From b52972d0de89004e98d18241d238ca028e4eecba Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Ruben Fiszel <ruben@windmill.dev>
Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2026 10:42:15 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] fix: validate workspace name length (max 50 chars) on create
 and fork (#9854)

Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
---
 backend/windmill-api-workspaces/src/workspaces.rs | 10 +++++++---
 backend/windmill-common/src/workspaces.rs         | 13 +++++++++++++
 cli/src/commands/workspace/fork.ts                |  9 +++++++++
 3 files changed, 29 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/backend/windmill-api-workspaces/src/workspaces.rs b/backend/windmill-api-workspaces/src/workspaces.rs
index 589fed899f..7dcff7a9d2 100644
--- a/backend/windmill-api-workspaces/src/workspaces.rs
+++ b/backend/windmill-api-workspaces/src/workspaces.rs
@@ -44,9 +44,9 @@ use windmill_common::workspaces::GitRepositorySettings;
 use windmill_common::workspaces::WorkspaceDeploymentUISettings;
 use windmill_common::workspaces::{
     check_deploy_rules, check_user_against_rule, get_datatable_resource_from_db_unchecked,
-    validate_dev_workspace_id, validate_fork_workspace_id, DataTable, DataTableCatalogResourceType,
-    DataTableForkBehavior, ProtectionRuleKind, ProtectionRules, ProtectionRuleset, RuleCheckResult,
-    WorkspaceGitSyncSettings, DEV_WORKSPACE_LOCK_RULE_NAME,
+    validate_dev_workspace_id, validate_fork_workspace_id, validate_workspace_name, DataTable,
+    DataTableCatalogResourceType, DataTableForkBehavior, ProtectionRuleKind, ProtectionRules,
+    ProtectionRuleset, RuleCheckResult, WorkspaceGitSyncSettings, DEV_WORKSPACE_LOCK_RULE_NAME,
 };
 use windmill_common::workspaces::{Ducklake, DucklakeCatalogResourceType};
 use windmill_common::PgDatabase;
@@ -3845,6 +3845,8 @@ async fn create_workspace(
         }
     }
 
+    validate_workspace_name(&nw.name)?;
+
     let mut tx: Transaction<'_, Postgres> = db.begin().await?;
 
     check_w_id_conflict(&mut tx, &nw.id).await?;
@@ -5021,6 +5023,7 @@ async fn create_workspace_fork_branch(
     } else {
         validate_fork_workspace_id(&nw.id)?;
     }
+    validate_workspace_name(&nw.name)?;
 
     // Fail before creating any git branch so a name conflict doesn't leave a
     // dangling branch on the synced repos.
@@ -5170,6 +5173,7 @@ async fn create_workspace_fork(
     } else {
         validate_fork_workspace_id(&nw.id)?;
     }
+    validate_workspace_name(&nw.name)?;
     // Check the id conflict before the CE workspace-count limit so that
     // re-using a taken (possibly archived) fork id reports the actual
     // conflict instead of a misleading "maximum number of workspaces" error.
diff --git a/backend/windmill-common/src/workspaces.rs b/backend/windmill-common/src/workspaces.rs
index 73d95a3af9..cd3693cd92 100644
--- a/backend/windmill-common/src/workspaces.rs
+++ b/backend/windmill-common/src/workspaces.rs
@@ -189,6 +189,19 @@ pub fn validate_dev_workspace_id(id: &str) -> error::Result<()> {
     validate_workspace_branch_id(id, false)
 }
 
+/// The `workspace.name` column is `character varying(50)`, so a name longer than 50 characters
+/// triggers a raw `value too long for type character varying(50)` SQL error on insert. Validate
+/// up front to return a clear message instead.
+pub fn validate_workspace_name(name: &str) -> error::Result<()> {
+    if name.chars().count() > 50 {
+        return Err(Error::BadRequest(format!(
+            "Workspace name is too long ({} chars). Maximum length is 50 characters.",
+            name.chars().count()
+        )));
+    }
+    Ok(())
+}
+
 fn validate_workspace_branch_id(id: &str, require_fork_prefix: bool) -> error::Result<()> {
     if id.is_empty() {
         return Err(Error::BadRequest(
diff --git a/cli/src/commands/workspace/fork.ts b/cli/src/commands/workspace/fork.ts
index 5742d9ae68..4248a18dc6 100644
--- a/cli/src/commands/workspace/fork.ts
+++ b/cli/src/commands/workspace/fork.ts
@@ -186,6 +186,15 @@ async function createWorkspaceFork(
   // branch creation — a late backend rejection would leave cloned databases
   // behind.
   validateForkWorkspaceId(trueWorkspaceId);
+  // The workspace.name column is character varying(50); reject an over-long name
+  // up front (matching the name actually sent to the backend below) instead of
+  // failing late after databases are cloned and the git branch is created.
+  const effectiveName = opts.createWorkspaceName ?? workspaceName ?? trueWorkspaceId;
+  if (effectiveName.length > 50) {
+    throw new Error(
+      `Fork workspace name is too long (${effectiveName.length} chars; max 50). Choose a shorter name.`
+    );
+  }
   let alreadyExists = false;
   try {
     alreadyExists = await wmill.existsWorkspace({