What causes "error in clickhouse queries" in SigNoz/signoz?

Check errQueriesByName for the failing query name and the underlying ClickHouse error

error in clickhouse queries

Error message

error in clickhouse queries

What it means

Aggregated error returned by runClickHouseQueries when one or more ClickHouse sub-queries of a composite query fail. Per-query errors are also returned in errQueriesByName keyed by query name, so callers can attribute the failure to a specific query.

Source

Thrown at pkg/query-service/app/querier/querier.go:304

	results := make([]*v3.Result, 0)
	errQueriesByName := make(map[string]error)
	var errs []error

	for result := range channelResults {
		if result.Err != nil {
			errs = append(errs, result.Err)
			errQueriesByName[result.Name] = result.Err
			continue
		}
		results = append(results, &v3.Result{
			QueryName: result.Name,
			Series:    result.Series,
		})
	}

	var err error
	if len(errs) > 0 {
		err = fmt.Errorf("error in clickhouse queries")
	}
	return results, errQueriesByName, err
}

func (q *querier) runWindowBasedListQuery(ctx context.Context, params *v3.QueryRangeParamsV3, tsRanges []utils.LogsListTsRange) ([]*v3.Result, map[string]error, error) {
	res := make([]*v3.Result, 0)
	qName := ""
	pageSize := uint64(0)
	limit := uint64(0)
	offset := uint64(0)

	// Get query details and check order direction
	for name, v := range params.CompositeQuery.BuilderQueries {
		qName = name
		pageSize = v.PageSize
		limit = v.Limit
		offset = v.Offset

View on GitHub (pinned to 5069bf80b0)

Solutions

Check errQueriesByName for the failing query name and the underlying ClickHouse error
Log/print the generated SQL (raise query-service log level) and run it against ClickHouse directly to see the real error
Verify ClickHouse connectivity, table schema, and TTL settings; ensure the signoz cluster is healthy
Narrow the time range or add filters to reduce query cost

Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Try / catch

results, errByName, err := querier.QueryRange(ctx, orgID, params)
if err != nil && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "error in clickhouse queries") {
    for name, qerr := range errByName { /* handle per-query */ }
    return err
}

Prevention

Keep ClickHouse schema and query-service versions in sync
Test generated SQL on large datasets before shipping dashboards
Set sane timeouts and retry on transient ClickHouse errors

When it happens

Trigger: Calling QueryRange with a composite query of type v3.QueryBuilder/PromQLDirector where the generated ClickHouse SQL fails: syntax errors, missing tables/columns, ClickHouse connection issues, or execution timeouts.

Common situations: Schema mismatch after upgrade (missing columns in distributed tables), overly broad filters causing timeouts, wrong datasource type, ClickHouse cluster overload or OOM.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of SigNoz/signoz@5069bf80b0 (2026-08-28). Data as JSON: /api/errors/e57e619cfbc434b6. Report an issue: GitHub.