25005ERRORTier 2 — Caution✅ HIGH confidenceno active SQL transaction for branch transaction
Category: Invalid Transaction StateVersions: All Postgres versions
What this means
SQLSTATE 25005 is raised when a branch transaction command is issued but there is no active transaction to participate in.
Why it happens
- 1Attempting a branch transaction operation outside of an active transaction context
How to reproduce
Branch transaction command without an active transaction.
trigger — this will ERROR
ERROR: no active SQL transaction for branch transaction
Fix 1: Begin a transaction before issuing branch transaction commands
When this error occurs.
fix
BEGIN;
-- now perform branch transaction operationsWhy this works
Branch transaction operations require an enclosing transaction context.
Sources
📚 Official docs: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/errcodes-appendix.html
🔧 Source ref: Class 25 — Invalid Transaction State
Confidence assessment
✅ HIGH confidence
Standard SQLSTATE. Stable.
See also
🔗 Related errors
📄 Reference pages
Transactions
⚙️ This error reference was generated with AI assistance and reviewed for accuracy. Examples are provided to illustrate common scenarios and may not cover every case. Always test fixes in a development environment before applying to production. Spotted an error? Suggest a correction →