googleapis/mcp-toolbox · error

failed to get table

Error message

failed to get table: %w

What it means

This error wraps failures from the Bigtable Admin client's TableInfo call in Source.GetTable. The library wraps the underlying error with fmt.Errorf("failed to get table: %w", err); the real cause (table not found, permission denied, network) is preserved in the error chain. Resolve the wrapped gRPC status to diagnose.

Solutions

1. Verify tableId is the bare table ID (e.g. "my-table", not "projects/p/instances/i/tables/my-table") and exists via list_tables.
2. Check IAM roles (roles/bigtable.viewer or admin) for the service account.
3. If using the emulator, confirm BIGTABLE_EMULATOR_HOST is set and the emulator is running.
4. Retry transient gRPC failures with backoff; inspect status.Code(err) for NotFound vs PermissionDenied.

Example fix

// before: raw tableId from user input may include a full path
err := s.Admin.TableInfo(ctx, tableId)
// after: normalize input to a bare table ID first
tableId = path.Base(tableId)
err := s.Admin.TableInfo(ctx, tableId)

// Go: normalize and validate table ID before lookup
tableId = path.Base(strings.TrimSpace(tableId))
if !regexp.MustCompile(`^[_a-zA-Z0-9][-_.a-zA-Z0-9]*$`).MatchString(tableId) {
    return fmt.Errorf("invalid table id: %q", tableId)
}

func isTableNotFound(err error) bool {
    return status.Code(err) == codes.NotFound
}

table, err := src.GetTable(ctx, tableId)
if err != nil {
    if status.Code(err) == codes.NotFound {
        return fmt.Errorf("table %q does not exist", tableId)
    }
    return fmt.Errorf("get table: %w", err)
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling the bigtable get_table tool where s.Admin.TableInfo(ctx, tableId) returns an error: tableId does not exist in the instance, caller lacks bigtable.tables.get, or the gRPC metadata/table administer client fails (timeout, endpoint unreachable).

Common situations: Querying a table by name instead of its plain ID (IDs exclude the project/instance prefix); table deleted by another process; service account without Bigtable Viewer/Admin; transient network errors or emulator misconfiguration (BIGTABLE_EMULATOR_HOST).

Related errors

• failed to create table
• failed to delete cluster
• failed to delete table
• failed to update cluster
• failed to create column family

AI-assisted analysis of googleapis/mcp-toolbox@8cc6e09de2 (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/82134add0bec8f0c. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at internal/sources/bigtable/admin_wrappers.go:134

	err := s.InstanceAdmin.UpdateCluster(ctx, instanceId, clusterId, serveNodes)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to update cluster: %w", err)
	}
	return map[string]string{"status": "cluster updated successfully"}, nil
}

func (s *Source) DeleteCluster(ctx context.Context, instanceId, clusterId string) (any, error) {
	err := s.InstanceAdmin.DeleteCluster(ctx, instanceId, clusterId)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to delete cluster: %w", err)
	}
	return map[string]string{"status": "cluster deleted successfully"}, nil
}

func (s *Source) GetTable(ctx context.Context, tableId string) (any, error) {
	table, err := s.Admin.TableInfo(ctx, tableId)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to get table: %w", err)
	}
	return table, nil
}

func (s *Source) CreateTable(ctx context.Context, tableId, columnFamily string) (any, error) {
	err := s.Admin.CreateTable(ctx, tableId)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to create table: %w", err)
	}
	if columnFamily != "" {
		if err := s.Admin.CreateColumnFamily(ctx, tableId, columnFamily); err != nil {
			return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to create column family: %w", err)
		}
	}
	return map[string]string{"status": "table created successfully"}, nil
}

func (s *Source) DeleteTable(ctx context.Context, tableId string) (any, error) {

View on GitHub (pinned to 8cc6e09de2)