# Internal server error setting tags via the api
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/internal-server-error-setting-tags-via-the-api/100137
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [October 22, 2018, 6:37am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/internal-server-error-setting-tags-via-the-api/100137 "2018-10-22T06:37:04Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Akki9326](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Akki9326)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2018, 6:37am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/internal-server-error-setting-tags-via-the-api/100137/1 "2018-10-22T06:37:04Z")
We are getting below error while posting creating topic using API. sometimes its working but most of the time is shows below error.
```
Started POST "/posts.json?api_key=[FILTERED]&username=saroj.barad&title=Test%20%20From%20saroj&category=7&raw=Test%20%20From%20saroj&tags%5B%5D=law&tags%5B%5D=randomnewtag" for 127.0.0.1 at 2018-10-22 06:31:44 +0000
Processing by PostsController#create as JSON
Parameters: {"api_key"=>"[FILTERED]", "username"=>"saroj.barad", "title"=>"Test From saroj", "category"=>"7", "raw"=>"Test From saroj", "tags"=>["law", "randomnewtag"]}
Can't verify CSRF token authenticity.
Completed 500 Internal Server Error in 124ms (ActiveRecord: 8.8ms)
NoMethodError (undefined method `>' for nil:NilClass)
/var/www/discourse/lib/discourse_tagging.rb:58:in `tag_topic_by_names'
Started POST "/posts.json" for 127.0.0.1 at 2018-10-22 06:32:27 +0000
Processing by PostsController#create as JSON
Parameters: {"title"=>"Test from saroj", "category"=>"7", "tags"=>["finance"], "api_key"=>"[FILTERED]", "api_username"=>"saroj.barad", "raw"=>"Test from saroj "}
Completed 500 Internal Server Error in 200ms (ActiveRecord: 8.0ms)
NoMethodError (undefined method `>' for nil:NilClass)
```
---
### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2018, 6:42am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/internal-server-error-setting-tags-via-the-api/100137/2 "2018-10-22T06:42:31Z")
See:
> [@Reverse engineer the Discourse API](https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-reverse-engineer-the-discourse-api/20576):
>
> Discourse is backed by a complete JSON api. Anything you can do on the site you can also do using the JSON api. The API is documented at [docs.discourse.org](https://docs.discourse.org). You can also use the [discourse\_api](https://github.com/discourse/discourse_api) Ruby gem as a client library. However, not every endpoint is documented. To determine how to do something with the JSON API here are some steps you can follow. Example: recategorize a topic. Go to a topic and start editing a category: Open Chrome dev tools, switch to the Network tab, select …
Attempt to change tags on a topic, looks at the param.
---
### Author:  [@Akki9326](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Akki9326)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2018, 7:16am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/internal-server-error-setting-tags-via-the-api/100137/3 "2018-10-22T07:16:34Z")
does discourse need X-CSRF-TOKEN?
if we pass “api key”. bcz we are sending api key in our request still it shows `"Can’t verify CSRF token authentiity"`.
---
### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2018, 7:24am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/internal-server-error-setting-tags-via-the-api/100137/4 "2018-10-22T07:24:06Z")
That error is not related.
---
### Author:  [@Akki9326](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Akki9326)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2018, 10:11am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/internal-server-error-setting-tags-via-the-api/100137/5 "2018-10-22T10:11:15Z")
Thanks for your replies. But we are also getting 500 error code while creating topic from discourse portal.
```
Started POST "/posts" for 127.0.0.1 at 2018-10-22 10:08:19 +0000
Processing by PostsController#create as JSON
Processing by Presence::PresencesController#publish as */*
Parameters: {"previous"=>""}
Parameters: {"raw"=>"Good post", "title"=>"How does the Membership functionality work", "unlist_topic"=>"false", "category"=>"7", "is_warning"=>"false", "archetype"=>"regular", "typing_duration_msecs"=>"6200", "composer_open_duration_msecs"=>"179956", "shared_draft"=>"false", "nested_post"=>"true"}
Completed 200 OK in 10ms (Views: 0.2ms | ActiveRecord: 3.0ms)
Completed 500 Internal Server Error in 59ms (ActiveRecord: 9.6ms)
NoMethodError (undefined method `>' for nil:NilClass)
/var/www/discourse/lib/topic_creator.rb:161:in `setup_tags'
```
Please help me with this.
---
### Author:  [@david](https://meta.discourse.org/u/david)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2018, 10:57am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/internal-server-error-setting-tags-via-the-api/100137/8 "2018-10-22T10:57:30Z")
Hi @Akki9326, it looks like we have a bug here. To work around it for now, open up the preferences for the category, and set the “Minimum number of tags required in a topic” setting to zero.
We will look at getting this fixed so it can’t happen in the future.
---
### Author:  [@Akki9326](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Akki9326)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2018, 1:28pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/internal-server-error-setting-tags-via-the-api/100137/9 "2018-10-22T13:28:37Z")
Thank @david for your reply. but there is no settings like 'Minimum number of tags required in a topic".
for your info:
1. we are able to create a topic in other categories but error occurs on one specific category only named “CFO-Members”. we are able to create same topic in other categories.
2. Admin can create topic in that category (CFO-Members).
it would be greate for us if can you suggest any work around for the same.
---
### Author:  [@david](https://meta.discourse.org/u/david)
#### Post date: [October 22, 2018, 1:38pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/internal-server-error-setting-tags-via-the-api/100137/10 "2018-10-22T13:38:38Z")
> [@Akki9326](#):
>
> there is no settings like 'Minimum number of tags required in a topic".
The setting is located in the “settings” tab for each specific category (the same place that you edit the category name).
---
### Author:  [@Akki9326](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Akki9326)
#### Post date: [October 23, 2018, 5:26am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/internal-server-error-setting-tags-via-the-api/100137/11 "2018-10-23T05:26:36Z")
Thanks @david its works. 🙂
---
### Author:  [@system](https://meta.discourse.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [November 22, 2018, 9:21am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/internal-server-error-setting-tags-via-the-api/100137/14 "2018-11-22T09:21:03Z")
This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.
---
### Author:  [@david](https://meta.discourse.org/u/david)
#### Post date: [November 29, 2018, 5:12pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/internal-server-error-setting-tags-via-the-api/100137/15 "2018-11-29T17:12:44Z")
For future reference, this is now fixed thanks to @maja
[https://github.com/discourse/discourse/commit/4a8f21d38743a0a6b2a161889e335581248583b9](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/commit/4a8f21d38743a0a6b2a161889e335581248583b9)