CUBESTORE_COMPACTION_READINESS_CHUNKS_THRESHOLD ({}) must no

Error message

CUBESTORE_COMPACTION_READINESS_CHUNKS_THRESHOLD ({}) must not be lower than CUBESTORE_CHUNKS_COUNT_THRESHOLD ({}), otherwise compaction will never reduce chunks below the readiness threshold

What it means

CubeStore's validate_config panics if CUBESTORE_COMPACTION_READINESS_CHUNKS_THRESHOLD is set lower than CUBESTORE_CHUNKS_COUNT_THRESHOLD. With such a configuration, compaction could never bring the chunk count below the readiness threshold, so the config is logically invalid and the server refuses to start.

Source

Thrown at rust/cubestore/cubestore/src/config/mod.rs:2279

    pub fn update_config(
        &self,
        update_config: impl FnOnce(ConfigObjImpl) -> ConfigObjImpl,
    ) -> Config {
        let new_config = self.config_obj.as_ref().clone();
        let config = Self {
            injector: self.injector.clone(),
            config_obj: Arc::new(update_config(new_config)),
        };
        config.validate_config();
        config
    }

    fn validate_config(&self) {
        if let Some(readiness) = self.config_obj.compaction_readiness_chunks_threshold {
            let compaction = self.config_obj.compaction_chunks_count_threshold;
            if readiness < compaction {
                panic!(
                    "CUBESTORE_COMPACTION_READINESS_CHUNKS_THRESHOLD ({}) must not be lower than \
                     CUBESTORE_CHUNKS_COUNT_THRESHOLD ({}), otherwise compaction will never \
                     reduce chunks below the readiness threshold",
                    readiness, compaction,
                );
            }
        }
    }

    pub async fn start_test<T>(&self, test_fn: impl FnOnce(CubeServices) -> T)
    where
        T: Future<Output = Result<(), CubeError>> + Send,
    {
        self.start_test_with_options::<_, T, _, _>(
            true,
            Option::<
                Box<
                    dyn FnOnce(Arc<Injector>) -> Pin<Box<dyn Future<Output = ()> + Send>>

View on GitHub (pinned to 7d981676b3)

Solutions

Raise CUBESTORE_COMPACTION_READINESS_CHUNKS_THRESHOLD to a value >= CUBESTORE_CHUNKS_COUNT_THRESHOLD
Lower CUBESTORE_CHUNKS_COUNT_THRESHOLD instead if that matches intent
Unset one or both variables to use the defaults, which are consistent

Example fix

// before
CUBESTORE_CHUNKS_COUNT_THRESHOLD=10
CUBESTORE_COMPACTION_READINESS_CHUNKS_THRESHOLD=5
// after
CUBESTORE_CHUNKS_COUNT_THRESHOLD=10
CUBESTORE_COMPACTION_READINESS_CHUNKS_THRESHOLD=20

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

// fail fast when readiness < compaction threshold
if [ -n "$CUBESTORE_COMPACTION_READINESS_CHUNKS_THRESHOLD" ] && [ -n "$CUBESTORE_CHUNKS_COUNT_THRESHOLD" ] \
   && [ "$CUBESTORE_COMPACTION_READINESS_CHUNKS_THRESHOLD" -lt "$CUBESTORE_CHUNKS_COUNT_THRESHOLD" ]; then
  echo "readiness threshold must be >= compaction threshold"; exit 1;
fi

Try / catch

null

Prevention

Always set the two compaction thresholds together
Keep readiness >= compaction threshold by convention (e.g. readiness = 2x compaction)
Document the invariant in your ops runbook
Unset both to use consistent built-in defaults

When it happens

Trigger: Configuring a readiness threshold smaller than the compaction trigger threshold, e.g. CUBESTORE_COMPACTION_READINESS_CHUNKS_THRESHOLD=5 with CUBESTORE_CHUNKS_COUNT_THRESHOLD=10.

Common situations: Operators tuning compaction knobs independently without realizing readiness must be >= the compaction trigger; template configs copied between environments with only one of the two variables overridden.

Understand the failure class

Background: "is not a valid" / "Invalid ... value" environment variable errors: how libraries validate env vars and what to do when they reject yours — this error's family across 48 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of cube-js/cube@7d981676b3 (2026-09-02). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d87a515087759c74. Report an issue: GitHub.