Jguer/yay · error

result source must be a string

Error message

result source must be a string

What it means

Each result entry returned by a search-filter callback must be a table with a string 'source' field. If entry.RawGetString("source") is not an LString (missing key or non-string value), this error is recorded and later wrapped with the event name by the caller.

Solutions

1. Add the 'source' key as a string to every returned entry, matching a valid source name exactly.
2. Verify key spelling is exactly 'source' (lowercase, no abbreviations).
3. When building entries dynamically, tostring() the source before assignment and skip entries without a valid source.

Example fix

-- before
return { { name = "symbols" } }
-- after
return { { source = "symbols", name = "symbols" } }

-- Lua: ensure each entry has a string source
for _, e in ipairs(out) do
  if type(e.source) ~= "string" then error("entry missing string source") end
end

function has_string_source(e) return type(e) == "table" and type(e.source) == "string" end

if err != nil && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "result source must be a string") {
    log.Print("a filter entry lacks a string 'source' key")
}

When it happens

Trigger: An entry table omits the 'source' key, sets it to nil, or uses a number/boolean value, e.g. { name = "symbols" } or { source = 1, name = "symbols" }.

Common situations: Users abbreviate the key ('src', 'type'), forget to set it when building entries programmatically, or copy the numeric index into source.

Understand the failure class

Background: Schema validation failed / invalid input schema: payload rejected because its shape doesn't match the expected schema — this error's family across 28 libraries.

Related errors

• each result must be a table
• result name must be a string
• unknown search result
• exclude must be a table
• exclude entries must be strings

AI-assisted analysis of Jguer/yay@328f4b4939 (2026-09-07). Data as JSON: /api/errors/b289075a5bfb08ca. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at pkg/settings/lua/autocmd.go:642

		parseErr error
	)

	seen := mapset.NewThreadUnsafeSet[SearchResultRef]()

	tbl.ForEach(func(_ glua.LValue, val glua.LValue) {
		if parseErr != nil {
			return
		}

		entry, ok := val.(*glua.LTable)
		if !ok {
			parseErr = fmt.Errorf("each result must be a table")
			return
		}

		source, ok := entry.RawGetString("source").(glua.LString)
		if !ok {
			parseErr = fmt.Errorf("result source must be a string")
			return
		}

		name, ok := entry.RawGetString("name").(glua.LString)
		if !ok {
			parseErr = fmt.Errorf("result name must be a string")
			return
		}

		ref := SearchResultRef{Source: string(source), Name: string(name)}
		if _, exists := valid[ref]; !exists {
			parseErr = fmt.Errorf("unknown search result %s/%s", ref.Source, ref.Name)
			return
		}

		if !seen.Add(ref) {
			return
		}

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