SQLSTATE 44000Severity mediumLab verified

Incident brief

WITH CHECK OPTION violation

Writing through a view defined WITH CHECK OPTION fails when the new or updated row would fall outside the view's WHERE condition; the row must remain visible through the view.

Reproduced on PostgreSQL 18.4Verified 2026-07-24 (isolated lab, PostgreSQL 18.4)Reviewed by Verified against PostgreSQL 18.4 in an isolated lab environment

In 10 seconds

What: WITH CHECK OPTION violation
What triggers it: Define a view with a WHERE filter and WITH CHECK OPTION, then INSERT or UPDATE a row that does not satisfy the filter.
The fix: Write values that satisfy the view's WHERE condition, so the row stays visible through the view.
Proof: Reproduced on PostgreSQL 18.4 → An INSERT through the view reproduces SQLSTATE 44000; a row outside the view's filter is rejected with a DETAIL showing the failing values.

The fix

What to do right now

The immediate, application-level response to this error.

Write values that satisfy the view's WHERE condition, so the row stays visible through the view.
Or write to the base table directly if the row legitimately falls outside the view.

Fix — SQL

-- Insert a row that satisfies the view's condition.
INSERT INTO active_accounts (status) VALUES ('active');

Diagnose

See it live on the server

Run these against the affected instance to confirm the diagnosis before you act.

Standard triage — not specific to this error

These are canonical PostgreSQL system-catalog queries, shown as SQL to run. No sample output is attached because this is general triage, not a captured lab transcript.

This SQLSTATE does not have an error-specific live snapshot yet. These are the canonical system-catalog queries you run against the affected server to see the problem in real time — standard triage, not a reproduced transcript.

What is running right now

Active backends, how long each has been running, and what it is waiting on.

SELECT pid,
       state,
       wait_event_type,
       wait_event,
       now() - query_start AS running_for,
       left(query, 80)     AS query
FROM   pg_stat_activity
WHERE  state <> 'idle'
  AND  pid <> pg_backend_pid()
ORDER  BY running_for DESC NULLS LAST;

Who is blocking whom

Turn raw blocking PIDs into the actual queries on both sides of the wait.

SELECT blocked.pid    AS blocked_pid,
       blocked.query  AS blocked_query,
       blocking.pid   AS blocking_pid,
       blocking.query AS blocking_query
FROM   pg_stat_activity AS blocked
JOIN   LATERAL unnest(pg_blocking_pids(blocked.pid)) AS b(pid) ON true
JOIN   pg_stat_activity AS blocking ON blocking.pid = b.pid
WHERE  cardinality(pg_blocking_pids(blocked.pid)) > 0;

Locks that are still waiting

Every lock a backend has requested but not yet been granted.

SELECT l.pid,
       l.locktype,
       l.mode,
       l.granted,
       COALESCE(c.relname, l.transactionid::text) AS object
FROM   pg_locks l
LEFT   JOIN pg_class c ON c.oid = l.relation
WHERE  NOT l.granted
ORDER  BY l.pid;

Reproduce & verify

A real, single-session PostgreSQL reproduction

A literal transcript of SQL run against a live PostgreSQL instance in an isolated lab — the commands below are exactly what was executed.

1Define a view with a WHERE filter and WITH CHECK OPTION, then INSERT or UPDATE a row that does not satisfy the filter.
2PostgreSQL applies the view's condition to the new row.
3Because the row would not be visible through the view, the write aborts with SQLSTATE 44000.

An app inserted a 'closed' account through a view that only shows active accounts, and the CHECK OPTION blocked the invisible row.

Schema setup

CREATE TABLE accounts_base(status text);
CREATE VIEW active_accounts AS SELECT * FROM accounts_base WHERE status = 'active' WITH CHECK OPTION;

Writing a row outside the view's filter

INSERT INTO active_accounts (status) VALUES ('closed');

The session continues normally

SELECT 'ok' AS session_after_error;

What PostgreSQL actually returned

Schema setup output

CREATE TABLE
CREATE VIEW

Writing a row outside the view's filter output

ERROR:  new row violates check option for view "active_accounts"
DETAIL:  Failing row contains (closed).

The session continues normally output

 session_after_error 
---------------------
 ok
(1 row)

Related & next steps

Follow the thread

Everything this error touches — jump straight to the sibling error, term, runbook, or parameter.

Verification

PG 18.4

Last verified: 2026-07-24 (isolated lab, PostgreSQL 18.4)
Reviewed by: Verified against PostgreSQL 18.4 in an isolated lab environment
Audit status: reviewed