SQLSTATE 25008 ERROR Class 25: Invalid Transaction State

held_cursor_requires_same_isolation_level Held Cursor Requires Same Isolation Level — SQLSTATE 25008

SQLSTATE 25008 (held_cursor_requires_same_isolation_level): A command is not valid in the current transaction state.

PG 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 Official docs
Last reviewed May 2025 Grounded in source

Symptoms

The server reports SQLSTATE 25008 (held_cursor_requires_same_isolation_level), a condition in the Invalid Transaction State class.

  • The error is written to the server log and returned to the client carrying SQLSTATE 25008.
  • Any driver (libpq, JDBC, psycopg, npgsql, pgx) surfaces this code in its error object so you can branch on it programmatically.
  • PL/pgSQL can trap it by name: EXCEPTION WHEN held_cursor_requires_same_isolation_level THEN.

Environment

Severity: ERROR  |  PostgreSQL versions: 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17

Reproduce with the exact statement and read the full message in the server log (raise log_min_messages / set log_min_error_statement for more context).

Root Cause

25008 belongs to Class 25 — Invalid Transaction State. In this class, a command is not valid in the current transaction state.

The first two characters (25) identify the error class, so application code can match the whole class via 25000 when the specific code is not needed.

Diagnostic Queries

Recovery

Commit or roll back as appropriate, do not run non-transactional commands (CREATE DATABASE, VACUUM, CREATE INDEX CONCURRENTLY) inside a block, and after any error issue ROLLBACK before continuing.

Reference: PostgreSQL error codes — Class 25 (Invalid Transaction State).

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