SigNoz/signoz · error

startTimeMillis is required

Error message

startTimeMillis is required

What it means

FilterAttributeValueRequest.Validate() requires a non-zero StartTimeMillis. The value lookup is a time-bounded query over log/span data, so a start timestamp is mandatory.

Source

Thrown at pkg/query-service/model/v3/v3.go:328

	AggregateOperator          AggregateOperator    `json:"aggregateOperator"`
	AggregateAttribute         string               `json:"aggregateAttribute"`
	FilterAttributeKey         string               `json:"filterAttributeKey"`
	FilterAttributeKeyDataType AttributeKeyDataType `json:"filterAttributeKeyDataType"`
	TagType                    TagType              `json:"tagType"`
	SearchText                 string               `json:"searchText"`
	Limit                      int                  `json:"limit"`
	ExistingFilterItems        []FilterItem         `json:"existingFilterItems"`
	MetricNames                []string             `json:"metricNames"`
	IncludeRelated             bool                 `json:"includeRelated"`
}

func (f *FilterAttributeValueRequest) Validate() error {
	if f.FilterAttributeKey == "" {
		return fmt.Errorf("filterAttributeKey is required")
	}

	if f.StartTimeMillis == 0 {
		return fmt.Errorf("startTimeMillis is required")
	}

	if f.EndTimeMillis == 0 {
		return fmt.Errorf("endTimeMillis is required")
	}

	if f.Limit == 0 {
		f.Limit = 100
	}

	if f.Limit > 1000 {
		return fmt.Errorf("limit must be less than 1000")
	}

	if f.ExistingFilterItems != nil {
		for _, value := range f.ExistingFilterItems {
			if value.Key.Key == "" {
				return fmt.Errorf("existingFilterItems must contain a valid key")

View on GitHub (pinned to 5069bf80b0)

Solutions

1. Set startTimeMillis to a unix-epoch millisecond value (e.g. time.Now().Add(-15*time.Minute).UnixMilli())
2. Double-check you're sending milliseconds, not seconds
3. Match the exact JSON key startTimeMillis

Example fix

// before
{"filterAttributeKey":"http.method","endTimeMillis":1700003600000}

// after
{"filterAttributeKey":"http.method","startTimeMillis":1700000000000,"endTimeMillis":1700003600000}

if req.StartTimeMillis <= 0 { return errors.New("startTimeMillis (unix ms) is required") }

func hasStartTime(r *v3.FilterAttributeValueRequest) bool { return r != nil && r.StartTimeMillis > 0 }

When it happens

Trigger: POSTing to the attribute_value autocomplete endpoint with startTimeMillis omitted or 0 — typically because the client only set endTimeMillis, or serialized timestamps under a wrong key name.

Common situations: Clients passing seconds instead of expecting milliseconds and then zero-truncating, missing time-picker state in the UI, or field-name typos (startTime vs start in older API versions).

Understand the failure class

Background: "Missing required field" and "field is required" errors: why libraries reject payloads that omit mandatory fields — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

• endTimeMillis is required
• filterAttributeKey is required
• query is empty
• composite query is required
• composite query must contain at least one query type

AI-assisted analysis of SigNoz/signoz@5069bf80b0 (2026-08-28). Data as JSON: /api/errors/9bff0420e695c51f. Report an issue: GitHub.