getredash/redash · error · Exception

Advanced queries are not supported

Error message

Advanced queries are not supported

What it means

The legacy Elasticsearch runner only supports Lucene-style query-string searches sent as HTTP GET. If the query does not match the simple format, execution falls into the else branch of the parsing logic and raises 'Advanced queries are not supported'. Full JSON DSL queries (HTTP POST bodies) were never implemented (see the TODO in the source).

Source

Thrown at redash/query_runner/elasticsearch.py:409

            if isinstance(query_data, str):
                _from = 0
                while True:
                    query_size = size if limit >= (_from + size) else (limit - _from)
                    self._execute_simple_query(
                        url + "&size={0}".format(query_size),
                        self.auth,
                        _from,
                        mappings,
                        result_fields,
                        result_columns,
                        result_rows,
                    )
                    _from += size
                    if _from >= limit:
                        break
            else:
                # TODO: Handle complete ElasticSearch queries (JSON based sent over HTTP POST)
                raise Exception("Advanced queries are not supported")

            data = {"columns": result_columns, "rows": result_rows}
        except requests.HTTPError as e:
            logger.exception(e)
            r = e.response
            error = "Failed to execute query. Return Code: {0}   Reason: {1}".format(r.status_code, r.text)
            data = None
        except requests.exceptions.RequestException as e:
            logger.exception(e)
            error = "Connection refused"
            data = None

        return data, error


class ElasticSearch(BaseElasticSearch):
    @classmethod
    def enabled(cls):

View on GitHub (pinned to ca79fe988d)

Solutions

1. Rewrite the query as a Lucene query-string (e.g. status:active AND age:>30) instead of JSON DSL
2. Switch the data source to the 'ElasticSearch (new)' / elasticsearch2 query runner, which supports JSON DSL via POST
3. If stuck on the legacy runner, wrap the search in an external API and use the JSON URL query runner

Example fix

// before
{"query": {"term": {"status": "active"}}}
// after
status:active

import json

def is_simple_query(q: str) -> bool:
    q = q.strip()
    if not q:
        return False
    if q.startswith("{") or q.startswith("["):
        try:
            json.loads(q)
            return False  # JSON DSL not supported by legacy runner
        except ValueError:
            pass
    return True

try:
    result, error = runner.run_query(query, user)
except Exception as e:
    if "Advanced queries are not supported" in str(e):
        raise UserError("Rewrite as a Lucene query string or switch to the Elasticsearch2 data source")

When it happens

Trigger: Running a query whose parsed structure is not a simple query-string search — e.g. pasting a full Elasticsearch JSON DSL body ({"query": {"bool": ...}}) or any query that the runner's naive parser cannot reduce to a query string plus pagination parameters.

Common situations: Users copying curl examples from the Elasticsearch docs into Redash, migrating from Kibana saved queries, expecting the DSL support that the newer elasticsearch2 runner has.

Related errors

• Redash failed to parse the results it got from Elasticsearch
• Failed to execute query. Return Code: {0} Reason: {1}
• Connection refused
• Redash failed to parse the results it got from Elasticsearch

AI-assisted analysis of getredash/redash@ca79fe988d (2026-08-28). Data as JSON: /api/errors/1e2a6f5869d65312. Report an issue: GitHub.