apache/cassandra · error · ObjectNotFound

'{}' not found in keyspaces

Error message

'{}' not found in keyspaces

What it means

Shell.get_object_meta raises ObjectNotFound when name is None and the given keyspace ks is neither present in conn.metadata.keyspaces nor is there a current session keyspace to fall back on. It signals that the requested keyspace itself cannot be resolved.

Source

Thrown at pylib/cqlshlib/cqlshmain.py:618

            raise IndexNotFound("Index {} not found".format(idxname))

        return ksmeta.indexes[idxname]

    def get_view_meta(self, ksname, viewname):
        if ksname is None:
            ksname = self.current_keyspace
        ksmeta = self.get_keyspace_meta(ksname)

        if viewname not in ksmeta.views:
            raise MaterializedViewNotFound("Materialized view '{}' not found".format(viewname))
        return ksmeta.views[viewname]

    def get_object_meta(self, ks, name):
        if name is None:
            if ks and ks in self.conn.metadata.keyspaces:
                return self.conn.metadata.keyspaces[ks]
            elif self.current_keyspace is None:
                raise ObjectNotFound("'{}' not found in keyspaces".format(ks))
            else:
                name = ks
                ks = self.current_keyspace

        if ks is None:
            ks = self.current_keyspace

        ksmeta = self.get_keyspace_meta(ks)

        if name in ksmeta.tables:
            return ksmeta.tables[name]
        elif name in ksmeta.indexes:
            return ksmeta.indexes[name]
        elif name in ksmeta.views:
            return ksmeta.views[name]

        raise ObjectNotFound("'{}' not found in keyspace '{}'".format(name, ks))

View on GitHub (pinned to 88fd0f6a0e)

Solutions

  1. Correct the keyspace name (verify with DESCRIBE KEYSPACES).
  2. Issue USE <keyspace> first so current_keyspace provides a fallback.
  3. Refresh schema metadata if the keyspace was created recently.
  4. Create the keyspace with CREATE KEYSPACE if missing.

Example fix

// before
shell.get_object_meta('sales', None)  # ObjectNotFound, no current keyspace
// after
shell.get_object_meta('sales_db', None)  # valid keyspace name
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

if ks is None:
    ks = shell.current_keyspace
if ks is None or ks not in shell.conn.metadata.keyspaces:
    raise LookupError(f"Cannot resolve keyspace {ks!r}")

Type guard

def resolvable_keyspace(shell, ks):
    return ks is not None and ks in shell.conn.metadata.keyspaces

Try / catch

try:
    obj = shell.get_object_meta(ks, None)
except ObjectNotFound:
    obj = None  # surface available keyspaces to the caller

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: get_object_meta(ks, None) where ks is a nonexistent keyspace and self.current_keyspace is None (no USE issued); i.e. asking for an object at keyspace scope with an unresolvable/unknown keyspace and no default.

Common situations: DESCRIBE-type operations before any USE while passing a typo'd keyspace name; tab-completion/autocomplete in cqlsh before connecting context is established; scripts that assume a default keyspace exists.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Not found" and "does not exist" errors: why "Task not found", "No such folder", and "Can't find" fire when a lookup comes back empty — this error's family across 14 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of apache/cassandra@88fd0f6a0e (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/94333bbf91bd8aed. Report an issue: GitHub.