FoundationAgents/MetaGPT · error · Exception

Table not created yet, please add data first

Error message

Table not created yet, please add data first

What it means

LanceStore.delete raises a plain Exception when self.table is None. Deletion requires an existing table, which is only created by a prior successful add(); calling delete on a store that never ingested data has nothing to delete and the wrapper rejects it explicitly rather than silently succeeding.

Source

Thrown at metagpt/document_store/lancedb_store.py:77

            self.table = self.db.create_table(self.name, documents)

    def add(self, data, metadata, _id):
        # This function is for adding individual documents
        # It assumes you're passing in a single vector embedding, metadata, and id

        row = {"vector": data, "id": _id}
        row.update(metadata)

        if self.table is not None:
            self.table.add([row])
        else:
            self.table = self.db.create_table(self.name, [row])

    def delete(self, _id):
        # This function deletes a row by id.
        # LanceDB delete syntax uses SQL syntax, so you can use "in" or "="
        if self.table is None:
            raise Exception("Table not created yet, please add data first")

        if isinstance(_id, str):
            return self.table.delete(f"id = '{_id}'")
        else:
            return self.table.delete(f"id = {_id}")

    def drop(self, name):
        # This function drops a table, if it exists.

        path = os.path.join(self.db.uri, name + ".lance")
        if os.path.exists(path):
            shutil.rmtree(path)

View on GitHub (pinned to 11cdf466d0)

Solutions

1. Ensure add() ran at least once in this process, or reopen the persisted table: store.table = store.db.open_table(store.name).
2. Guard deletion: if store.table is None: skip or log, since there is nothing to delete.
3. Verify the table exists via db.table_names() before constructing the store's delete path.

Example fix

# before
store.delete("doc-42")  # Exception: Table not created yet

# after
if store.table is not None:
    store.delete("doc-42")
else:
    logger.info("nothing to delete, table does not exist")

def safe_delete(store, _id):
    if store.table is None:
        return False  # nothing ingested, nothing to delete
    store.delete(_id)
    return True

try:
    store.delete(_id)
except Exception as e:
    if "Table not created yet" not in str(e):
        raise  # only swallow the empty-store case

When it happens

Trigger: Calling store.delete(_id) on a LanceStore instance where add() was never called, or after the table was dropped. The id is formatted into a SQL filter ('id = ...' or "id = '...'") and passed to table.delete.

Common situations: Cleanup/rerank scripts that delete stale vectors before ingestion runs; a new process pointing at an existing db path but never reopening the table; test teardown deleting from a store that the test never populated.

Related errors

• Table not created yet, please add data first.
• please check QdrantConnection.
• Delete collection {collection_name} failed.
• Missing fields: {missing_fields}
• use `review` after `fill`

AI-assisted analysis of FoundationAgents/MetaGPT@11cdf466d0 (2026-08-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/cb43f49a77fe1216. Report an issue: GitHub.