> do you have a validate_doc_update function with any mention of an "options" label?
No, I don't. I don't have anything named options in my db setup. > I suspect the "options" part of your node code is a red herring. When I get a chance I'll test changing my variable name but I'm confident that the name is just a coincidence as you said. I suspect it is some internal couch var. I emptied my db and that didn't help. I went to the trouble to rebuild couch from scratch but it made no difference. The problem happens in two requests in my code and for now I've managed to disable them to get back to work. The weird thing is that I can't find anything in common with the two places. One is trying to add an attachment and the other is a _changes request. Oh well ...