languagetool-org/languagetool · error · UnsupportedPatternRuleException

No items found in rule that can be used to build a search qu

Error message

No items found in rule that can be used to build a search query: + rule

What it means

Search-index guard in buildRelaxedQuery: none of the rule's pattern tokens yielded a usable Lucene clause (all were unsupported or empty), so the resulting BooleanQuery would match nothing.

Source

Thrown at languagetool-wikipedia/src/main/java/org/languagetool/dev/index/PatternRuleQueryBuilder.java:86

   * Iterate over all elements, ignore those not supported, add the other ones to a BooleanQuery.
   * @throws UnsupportedPatternRuleException if no query could be created for the rule
   */
  public Query buildRelaxedQuery(AbstractPatternRule rule) throws UnsupportedPatternRuleException {
    BooleanQuery.Builder builder = new BooleanQuery.Builder();
    for (PatternToken patternToken : rule.getPatternTokens()) {
      try {
        BooleanClause clause = makeQuery(patternToken);
        builder.add(clause);
      } catch (UnsupportedPatternRuleException e) {
        //System.out.println("Ignoring because it's not supported: " + element + ": " + e);
        // cannot handle - okay to ignore, as we may return too broad matches
      } catch (Exception e) {
        throw new RuntimeException("Could not create query for rule " + rule.getId(), e);
      }
    }
    BooleanQuery query = builder.build();
    if (query.clauses().isEmpty()) {
      throw new UnsupportedPatternRuleException("No items found in rule that can be used to build a search query: " + rule);
    }
    return query;
  }

  private BooleanClause makeQuery(PatternToken patternToken) throws UnsupportedPatternRuleException {
    checkUnsupportedElement(patternToken);

    String termStr = patternToken.getString();
    String pos = patternToken.getPOStag();

    BooleanClause termQuery = getTermQueryOrNull(patternToken, termStr);
    BooleanClause posQuery = getPosQueryOrNull(patternToken, pos);

    if (termQuery != null && posQuery != null) {
      // if both term and POS are set, we create a query where both are at the same position
      if (mustOccur(termQuery) && mustOccur(posQuery)) {
        SpanQuery spanQueryForTerm = asSpanQuery(termQuery);
        SpanQuery spanQueryForPos = asSpanQuery(posQuery);

View on GitHub (pinned to 2e990059ce)

Solutions

1. Give the rule at least one token with a term or POS tag
2. Skip this rule when indexing; it cannot be searched with the current builder

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at languagetool-wikipedia/src/main/java/org/languagetool/dev/index/PatternRuleQueryBuilder.java:86 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of languagetool-org/languagetool@2e990059ce (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/4657f05596cb4b43. Report an issue: GitHub.