invoke-ai/InvokeAI · error · UnknownModelException

model not found

Error message

model not found

What it means

del_model deletes the row with the given key from the models table; if the DELETE affects zero rows it raises UnknownModelException('model not found'). It guarantees delete operations fail loudly rather than silently no-op on a stale key.

Source

Thrown at invokeai/app/services/model_records/model_records_sql.py:162

    def del_model(self, key: str) -> None:
        """
        Delete a model.

        :param key: Unique key for the model to be deleted

        Can raise an UnknownModelException
        """
        with self._db.transaction() as cursor:
            cursor.execute(
                """--sql
                DELETE FROM models
                WHERE id=?;
                """,
                (key,),
            )
            if cursor.rowcount == 0:
                raise UnknownModelException("model not found")

    def update_model(self, key: str, changes: ModelRecordChanges, allow_class_change: bool = False) -> AnyModelConfig:
        with self._db.transaction() as cursor:
            record = self.get_model(key)

            if allow_class_change:
                # The changes may cause the model config class to change. To handle this, we need to construct the new
                # class from scratch rather than trying to modify the existing instance in place.
                #
                # 1. Convert the existing record to a dict
                # 2. Apply the changes to the dict
                # 3. Attempt to create a new model config from the updated dict

                # 1. Convert the existing record to a dict
                record_as_dict = record.model_dump()

                # 2. Apply the changes to the dict
                for field_name in changes.model_fields_set:

View on GitHub (pinned to 0b6a024f2f)

Solutions

  1. Check existence with get_model/search before deleting, or catch UnknownModelException and treat it as already-deleted success (idempotent delete).
  2. Refresh the model list to obtain current keys.
  3. Verify you are operating on the intended InvokeAI database/root directory.

Example fix

# before
records.del_model(key)  # UnknownModelException on second run
# after
try:
    records.del_model(key)
except UnknownModelException:
    pass  # already deleted; idempotent
Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Validate before calling

def safe_del(records, key) -> bool:
    try:
        records.get_model(key)
    except UnknownModelException:
        return False
    records.del_model(key)
    return True

Try / catch

try:
    records.del_model(key)
except UnknownModelException:
    log.info('Model %s already deleted; treating as success', key)

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Calling del_model(key) with a key that was already deleted, never existed, or from a different database; racing concurrent deletes (two requests deleting the same model); using a key from a stale cached config.

Common situations: Double-clicking delete in the UI issuing two requests; automation scripts deleting models whose keys were fetched earlier in the run; pointing at a different DB file than expected (wrong InvokeAI root).

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of invoke-ai/InvokeAI@0b6a024f2f (2026-08-29). Data as JSON: /api/errors/8d6053a79013fd26. Report an issue: GitHub.