apache/cassandra · error · NoKeyspaceError

Not in any keyspace.

Error message

Not in any keyspace.

What it means

The COPY command (do_copy) requires a target keyspace: it uses the keyspace from the COPY statement or the session's current keyspace. If neither exists (no USE was issued and COPY did not specify one), it raises NoKeyspaceError('Not in any keyspace.').

Solutions

1. Qualify the table in the COPY statement: COPY ks.table TO 'file.csv'.
2. Run USE <keyspace> before issuing COPY.
3. Fix scripts to always set a keyspace at session start.
4. If the keyspace was dropped, recreate it or point the session at a valid one.

Example fix

// before
COPY users TO 'users.csv';  -- NoKeyspaceError (no USE issued)
// after
USE my_ks;
COPY users TO 'users.csv';
// or
COPY my_ks.users TO 'users.csv';

if parsed.get_binding('ksname') is None and shell.current_keyspace is None:
    raise ValueError("COPY requires a keyspace: USE one or qualify ks.table")

def copy_has_keyspace(shell, ksname_binding):
    return ksname_binding is not None or shell.current_keyspace is not None

try:
    shell.do_copy(statement)
except NoKeyspaceError:
    # prompt: run USE <keyspace> or qualify COPY ks.table
    pass

When it happens

Trigger: Running COPY <table> TO/FROM without a 'COPY ks.table' qualification while the session has no current keyspace (no USE executed, or the keyspace was dropped clearing context).

Common situations: Fresh cqlsh session where the user immediately runs COPY without USE; scripts copied from examples that omit the keyspace; session whose keyspace was dropped by another client.

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

• Keyspace %r not found.
• ' ' not found in keyspaces
• Can not create a keyspace with MetaReplicationStrategy
• can't interpret %r as a date with format
• Can't open %r for reading: no matching file found

AI-assisted analysis of apache/cassandra@88fd0f6a0e (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/164f0a81e2881638. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at pylib/cqlshlib/cqlshmain.py:1420

          PAGETIMEOUT=10           - the page timeout in seconds for fetching results
          BEGINTOKEN=''            - the minimum token string to consider when exporting data
          ENDTOKEN=''              - the maximum token string to consider when exporting data
          MAXREQUESTS=6            - the maximum number of requests each worker process can work on in parallel
          MAXOUTPUTSIZE='-1'       - the maximum size of the output file measured in number of lines,
                                     beyond this maximum the output file will be split into segments,
                                     -1 means unlimited.
          FLOATPRECISION=5         - the number of digits displayed after the decimal point for cql float values
          DOUBLEPRECISION=12       - the number of digits displayed after the decimal point for cql double values

        When entering CSV data on STDIN, you can use the sequence "\."
        on a line by itself to end the data input.
        """

        ks = self.cql_unprotect_name(parsed.get_binding('ksname', None))
        if ks is None:
            ks = self.current_keyspace
            if ks is None:
                raise NoKeyspaceError("Not in any keyspace.")
        table = self.cql_unprotect_name(parsed.get_binding('cfname'))
        columns = parsed.get_binding('colnames', None)
        if columns is not None:
            columns = list(map(self.cql_unprotect_name, columns))
        else:
            # default to all known columns
            columns = self.get_column_names(ks, table)

        fname = parsed.get_binding('fname', None)
        if fname is not None:
            fname = self.cql_unprotect_value(fname)

        copyoptnames = list(map(str.lower, parsed.get_binding('optnames', ())))
        copyoptvals = list(map(self.cql_unprotect_value, parsed.get_binding('optvals', ())))
        opts = dict(list(zip(copyoptnames, copyoptvals)))

        direction = parsed.get_binding('dir').upper()
        if direction == 'FROM':

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