What causes "Context ${contextId} doesn't exist" in cube-js/cube?

Check the context id against the keys defined in your contexts configuration (log Object.keys(contextDefinitions)).

cube-js/cube · error · UserError

Context ${contextId} doesn't exist

Error message

Context ${contextId} doesn't exist

What it means

queriesForContext looks up a pre-defined (multitenant) context definition by id in contextDefinitions. If the id is unknown, it throws this UserError instead of returning an empty list, so misconfiguration fails loudly. Contexts are defined via contextToConfigs / context definitions and map queries to cubes per context.

Source

Thrown at packages/cubejs-schema-compiler/src/compiler/CubeToMetaTransformer.ts:388

          name: `${cubeName}.${it.name}`,
        })),
        folders: flatFolders,
        nestedFolders,
      },
    };
  }

  public queriesForContext(contextId: string | null | undefined): TransformedCube[] {
    // return All queries if no context pass
    if (contextId == null || contextId.length === 0) {
      return this.queries;
    }

    const context = (this.contextEvaluator as any).contextDefinitions[contextId];

    // If contextId is wrong
    if (context == null) {
      throw new UserError(`Context ${contextId} doesn't exist`);
    }

    // As for now context works on the cubes level
    return this.queries.filter(
      (query) => context.contextMembers.includes(query.config.name)
    );
  }

  /**
   * @protected
   */
  protected isVisible(symbol: any, defaultValue: boolean): boolean {
    if (symbol.public != null) {
      return symbol.public;
    }

    // TODO: Deprecated, should be removed in the future
    if (symbol.visible != null) {

View on GitHub (pinned to 7d981676b3)

Solutions

Check the context id against the keys defined in your contexts configuration (log Object.keys(contextDefinitions)).
Fix the renamed/typoed id in the calling code.
Ensure the config defining contexts is actually passed to DataSchemaCompiler before calling queriesForContext.
Guard calls: only invoke for ids present in the compiled context list.

Example fix

// before
const queries = compiler.queriesForContext('tenant-a');
// after
const contexts = (compiler.contextEvaluator as any).contextDefinitions;
if (!(contextId in contexts)) throw new Error(`Unknown context: ${contextId}`);
const queries = compiler.queriesForContext(contextId);

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

const defs = (compiler.contextEvaluator as any).contextDefinitions || {};
if (!(contextId in defs)) {
  throw new Error(`Unknown context id: ${contextId}. Available: ${Object.keys(defs).join(', ')}`);
}

Type guard

function contextExists(compiler, id) { return id in ((compiler.contextEvaluator as any)?.contextDefinitions || {}); }

Try / catch

try { const qs = compiler.queriesForContext(id); } catch (e) { if (/doesn't exist/.test(e.message)) { console.error('Fix context id or contexts config'); } throw e; }

Prevention

Centralize context id constants to avoid typos
Log available context ids when wiring multitenant compilation
Ensure contexts config is loaded before querying contexts

When it happens

Trigger: Calling `compiler.queriesForContext('someContextId')` where the id was never registered, was renamed, or the config defining contexts wasn't passed to the compiler (so contextDefinitions is empty).

Common situations: Typo in the context id when generating schema per context in multitenant deployments; contexts renamed in config but the calling code still uses old ids; orchestration code calling queriesForContext before contexts are compiled.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of cube-js/cube@7d981676b3 (2026-09-02). Data as JSON: /api/errors/c7d9ec90f4cc4a24. Report an issue: GitHub.