apache/cassandra · error · IllegalArgumentException

Cannot specify tokens without keyspace.

Error message

Cannot specify tokens without keyspace.

What it means

Nodetool 'rebuild' only accepts the --tokens (source-token selection) option together with an explicit keyspace; tokens filter which sources stream data for a specific keyspace rebuild. Passing --tokens with no keyspace is rejected client-side with this IllegalArgumentException before the JMX rebuild call.

Solutions

1. Add the keyspace: `nodetool rebuild -- <keyspace> -- --tokens <tokens>`
2. Drop the --tokens option if you intend a full (all-keyspace) rebuild
3. Run `nodetool help rebuild` to confirm argument syntax

Example fix

// before
nodetool rebuild -- --tokens 1,2,3
// after
nodetool rebuild -- myks -- --tokens 1,2,3

if [ -n "$TOKENS" ] && [ -z "$KEYSPACE" ]; then echo "--tokens requires a keyspace"; exit 2; fi

When it happens

Trigger: `nodetool rebuild -- --tokens <token,...>` (or -tk) without specifying a keyspace.

Common situations: Copying rebuild examples that use --tokens without noticing they also pass a keyspace; scripting a full-cluster rebuild where keyspace was omitted intentionally.

Understand the failure class

Background: "missing required argument" and "the following required arguments were not provided": what required-argument errors mean and how to fix them — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

• arguments for -F are json, yaml, table only.
• Need to give either a token for a new move operation, or…
• argument for sort must be one of
• argument for top must be a positive integer.
• Argument must have keyspace and table values.

AI-assisted analysis of apache/cassandra@88fd0f6a0e (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/bf3632ff88de6121. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at src/java/org/apache/cassandra/tools/nodetool/Rebuild.java:61

    private String tokens = null;

    @Option(paramLabel = "specific_sources",
            names = {"-s", "--sources"},
            description = "Use -s to specify hosts that this node should stream from when -ts is used. Multiple hosts should be separated using commas (e.g. 127.0.0.1,127.0.0.2,...)")
    private String specificSources = null;

    @Option(paramLabel = "exclude_local_dc",
            names = {"--exclude-local-dc"},
            description = "Use --exclude-local-dc to exclude nodes in local data center as source for streaming.")
    private boolean excludeLocalDatacenterNodes = false;

    @Override
    public void execute(NodeProbe probe)
    {
        // check the arguments
        if (keyspace == null && tokens != null)
        {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("Cannot specify tokens without keyspace.");
        }

        probe.rebuild(sourceDataCenterName, keyspace, tokens, specificSources, excludeLocalDatacenterNodes);
    }
}

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