influxdata/influxdb · error · Error

must specify a 'db' parameter, or provide the database in…

Error message

must specify a 'db' parameter, or provide the database in the InfluxQL query

What it means

Raised when an InfluxQL request arrives without any database specified. The server needs a target database either via the `db` query parameter or embedded in the query itself (e.g. `SELECT ... FROM "mydb"."autogen".cpu`), and neither was present.

Solutions

Add the `db` query parameter to the request URL.
Or fully qualify the database in the query: SELECT * FROM "mydb"."autogen".cpu.
Fix client/driver configuration so the default database is passed through.

Example fix

// before
curl 'http://localhost:8181/query' --data-urlencode 'q=SELECT * FROM cpu'
// after
curl 'http://localhost:8181/query?db=mydb' --data-urlencode 'q=SELECT * FROM cpu'

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

if (!db && !/FROM\s+"[^"]+"\s*\./.test(q)) throw new Error('must provide db parameter or fully-qualified FROM');

Prevention

Set the db parameter in every request by default in your client wrapper
Fully qualify measurements as "db"."rp"."measurement" when omitting db
Document the required db parameter for teams migrating from 1.x defaults

When it happens

Trigger: Calling the /query endpoint with only `q=SELECT ... FROM cpu` and no `db` parameter, and the query string does not fully qualify the database.

Common situations: Copied curl examples that omit db; clients that in 1.x defaulted to a configured database; environment-specific configs where the db parameter was lost.

Understand the failure class

Background: "missing required argument" and "the following required arguments were not provided": what required-argument errors mean and how to fix them — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of influxdata/influxdb@06200ef96b (2026-09-19). Data as JSON: /api/errors/c42c6fb067f53ee1. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at influxdb3_server/src/http.rs:335

    #[error("io error: {0}")]
    Io(#[from] std::io::Error),

    #[error("query error: {0}")]
    Query(#[from] QueryExecutorError),

    #[error(transparent)]
    DbName(#[from] ValidateDbNameError),

    #[error("partial write of line protocol occurred")]
    PartialLpWrite(BufferedWriteRequest),

    #[error("error in InfluxQL statement: {0}")]
    InfluxqlRewrite(#[from] rewrite::Error),

    #[error("must provide only one InfluxQl statement per query")]
    InfluxqlSingleStatement,

    #[error("must specify a 'db' parameter, or provide the database in the InfluxQL query")]
    InfluxqlNoDatabase,

    #[error(
        "provided a database in both the parameters ({param_db}) and \
        query string ({query_db}) that do not match, if providing a query \
        that specifies the database, you can omit the 'database' parameter \
        from your request"
    )]
    InfluxqlDatabaseMismatch { param_db: String, query_db: String },

    #[error("Operation with object store failed: {0}")]
    ObjectStore(#[from] object_store::Error),

    #[error("heap dump failed: {0}")]
    HeapPprof(#[from] jemalloc_pprof_http::Error),

    #[error(transparent)]
    Catalog(#[from] CatalogError),

View on GitHub (pinned to 06200ef96b)