Description
When attempting to create multiple Quay organizations using the same email address, the new UI displays a success notification message, but the
organization creation actually fails on the backend. This creates a confusing user experience where users believe their operation succeeded when
it actually failed.
Steps to Reproduce
- Log in to Quay (quay-v3.16.1) with the new UI
- Create an organization (e.g., "org1") with an email address (e.g., "test@example.com")
- Attempt to create a second organization (e.g., "org2") using the same email address ("test@example.com")
- Click the "Create Organization" button
- Observe the success notification popup
- Check if the organization was actually created
Expected Behavior
One of the following should occur:
- Option 1: Client-side validation prevents form submission and displays an error message: "This email address is already in use by another
organization" - Option 2: If backend validation is preferred, the API error should be properly caught and displayed to the user instead of showing a success
message
Actual Behavior
- The UI displays a success notification message
- The organization creation fails on the backend with an error: "Email has already been used: test@example.com"
- The new organization does not appear in the organizations list
- No error message is shown to the user
- Users are misled into thinking the operation succeeded

Impact
- User Confusion: Users believe they successfully created an organization when they haven't
- Poor UX: No feedback about what went wrong or how to fix it
- Data Inconsistency: UI state doesn't match backend state
Environment
- Affected Version: quay-v3.16.1
- Component: quay-ui (New Patternfly-based UI)
- Browser: Chrome, Firefox
Additional Context
This issue is related to the current database constraint requiring unique email addresses across organizations. This limitation is being
addressed in epic PROJQUAY-6975 ("Allow a single email address to be used for multiple orgs"), which aims to remove this uniqueness requirement
in Quay 3.17.
Until that enhancement is implemented, the UI should properly validate and display error messages when users attempt to reuse email addresses.
Related Issues
- Epic: PROJQUAY-6975 - Allow a single email address to be used for multiple orgs
- Clone: PROJQUAY-9948 - Similar UI/backend mismatch on org creation failures