cayleygraph/cayley · error

error updating node

Error message

error updating node: %v

What it means

This error is returned by QuadStore.updateNodeBy when the underlying NoSQL document store (qs.db) fails to run an Update/Upsert/Inc operation on the nodes collection while applying a delta. It wraps the driver-level error from the Update(...).Do(ctx) call. The node's fldSize counter could not be incremented (or the node upserted), so the ApplyDeltas transaction for this node fails.

Solutions

1. Inspect the wrapped %v cause (the driver error) — fix the underlying database connectivity or error first.
2. Verify the NoSQL connection URI/config in the Cayley spec file and test connectivity with a simple read before writing.
3. Retry ApplyDeltas; nosql updates are per-key upserts so re-applying the same delta batch after failure is generally safe for idempotent deltas.
4. Check ctx cancellation/timeouts — increase timeout or split the delta batch into smaller ApplyDeltas calls.
5. Upgrade/verify the specific NoSQL driver version matches what your Cayley build expects.

Example fix

// before
err := qs.db.Update(colNodes, key).Upsert(d).Inc(fldSize, inc).Do(ctx)
// after
ctx, cancel := context.WithTimeout(ctx, 30*time.Second)
defer cancel()
if err := qs.db.Update(colNodes, key).Upsert(d).Inc(fldSize, inc).Do(ctx); err != nil {
    return fmt.Errorf("error updating node: %w", err)
}

// before ApplyDeltas, ping the store
if _, err := store.Quads(ctx); err != nil {
    return fmt.Errorf("store unreachable, skipping ApplyDeltas: %w", err)
}
if err := ctx.Err(); err != nil {
    return err
}

if err := store.ApplyDeltas(ctx, deltas, true); err != nil {
    var wrapped interface{ Unwrap() error }
    if errors.As(err, &wrapped) {
        log.Printf("node update failed, cause: %v", errors.Unwrap(err))
    }
    // retry idempotent delta batch with backoff
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling ApplyDeltas with a delta on a node when the backing NoSQL database (e.g. MongoDB, Bolt) is unavailable, the ctx is cancelled/timed out, the key/collection is corrupted or locked, or the driver rejects the update (e.g. document too large, connection dropped mid-write).

Common situations: MongoDB connection pool exhaustion or replica stepdown during bulk quad writes; context deadline exceeded during large ApplyDeltas batches; misconfigured NoSQL URI so the store is unreachable; concurrent writers hitting a locked Bolt/single-writer database.

Related errors

• quad update failed
• error checking quad validity
• error cleaning up nodes
• unexpected type for bool field: %T
• unexpected type for float field: %T

AI-assisted analysis of cayleygraph/cayley@81dcd7d73e (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/3a7ab4fa34796c54. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at graph/nosql/quadstore.go:249

		return ""
	}
	h := quad.HashOf(s)
	return base64.StdEncoding.EncodeToString(h)
}

func (qs *QuadStore) nameToKey(name quad.Value) nosql.Key {
	node := qs.hashOf(name)
	return node.key()
}

func (qs *QuadStore) updateNodeBy(ctx context.Context, key nosql.Key, name quad.Value, inc int) error {
	if inc == 0 {
		return nil
	}
	d := toDocumentValue(&qs.opt, name)
	err := qs.db.Update(colNodes, key).Upsert(d).Inc(fldSize, inc).Do(ctx)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("error updating node: %v", err)
	}
	return nil
}

func (qs *QuadStore) cleanupNodes(ctx context.Context, keys []nosql.Key) error {
	err := qs.db.Delete(colNodes).Keys(keys...).WithFields(nosql.FieldFilter{
		Path:   []string{fldSize},
		Filter: nosql.Equal,
		Value:  nosql.Int(0),
	}).Do(ctx)
	if err != nil {
		err = fmt.Errorf("error cleaning up nodes: %v", err)
	}
	return err
}

func (qs *QuadStore) updateQuad(ctx context.Context, q quad.Quad, proc graph.Procedure) error {
	var setname string

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