apache/cassandra · error · InvalidRequestException

UDTs do not exist in target keyspace ' '.

Error message

UDTs %s do not exist in target keyspace '%s'.

What it means

CopyTableStatement.apply validation: the source table references user-defined types that are absent from the target keyspace, so the table cannot be copied until those UDTs exist there. Thrown as InvalidRequestException during schema transformation.

Solutions

1. Create the listed UDT(s) in the target keyspace with identical structure before re-running the copy
2. Copy the full schema (keyspace with types) rather than just the table
3. Run statements in dependency order: CREATE TYPE before CREATE TABLE

Example fix

// before
CREATE TABLE tgt.t ... -- fails: UDT addr missing in tgt
// after
CREATE TYPE tgt.addr (street text, zip int);
CREATE TABLE tgt.t ...

List<String> missing = sourceTable.columns.stream()
    .flatMap(c -> referencedUdts(c.type).stream())
    .filter(n -> !targetKs.types.get(UTF8Type.instance.decompose(n)).isPresent())
    .collect(Collectors.toList());
if (!missing.isEmpty()) throw new IllegalStateException("Missing UDTs in target: " + missing);

try { copyTable(...); }
catch (InvalidRequestException e) { if (e.getMessage().startsWith("UDTs ")) createMissingUdts(parseNames(e.getMessage()), targetKs); else throw e; }

When it happens

Trigger: CopyTableStatement.apply with one or more source UDT names having no counterpart (Optional.empty) in targetKeyspaceMeta.types; the message lists the missing names sorted.

Common situations: Copying a table into a fresh keyspace without first creating its UDTs; running schema-restore scripts out of order (table before types).

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

• Cannot add new field
• Cannot add new field
• Cannot drop non-frozen column
• Invalid field deletion operation for non-UDT column
• Non-frozen UDTs are not allowed inside collections:

AI-assisted analysis of apache/cassandra@88fd0f6a0e (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/ae8c09ac4d8c4f9c. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at src/java/org/apache/cassandra/cql3/statements/schema/CopyTableStatement.java:176

            {
                Optional<UserType> targetUserType = targetKeyspaceMeta.types.get(sourceUserTypeName);
                Optional<UserType> sourceUserType = sourceKeyspaceMeta.types.get(sourceUserTypeName);
                if (targetUserType.isPresent() && sourceUserType.isPresent())
                {
                    if (!sourceUserType.get().equalsWithOutKs(targetUserType.get()))
                        throw ire("Target keyspace '%s' has same UDT name '%s' as source keyspace '%s' but with different structure.",
                                  targetKeyspace,
                                  UTF8Type.instance.getString(targetUserType.get().name),
                                  sourceKeyspace);
                }
                else
                {
                    missingUserTypes.add(UTF8Type.instance.compose(sourceUserTypeName));
                }
            }

            if (!missingUserTypes.isEmpty())
                throw ire("UDTs %s do not exist in target keyspace '%s'.",
                          missingUserTypes.stream().sorted().collect(Collectors.joining(", ")),
                          targetKeyspace);
        }

        // Guardrail on columns per table
        Guardrails.columnsPerTable.guard(sourceTableMeta.columns().size(), targetTableName, false, state);

        sourceTableMeta.columns().forEach(columnMetadata -> {
            if (columnMetadata.type.isVector())
            {
                Guardrails.vectorTypeEnabled.ensureEnabled(columnMetadata.name.toString(), state);
                int dimensions = ((VectorType) columnMetadata.type).dimension;
                Guardrails.vectorDimensions.guard(dimensions, columnMetadata.name.toString(), false, state);
            }
        });

        // Guardrail to check whether creation of new COMPACT STORAGE tables is allowed
        if (sourceTableMeta.isCompactTable())

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