apache/cassandra · error · IllegalArgumentException

Cannot specify tokens without keyspace.

Error message

Cannot specify tokens without keyspace.

What it means

IllegalArgumentException from Rebuild.rebuild when nodetool rebuild is invoked with --tokens (or an equivalent token list) but no keyspace argument. Token-streaming rebuild is only meaningful in a keyspace context, so this argument combination is rejected up front before any streaming starts.

Source

Thrown at src/java/org/apache/cassandra/service/Rebuild.java:100

        if (sourceDc != null)
        {
            if (sourceDc.equals(DatabaseDescriptor.getLocalDataCenter()) && excludeLocalDatacenterNodes) // fail if source DC is local and --exclude-local-dc is set
                throw new IllegalArgumentException("Cannot set source data center to be local data center, when excludeLocalDataCenter flag is set");
            Set<String> availableDCs = ClusterMetadata.current().directory.knownDatacenters();
            if (!availableDCs.contains(sourceDc))
            {
                throw new IllegalArgumentException(String.format("Provided datacenter '%s' is not a valid datacenter, available datacenters are: %s",
                                                                 sourceDc, String.join(",", availableDCs)));
            }
        }

        try
        {
            // check the arguments
            if (keyspace == null && tokens != null)
            {
                throw new IllegalArgumentException("Cannot specify tokens without keyspace.");
            }

            logger.info("rebuild from dc: {}, {}, {}", sourceDc == null ? "(any dc)" : sourceDc,
                        keyspace == null ? "(All keyspaces)" : keyspace,
                        tokens == null ? "(All tokens)" : tokens);

            StorageService.instance.repairPaxosForTopologyChange("rebuild");
            ClusterMetadata metadata = ClusterMetadata.current();
            MovementMap rebuildMovements = movementMap(metadata, keyspace, tokens);
            logger.info("Rebuild movements: {}", rebuildMovements);
            RangeStreamer streamer = new RangeStreamer(metadata,
                                                       StreamOperation.REBUILD,
                                                       false, // no strict consistency when rebuilding
                                                       DatabaseDescriptor.getNodeProximity(),
                                                       StorageService.instance.streamStateStore,
                                                       false,
                                                       DatabaseDescriptor.getStreamingConnectionsPerHost(),
                                                       rebuildMovements,

View on GitHub (pinned to 88fd0f6a0e)

Solutions

1. Supply the keyspace the tokens belong to along with tokens
2. Drop the tokens argument to rebuild all keyspaces/ranges

Example fix

// before
nodetool rebuild --tokens "(-9223372036854775808,-4611686018427387904]"
// after
nodetool rebuild -ks my_keyspace --tokens "(-9223372036854775808,-4611686018427387904]"

if (tokens != null && keyspace == null)
    throw new IllegalArgumentException("tokens requires keyspace");

When it happens

Trigger: Calling rebuild(sourceDc, keyspace=null, tokens=<list>, ...) — e.g. `nodetool rebuild --initial-token ...` style usage without specifying -ks.

Common situations: Operator wants to rebuild only certain ranges after bootstrap issue but forgets the keyspace flag; scripting the JMX rebuild(String,String,String,String,boolean) with null keyspace but non-null tokens.

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

• Cannot set source data center to be local data center, when
• Provided datacenter '%s' is not a valid datacenter, availabl
• This host was specified as a source for rebuilding. Sources
• Unknown host specified ${stringHost}
• Unexpected string: ${tokenScanner.next()}

AI-assisted analysis of apache/cassandra@88fd0f6a0e (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/aca846081c6dedeb. Report an issue: GitHub.