Target table '${relationship.targetTable}' not found in data

Error message

Target table '${relationship.targetTable}' not found in datasource

What it means

Same validation as the source table check, but for the relationship's target table: createRelationshipColumns requires datasource.entities[relationship.targetTable] to exist before it can build the join columns on both sides. Thrown when the referenced target table is missing from the datasource metadata.

Source

Thrown at packages/builder/src/components/backend/Datasources/TableImportSelection/relationshipSelectionStore.ts:140

      return keepOpen
    }
  }

  const createRelationshipColumns = async (
    datasource: Datasource,
    relationship: DatasourceRelationshipConfig
  ): Promise<boolean> => {
    // Ensure the tables exist in the datasource
    if (!datasource.entities) {
      datasource.entities = {}
    }
    if (!datasource.entities[relationship.sourceTable]) {
      throw new Error(
        `Source table '${relationship.sourceTable}' not found in datasource`
      )
    }
    if (!datasource.entities[relationship.targetTable]) {
      throw new Error(
        `Target table '${relationship.targetTable}' not found in datasource`
      )
    }

    const sourceTable = datasource.entities[relationship.sourceTable]
    const targetTable = datasource.entities[relationship.targetTable]

    // Check if this relationship already exists
    const junctionTableId =
      relationship.relationshipType ===
        DatasourceRelationshipType.MANY_TO_MANY && relationship.junctionTable
        ? datasource.entities[relationship.junctionTable]?._id
        : undefined
    if (
      relationshipExists(
        sourceTable,
        targetTable,
        relationship,

View on GitHub (pinned to a81a902e9a)

Solutions

Re-fetch/sync the datasource schema so the target table appears in datasource.entities.
Correct relationship.targetTable to the table's current exact name (verify casing against entities keys).
Recreate the relationship if the target table no longer exists in the external database.

Example fix

// before
relationship.targetTable = "Customers" // dropped and recreated as "customer"
// after
relationship.targetTable = "customer" // current name in datasource.entities

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

const assertTablesExist = (ds: Datasource, rel: { sourceTable: string; targetTable: string }) => {
  if (!ds.entities?.[rel.targetTable]) {
    throw new Error(`Target table '${rel.targetTable}' missing; refresh datasource schema`)
  }
}
assertTablesExist(datasource, relationship)

Type guard

const hasEntity = (ds: Datasource, table: string): ds is Datasource & { entities: Record<typeof table, Table> } =>
  ds.entities != null && table in ds.entities

Try / catch

try {
  await store.wasCreated(datasource, relationship)
} catch (err) {
  if (err instanceof Error && err.message.includes("Target table")) {
    await refreshDatasourceSchema(datasource)
    // verify target table exists or prompt user to re-select it
  } else throw err
}

Prevention

Always fetch fresh entities before validating relationships, never trust cached metadata.
Compare names case-sensitively against Object.keys(datasource.entities).
Detect external schema drift periodically and flag broken relationships.

When it happens

Trigger: wasCreated → createRelationshipColumns called with a relationship whose relationship.targetTable key is absent from datasource.entities — target table dropped/renamed externally, entities not fetched, or name/casing mismatch in the stored relationship.

Common situations: External database schema changed (target table renamed or deleted) after the relationship was configured in Budibase; partial schema sync leaving entities incomplete; typo in the table name when relationships are defined programmatically or via older configs.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of Budibase/budibase@a81a902e9a (2026-08-29). Data as JSON: /api/errors/5ebb22ad5687567c. Report an issue: GitHub.