# invalid_cursor

Source: https://capacms.com/docs/errors/invalid_cursor

400 invalid_request. The after or before cursor is malformed, was minted for another sort, or belongs to another parent entry.

| HTTP status | `type`            | Surfaces      |
| ----------- | ----------------- | ------------- |
| 400         | `invalid_request` | REST, GraphQL |

## What it means

The after or before cursor is malformed, was minted for another sort, or belongs to another parent entry.

| When                                                                                             | What the `hint` tells you                                                                          |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| a tampered, foreign-version, wrong-sort or wrong-parent cursor, or `after` and `before` together | request the first page again without a cursor; for `after` and `before` together, send one of them |

## What to do

Pass a cursor from a page of the same query, unchanged, with the same sort: its endCursor as after, or its startCursor as before.

## The response

HTTP 400:

```json
{
  "error": {
    "type": "invalid_request",
    "code": "invalid_cursor",
    "message": "This cursor is not valid.",
    "param": "after",
    "docs": "https://docs.capacms.com/errors/invalid_cursor"
  },
  "meta": {
    "version": "2026-10-01",
    "contract": 1,
    "requestId": "req_0f3c…"
  }
}
```

## On GraphQL

`/api/graphql` answers the same `code` inside `errors[].extensions`. The status depends on the `Accept` header you send ([status codes](https://capacms.com/docs/api/graphql#status-codes)):

| `application/json` | `graphql-response+json` | When                                                                                                                                                                                                             |
| ------------------ | ----------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| 200                | 400                     | REST planner refusals, with `path` set to the root field. `invalid_select` also refuses one relation list read twice in an entry with different arguments (see [Not built yet](https://capacms.com/docs/api/graphql#not-built-yet)) |

## See also

* [Paging](https://capacms.com/docs/api/entries#paging)