apache/cassandra · error · InvalidRequestException

You have not set a keyspace for this session

Error message

You have not set a keyspace for this session

What it means

InvalidRequestException thrown by ClientState.validateKeyspace() when a statement that must be executed in the context of a keyspace is issued while the session has no USE keyspace set and the statement itself does not name one. ClientState's keyspace is set via USE or a keyspace-qualified statement.

Source

Thrown at src/java/org/apache/cassandra/service/ClientState.java:736

                                                   "always use fully qualified table names (e.g. <keyspace>.<table>). " +
                                                   "Keyspace used: %s, statement keyspace: %s, statement id: %s", getRawKeyspace(), preparedKeyspace, statementId));
            issuedPreparedStatementsUseWarning = true;
        }
    }

    public void warnAboutUneligiblePreparedStatement(MD5Digest statementId)
    {
        if (!issuedWarningForUneligiblePreparedStatements)
        {
            ClientWarn.instance.warn(String.format("Prepared statements for other than modification and selection statements should be avoided, statement id: %s", statementId));
            issuedWarningForUneligiblePreparedStatements = true;
        }
    }

    private static void validateKeyspace(String keyspace)
    {
        if (keyspace == null)
            throw new InvalidRequestException("You have not set a keyspace for this session");
    }

    public AuthenticatedUser getUser()
    {
        return user;
    }

    private Set<Permission> authorize(IResource resource)
    {
        return user.getPermissions(resource);
    }

}

View on GitHub (pinned to 88fd0f6a0e)

Solutions

1. Run USE <keyspace>; in the session before issuing unqualified statements.
2. Fully qualify all table names: CREATE TABLE myks.t (...).
3. Set a default keyspace on the driver session (withKeyspace("myks") / setKeyspace).
4. In migration tools, prefix every object reference with the keyspace rather than relying on session state.

Example fix

// before
session.execute("CREATE TABLE users (id uuid PRIMARY KEY, name text)");
// after
session.execute("CREATE TABLE myapp.users (id uuid PRIMARY KEY, name text)");
// or
session.execute("USE myapp");

// Java driver
if (session.getKeyspace().isEmpty() && !statementIsKeyspaceQualified(query))
    throw new IllegalArgumentException("Query has no keyspace and session keyspace is unset");

When it happens

Trigger: Executing unqualified statements like 'CREATE TABLE t (...)', 'ALTER TABLE t ...', or a SELECT from an unqualified table on a session where setKeyspace/USE was never called; driver sessions created without a keyspace while sending schema statements that omit the keyspace name.

Common situations: cqlsh sessions where the user forgot 'USE myks;' after connecting; drivers configured without a keyspace and migrations using unqualified DDL; scripts copied from environments where USE was implicit.

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

• Index %s is not in the same keyspace as the queried table.
• Unknown keyspace: '" + keyspaceName + "'
• No keyspace has been specified. USE a keyspace, or explicitl
• Keyspace '${ks}' does not exist
• Invalid null value of timestamp

AI-assisted analysis of apache/cassandra@88fd0f6a0e (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/8b78e3cb76c97861. Report an issue: GitHub.