead of replacing them; typed groups still win per key. Matches iOS.
Migration guide and the 4.0 changeset updated for the above, plus a line that NaN and infinite numbers are dropped from the properties.

Not changed here: if capture asks to retry a uuid that was duplicated in the batch, the queue still keeps every copy of that uuid. The SDK never sends duplicate uuids itself, so this only happens after a beforeSend bug.

💚 How did you test it?

New unit tests for each change: they fail on the base branch and pass here.
./gradlew :posthog:test :posthog-android:testDebugUnitTest :posthog:apiCheck spotlessCheck pass.

📝 Checklist

All commits are signed (see Commit signing)
I reviewed the submitted code.
I added tests to verify the changes.
I updated the docs if needed.
No breaking change or entry added to the changelog.

If releasing new changes

Ran pnpm changeset to generate a changeset file (updated the existing 4.0 major changeset)

🤖 Agent context

Autonomy: Human-driven (agent-assisted)

Claude Code compared the v1 branch against the capture v1 requirements shared by the SDK team, then made these fixes.
iOS #989 applies the same typed-value and $groups merge rules, so both SDKs build these maps the same way.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

…ntity and typed values

posthog

PostHog Review · Standard · reviewed 0f90073: 1 Should fix.

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github-actions · 2026-10-29T00:02:28Z

posthog-android Compliance Report

Date: 2026-10-29T21:57:31.761683+00:00
Duration: 475800ms

✅ All Tests Passed!

232/232 tests passed

Capture_V1 Tests

✅ 105/105 tests passed

View Details

Test	Status	Duration
Endpoint And Method.Targets V1 Endpoint	✅	386ms
Endpoint And Method.Does Not Use Legacy Endpoints	✅	32ms
Required Headers.Has Authorization Bearer Header	✅	30ms
Required Headers.Has Content Type Json	✅	24ms
Required Headers.Has Posthog Sdk Info Format	✅	24ms
Required Headers.Has Posthog Attempt Header	✅	28ms
Required Headers.Has Posthog Request Id	✅	22ms
Required Headers.Has Posthog Request Timestamp	✅	25ms
Required Headers.Has User Agent	✅	23ms
Body Format.Body Has Created At And Batch	✅	27ms
Body Format.No Api Key In Body	✅	23ms
Body Format.No Sent At In Body	✅	21ms
Event Format.Event Has Required Root Fields	✅	21ms
Event Format.Event Uuid Is Valid	✅	20ms
Event Format.Event Timestamp Is Rfc3339	✅	20ms
Event Format.Non Utc Event Timestamp Is Converted To Utc	✅	22ms
Event Format.Distinct Id Is String	✅	19ms
Event Format.Distinct Id At Root Not Properties	✅	21ms
Event Format.Custom Properties Preserved	✅	22ms
Event Format.Set Properties Preserved	✅	23ms
Event Format.Set Once Properties Preserved	✅	24ms
Event Format.Groups Properties Preserved	✅	19ms
Event Format.Sdk Generates Uuid If Not Provided	✅	25ms
Event Format.Event Has Required Root Fields Batch	✅	30ms
Event Format.Event Uuid Is Valid Batch	✅	25ms
Event Format.Event Timestamp Is Rfc3339 Batch	✅	25ms
Event Format.Distinct Id Is String Batch	✅	26ms
Event Format.Distinct Id At Root Not Properties Batch	✅	27ms
Event Format.Custom Properties Preserved Batch	✅	27ms
Event Format.Set Properties Preserved Batch	✅	27ms
Event Format.Set Once Properties Preserved Batch	✅	25ms
Event Format.Groups Properties Preserved Batch	✅	39ms
Event Format.Sdk Generates Uuid If Not Provided Batch	✅	29ms
Batch Behavior.Multiple Events In Single Batch	✅	30ms
Batch Behavior.Batch Envelope Smoke	✅	32ms
Batch Behavior.Flush With No Events Sends Nothing	✅	18ms
Batch Behavior.Flush At Triggers Batch	✅	1020ms
Batch Behavior.Created At Reflects Batch Creation Time	✅	19ms
Deduplication.Generates Unique Uuids	✅	40ms
Deduplication.Different Events Same Content Different Uuids	✅	21ms
Deduplication.Preserves Uuid On Retry	✅	7015ms
Deduplication.Preserves Timestamp On Retry	✅	7017ms
Deduplication.Preserves Uuid And Timestamp On Batch Retry	✅	7024ms
Deduplication.No Duplicate Events In Batch	✅	28ms
Header Behavior On Retry.Attempt Header Starts At One	✅	15ms
Header Behavior On Retry.Attempt Header Increments On Retry	✅	12025ms
Header Behavior On Retry.Request Id Preserved On Retry	✅	7015ms
Header Behavior On Retry.Different Requests Have Different Request Ids	✅	2029ms
Header Behavior On Retry.Request Timestamp Changes On Retry	✅	7013ms
Response Format Validation.Success Response Has Uuid Keyed Results	✅	16ms
Response Format Validation.Success Response Has Ok For Each Event	✅	20ms
Response Format Validation.Success No Retry After When All Ok	✅	19ms
Response Format Validation.Success Retry After Present When Retry Events	✅	2010ms
Response Format Validation.Success No Retry After When Drop Only	✅	19ms
Response Format Validation.Response Echoes Request Id	✅	16ms
Retry Behavior.Retries On 408	✅	7015ms
Retry Behavior.Retries On 500	✅	7015ms
Retry Behavior.Retries On 503	✅	7019ms
Retry Behavior.Retries On 504	✅	7014ms
Retry Behavior.Retries On 404	✅	7014ms
Retry Behavior.Retries On 429	✅	7015ms
Retry Behavior.Retries On 502	✅	6012ms
Retry Behavior.Retryable Errors Have Retry After	✅	4016ms
Retry Behavior.Respects Retry After On Retryable Error	✅	10017ms
Retry Behavior.Does Not Retry On 400	✅	4017ms
Retry Behavior.Does Not Retry On 401	✅	4018ms
Retry Behavior.Does Not Retry On 402	✅	4020ms
Retry Behavior.Does Not Retry On 413	✅	4020ms
Retry Behavior.Does Not Retry On 415	✅	4021ms
Retry Behavior.Non Retryable Errors Have No Retry After	✅	4017ms
Retry Behavior.Implements Backoff	✅	14026ms
Partial Batch Handling.Handles 200 Full Success	✅	2017ms
Partial Batch Handling.Handles 200 With All Ok	✅	3024ms
Partial Batch Handling.Does Not Retry Dropped Events	✅	3022ms
Partial Batch Handling.Does Not Retry Warning Events	✅	3024ms
Partial Batch Handling.Prunes Ok Events On Partial Retry	✅	7017ms
Partial Batch Handling.Prunes Dropped Events On Partial Retry	✅	7015ms
Partial Batch Handling.Retries Only Retry Events From Partial	✅	7014ms
Partial Batch Handling.Partial Retry Preserves Uuids	✅	7015ms
Partial Batch Handling.Partial Retry Attempt Header Increments	✅	7016ms
Partial Batch Handling.Partial Retry Request Id Preserved	✅	7013ms
Partial Batch Handling.Respects Retry After On Partial	✅	7024ms
Partial Batch Handling.Unknown Result Treated As Terminal	✅	3029ms
Partial Batch Handling.Mixed Ok Drop Warning No Retry	✅	3032ms
Compression.Sends Gzip Content Encoding	✅	20ms
Compression.No Content Encoding When Disabled	✅	27ms
Compression.Compressed Body Is Decompressible	✅	25ms
Error Handling.Does Not Retry On Unknown 4Xx	✅	4032ms
Event Options.Cookieless Mode Override	✅	17ms
Event Options.Disable Skew Correction Override	✅	16ms
Event Options.Process Person Profile Override	✅	18ms
Event Options.Product Tour Id Override	✅	17ms
Event Options.Unset Options Omitted	✅	18ms
Event Options.Options Override In Batch	✅	29ms
Event Options.Unknown Option Passes Through	✅	21ms
Event Options.Option Value Is Not Converted	✅	21ms
Event Options.Lenient Bool Option Values Are Not Converted	✅	18ms
Event Options.Option Wins Over Legacy Property	✅	19ms
Event Options.Legacy Property Fills Unset Option	✅	19ms
Event Options.Null Option Falls Back To Legacy Property	✅	22ms
Property Layers.Caller Property Beats Registered Property	✅	28ms
Property Layers.Before Send Runs Last	✅	23ms
Fail Open.Empty Api Key Sends Nothing	✅	3016ms
Fail Open.Personal Api Key Sends Nothing	✅	3013ms
Geoip And Historical Migration.Historical Migration Absent By Default	✅	17ms

Capture_Ai_V1 Tests

✅ 110/110 tests passed

View Details

Test	Status	Duration
Endpoint And Method.Targets V1 Endpoint	✅	22ms
Endpoint And Method.Does Not Use Legacy Endpoints	✅	19ms
Endpoint And Method.Capture Does Not Reroute Ai Named Events	✅	18ms
Endpoint And Method.Capture Ai Does Not Reroute Non Ai Events	✅	19ms
Lane Isolation.Failing Ai Lane Does Not Delay Analytics	✅	7032ms
Required Headers.Has Authorization Bearer Header	✅	19ms
Required Headers.Has Content Type Json	✅	24ms
Required Headers.Has Posthog Sdk Info Format	✅	23ms
Required Headers.Has Posthog Attempt Header	✅	20ms
Required Headers.Has Posthog Request Id	✅	23ms
Required Headers.Has Posthog Request Timestamp	✅	21ms
Required Headers.Has User Agent	✅	18ms
Body Format.Body Has Created At And Batch	✅	20ms
Body Format.No Api Key In Body	✅	18ms
Body Format.No Sent At In Body	✅	20ms
Event Format.Event Has Required Root Fields	✅	17ms
Event Format.Event Uuid Is Valid	✅	19ms
Event Format.Event Timestamp Is Rfc3339	✅	19ms
Event Format.Non Utc Event Timestamp Is Converted To Utc	✅	18ms
Event Format.Distinct Id Is String	✅	20ms
Event Format.Distinct Id At Root Not Properties	✅	18ms
Event Format.Custom Properties Preserved	✅	18ms
Event Format.Set Properties Preserved	✅	21ms
Event Format.Set Once Properties Preserved	✅	19ms
Event Format.Groups Properties Preserved	✅	20ms
Event Format.Sdk Generates Uuid If Not Provided	✅	22ms
Event Format.Event Has Required Root Fields Batch	✅	28ms
Event Format.Event Uuid Is Valid Batch	✅	28ms
Event Format.Event Timestamp Is Rfc3339 Batch	✅	30ms
Event Format.Distinct Id Is String Batch	✅	23ms
Event Format.Distinct Id At Root Not Properties Batch	✅	26ms
Event Format.Custom Properties Preserved Batch	✅	23ms
Event Format.Set Properties Preserved Batch	✅	27ms
Event Format.Set Once Properties Preserved Batch	✅	29ms
Event Format.Groups Properties Preserved Batch	✅	38ms
Event Format.Sdk Generates Uuid If Not Provided Batch	✅	26ms
Batch Behavior.Multiple Events In Single Batch	✅	37ms
Batch Behavior.Batch Envelope Smoke	✅	32ms
Batch Behavior.Flush At Triggers Batch	✅	1022ms
Batch Behavior.Created At Reflects Batch Creation Time	✅	19ms
Deduplication.Generates Unique Uuids	✅	41ms
Deduplication.Different Events Same Content Different Uuids	✅	21ms
Deduplication.Preserves Uuid On Retry	✅	7018ms
Deduplication.Preserves Timestamp On Retry	✅	7014ms
Deduplication.Preserves Uuid And Timestamp On Batch Retry	✅	7017ms
Deduplication.No Duplicate Events In Batch	✅	49ms
Header Behavior On Retry.Attempt Header Starts At One	✅	20ms
Header Behavior On Retry.Attempt Header Increments On Retry	✅	12029ms
Header Behavior On Retry.Request Id Preserved On Retry	✅	7012ms
Header Behavior On Retry.Different Requests Have Different Request Ids	✅	2028ms
Header Behavior On Retry.Request Timestamp Changes On Retry	✅	7012ms
Response Format Validation.Success Response Has Uuid Keyed Results	✅	17ms
Response Format Validation.Success Response Has Ok For Each Event	✅	24ms
Response Format Validation.Success No Retry After When All Ok	✅	22ms
Response Format Validation.Success Retry After Present When Retry Events	✅	2009ms
Response Format Validation.Success No Retry After When Drop Only	✅	19ms
Response Format Validation.Response Echoes Request Id	✅	14ms
Retry Behavior.Retries On 408	✅	7015ms
Retry Behavior.Retries On 500	✅	7012ms
Retry Behavior.Retries On 503	✅	7020ms
Retry Behavior.Retries On 504	✅	7017ms
Retry Behavior.Retries On 404	✅	7014ms
Retry Behavior.Retries On 429	✅	6015ms
Retry Behavior.Retries On 502	✅	6014ms
Retry Behavior.Retryable Errors Have Retry After	✅	4013ms
Retry Behavior.Respects Retry After On Retryable Error	✅	10026ms
Retry Behavior.Does Not Retry On 400	✅	4015ms
Retry Behavior.Does Not Retry On 401	✅	4017ms
Retry Behavior.Does Not Retry On 402	✅	4016ms
Retry Behavior.Does Not Retry On 413	✅	4016ms
Retry Behavior.Does Not Retry On 415	✅	4016ms
Retry Behavior.Non Retryable Errors Have No Retry After	✅	4017ms
Retry Behavior.Implements Backoff	✅	14017ms
Partial Batch Handling.Handles 200 Full Success	✅	2015ms
Partial Batch Handling.Handles 200 With All Ok	✅	3023ms
Partial Batch Handling.Does Not Retry Dropped Events	✅	3021ms
Partial Batch Handling.Does Not Retry Warning Events	✅	3021ms
Partial Batch Handling.Prunes Ok Events On Partial Retry	✅	7012ms
Partial Batch Handling.Prunes Dropped Events On Partial Retry	✅	7015ms
Partial Batch Handling.Retries Only Retry Events From Partial	✅	7014ms
Partial Batch Handling.Partial Retry Preserves Uuids	✅	7015ms
Partial Batch Handling.Partial Retry Attempt Header Increments	✅	7015ms
Partial Batch Handling.Partial Retry Request Id Preserved	✅	7015ms
Partial Batch Handling.Respects Retry After On Partial	✅	7020ms
Partial Batch Handling.Unknown Result Treated As Terminal	✅	3020ms
Partial Batch Handling.Mixed Ok Drop Warning No Retry	✅	3025ms
Compression.Sends Gzip Content Encoding	✅	14ms
Compression.No Content Encoding When Disabled	✅	15ms
Compression.Compressed Body Is Decompressible	✅	13ms
Error Handling.Does Not Retry On Unknown 4Xx	✅	4015ms
Event Options.Cookieless Mode Override	✅	14ms
Event Options.Disable Skew Correction Override	✅	12ms
Event Options.Process Person Profile Override	✅	14ms
Event Options.Product Tour Id Override	✅	14ms
Event Options.Unset Options Omitted	✅	13ms
Event Options.Options Override In Batch	✅	16ms
Event Options.Unknown Option Passes Through	✅	13ms
Event Options.Option Value Is Not Converted	✅	14ms
Event Options.Lenient Bool Option Values Are Not Converted	✅	14ms
Event Options.Option Wins Over Legacy Property	✅	13ms
Event Options.Legacy Property Fills Unset Option	✅	12ms
Event Options.Null Option Falls Back To Legacy Property	✅	15ms
Event Size.Event Over Ceiling Is Not Sent	✅	3378ms
Event Size.Over Ceiling Drop Is Reported Or Logged Without Content	✅	2061ms
Event Size.Batches Close Before Byte Target	✅	6066ms
Geoip And Historical Migration.Historical Migration Absent By Default	✅	15ms
Property Layers.Caller Property Beats Registered Property	✅	13ms
Property Layers.Before Send Runs Last	✅	16ms
Fail Open.Empty Api Key Sends Nothing	✅	1009ms
Fail Open.Personal Api Key Sends Nothing	✅	1010ms

Feature_Flags Tests

✅ 17/17 tests passed

View Details

Test	Status	Duration
Request Payload.Request With Person Properties Device Id	✅	33ms
Request Payload.Flags Request Uses V2 Query Param	✅	24ms
Request Payload.Flags Request Hits Flags Path Not Decide	✅	17ms
Request Payload.Flags Request Omits Authorization Header	✅	15ms
Request Payload.Token In Flags Body Matches Init	✅	14ms
Request Payload.Groups Round Trip	✅	17ms
Request Payload.Groups Default To Empty Object	✅	17ms
Request Payload.Disable Geoip False Propagates As Geoip Disable False	✅	16ms
Request Payload.Disable Geoip Omitted Defaults To False	✅	13ms
Request Payload.Flag Keys To Evaluate Contains Only Requested Key	✅	15ms
Request Lifecycle.No Flags Request On Init Alone	✅	8ms
Request Lifecycle.No Flags Request On Normal Capture	✅	13ms
Request Lifecycle.Two Flag Calls Produce Two Remote Requests	✅	21ms
Request Lifecycle.Mock Response Value Is Returned To Caller	✅	15ms
Retry Behavior.Retries Flags On 502	✅	318ms
Retry Behavior.Retries Flags On 504	✅	316ms
Side Effect Events.Get Feature Flag Captures Feature Flag Called Event	✅	16ms

… without results (#905) * fix: keep the personless option when a legacy person processing property is set A passed or registered `$process_person_profile` property no longer stops the SDK from setting `process_person_profile: false` when person processing is off. The send hoists the property only into an unset option, so an option set by any layer wins, as the capture spec requires. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com> * fix: treat a 2xx without readable per-event results as a terminal failure A 2xx whose body can't be read as `{"results": {...}}` no longer counts the batch as delivered. It throws a PostHogApiError with that status, which the queue drops without retrying, and logs only the status and event count, as the capture spec requires. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com> --------- Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

posthog

PostHog Review · Standard · reviewed aaf7664: 1 Should fix.

…ected batches (#909)

…ption Reverts the person-processing half of #905. A passed or registered `$process_person_profile` property again stops the SDK from adding `process_person_profile: false` when person processing is off, so the caller wins, as the client property precedence in sdk-specs `capture` (#143) requires. The send still hoists the property into the option. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

…ytes - The capture v1 per-batch debug line names the endpoint and counts the dropped events by their `details` tag (opaque strings, never uuids or content), e.g. `ai_event_too_big: 1, misrouted_event: 1`. - Sending events cached by 2.x/3.x closes a batch before it would pass the 5 MiB capture v1 byte target, as the queue does, so a large migrated batch isn't lost to a 413. Order is kept and an event over the target ships alone. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

…v1-rubric-followups Moves this branch's queue changes into enqueueEvent(), where #904 put capture's queueing step.

…v1-rubric-followups

fix: match the capture v1 rules for empty names, drop logs, retry ide…

0f90073

…ntity and typed values

turnipdabeets self-assigned this Oct 28, 2026

turnipdabeets requested a review from a team as a code owner October 28, 2026 23:50

turnipdabeets requested a review from eli-r-ph October 28, 2026 23:50

posthog Bot reviewed Oct 28, 2026

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Comment thread posthog/src/main/java/com/posthog/PostHogStateless.kt Outdated

turnipdabeets mentioned this pull request Oct 29, 2026

fix: keep the personless option over a legacy property and drop a 2xx without results #905

Merged

6 tasks done

turnipdabeets added 3 commits October 28, 2026 20:16

fix: merge a $groups map in properties into the groups set with group()

e318e16

fix: log an empty-name drop once, without the generic dropped-event line

d7d3bb2

fix: clamp each duplicates_dropped count to the batch size

ebc60e5

turnipdabeets mentioned this pull request Oct 29, 2026

fix: warn about empty and personal API keys without debug and log rejected batches #909

Merged

6 tasks done

turnipdabeets and others added 2 commits October 29, 2026 10:53

fix: keep the pending retry map off Java 8 Map methods missing on API 23

6419843

posthog Bot reviewed Oct 29, 2026

View reviewed changes

Comment thread posthog/src/main/java/com/posthog/PostHog.kt Outdated

turnipdabeets and others added 2 commits October 29, 2026 14:46

fix: warn about empty and personal API keys without debug and log rej…

da7aac0

…ected batches (#909)

turnipdabeets mentioned this pull request Oct 29, 2026

fix: let a caller $process_person_profile override the personless option #911

Merged

6 tasks done

turnipdabeets and others added 3 commits October 29, 2026 16:23

Merge remote-tracking branch 'origin/feat/v4-capture-v1' into fix/v4-…

049f9fe

…v1-rubric-followups Moves this branch's queue changes into enqueueEvent(), where #904 put capture's queueing step.

Merge remote-tracking branch 'origin/feat/v4-capture-v1' into fix/v4-…

8be5592

…v1-rubric-followups

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fix: match capture v1 rules for empty names, drop logs, retry identity and typed values - #903

fix: match capture v1 rules for empty names, drop logs, retry identity and typed values#903
turnipdabeets wants to merge 11 commits into
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fix/v4-v1-rubric-followups

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💡 Motivation and Context

💚 How did you test it?

📝 Checklist

If releasing new changes

🤖 Agent context

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posthog-android Compliance Report

✅ All Tests Passed!

Capture_V1 Tests

Capture_Ai_V1 Tests

Feature_Flags Tests

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