hasura/graphql-engine · error

no data provided

Error message

no data provided

What it means

CreateSeedFile refuses to create a seed file when opts.Data is nil, since it has no content to write. This is an argument-validation error: the caller must always supply a non-nil io.Reader (the data to seed) before a timestamped <timestamp>_<name>.sql file can be generated.

Source

Thrown at cli/seed/create.go:34

	"github.com/spf13/afero"
)

// CreateSeedOpts has the list of options required
// to create a seed file.
type CreateSeedOpts struct {
	UserProvidedSeedName string
	// DirectoryPath in which seed file should be created
	DirectoryPath string
	Data          io.Reader
	Database      string
}

// CreateSeedFile creates a .sql file according to the arguments
// it'll return full filepath and an error if any.
func CreateSeedFile(fs afero.Fs, opts CreateSeedOpts) (*string, error) {
	var op internalerrors.Op = "seed.CreateSeedFile"
	if opts.Data == nil {
		return nil, internalerrors.E(op, errors.New("no data provided"))
	}

	const fileExtension = "sql"

	timestamp := strconv.FormatInt(time.Now().UnixNano()/int64(time.Millisecond), 10)
	// filename will be in format <timestamp>_<userProvidedSeedName>.sql
	filenameWithTimeStamp := fmt.Sprintf(
		"%s_%s.%s",
		timestamp,
		opts.UserProvidedSeedName,
		fileExtension,
	)
	fullFilePath := filepath.Join(
		filepath.Join(opts.DirectoryPath, opts.Database),
		filenameWithTimeStamp,
	)

	// Write contents to file

View on GitHub (pinned to 724551b9ae)

Solutions

1. Always set CreateSeedOpts.Data to a non-nil io.Reader (e.g. the result of ExportDatadump or the open source file)
2. Check for nil before calling and fail early with a clearer message upstream
3. If Data comes from another step, verify that step succeeded before creating the seed file

Example fix

// before
opts := seed.CreateSeedOpts{ SeedName: "demo" }
path, err := seed.CreateSeedFile(fs, opts)

// after
opts := seed.CreateSeedOpts{ SeedName: "demo", Data: bytes.NewReader(sqlBytes) }
path, err := seed.CreateSeedFile(fs, opts)

if opts.Data == nil {
    return errors.New("refusing to create seed: opts.Data is required")
}
path, err := seed.CreateSeedFile(fs, opts)

func hasSeedData(opts seed.CreateSeedOpts) bool {
    return opts.Data != nil
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling seed.CreateSeedFile(fs, CreateSeedOpts{...}) without setting the Data field, or passing a nil *os.File / nil reader as the export source.

Common situations: Building a seed programmatically and forgetting the Data field, refactoring away the file-reading code that used to populate Data, or a nil pointer from a previous failed operation being forwarded.

Related errors

• expected extension to be one of %v but got %s on file %s
• invalid schema/table provided "%s"
• framework %s is not found
• starter kit is not available for framework %s
• unknown shell: %s. Use bash or zsh

AI-assisted analysis of hasura/graphql-engine@724551b9ae (2026-08-28). Data as JSON: /api/errors/4f48fa0c911f3089. Report an issue: GitHub.