languagetool-org/languagetool · error · BadRequestException

You must specify enabled rules or categories when using enab

Error message

You must specify enabled rules or categories when using enabledOnly=true

What it means

enabledOnly=true restricts the check to explicitly enabled rules, so at least one enabled rule or category must be given. checkText throws BadRequestException when enabledOnly=true is set but both enabledRules and enabledCategories are empty, logging INVALID_REQUEST metrics.

Source

Thrown at languagetool-server/src/main/java/org/languagetool/server/TextChecker.java:567

    if (shouldRunRestrictedRulesTest(params, agent, lang, abTest)) {
      log.info("Running test with restricted rules for user: {}, language: {}, client: {}",
        params.getOrDefault("username", ""), lang.getShortCodeWithCountryAndVariant(), agent);
      useEnabledOnly = true;
      enabledRules = onlyTestRules;
      // need to clear these settings, leads to conflict with useEnabledOnly otherwise
      disabledRules = Collections.emptyList();
      disabledCategories = Collections.emptyList();
    }


    if ((disabledRules.size() > 0 || disabledCategories.size() > 0) && useEnabledOnly) {
      ServerMetricsCollector.getInstance().logRequestError(ServerMetricsCollector.RequestErrorType.INVALID_REQUEST);
      throw new BadRequestException("You cannot specify disabled rules or categories using enabledOnly=true");
    }
    if (enabledRules.isEmpty() && enabledCategories.isEmpty() && useEnabledOnly) {
      ServerMetricsCollector.getInstance().logRequestError(ServerMetricsCollector.RequestErrorType.INVALID_REQUEST);
      throw new BadRequestException("You must specify enabled rules or categories when using enabledOnly=true");
    }

    boolean enableTempOffRules = "true".equals(params.get("enableTempOffRules"));
    boolean useQuerySettings = enabledRules.size() > 0 || disabledRules.size() > 0 ||
            enabledCategories.size() > 0 || disabledCategories.size() > 0 || enableTempOffRules;
    boolean allowIncompleteResults = "true".equals(params.get("allowIncompleteResults"));
    JLanguageTool.Mode mode = ServerTools.getMode(params);
    JLanguageTool.Level level = ServerTools.getLevel(params);
    String[] toneTagNames = params.get("toneTags") != null ? params.get("toneTags").split(",") : null;
    Set<ToneTag> toneTags = new HashSet<>(ToneTag.values().length);
    if (toneTagNames != null) {
      if (toneTagNames.length == 1 && toneTagNames[0].isEmpty()) { //&toneTags=
        toneTags.add(ToneTag.ALL_WITHOUT_GOAL_SPECIFIC);
      } else {
        for (String toneTagName : toneTagNames) {
          if (toneTagNames.length > 1 && (toneTagName.equals("NO_TONE_RULE") || toneTagName.equals("ALL_TONE_RULES"))) { //&toneTags=ALL_TONE_RULES or //&toneTags=NO_TONE_RULE
            log.warn("NO_TONE_RULE and ALL_TONE_RULES will be ignored if more than one toneTag is in params.");
            continue;

View on GitHub (pinned to 2e990059ce)

Solutions

1. Provide at least one rule id via enabledRules or one category via enabledCategories together with enabledOnly=true
2. Disable enabledOnly if you intend a full check with default rules
3. In client code, only send enabledOnly=true when the enabled-rule list is non-empty

Example fix

// before
curl -d text=... -d language=en-US -d enabledOnly=true http://server/v2/check
// after
curl -d text=... -d language=en-US -d enabledOnly=true -d enabledRules=MORFOLOGIK_RULE_EN_US http://server/v2/check

if (params.enabledOnly && !(params.enabledRules?.length) && !(params.enabledCategories?.length)) {
  throw new Error('enabledOnly=true requires enabledRules or enabledCategories');
}

function enabledOnlyIsValid(p) {
  return !p.enabledOnly || (Array.isArray(p.enabledRules) && p.enabledRules.length > 0) || (Array.isArray(p.enabledCategories) && p.enabledCategories.length > 0);
}

When it happens

Trigger: Sending /v2/check with enabledOnly=true and neither enabledRules nor enabledCategories parameters — the enable lists are empty so the request would match nothing.

Common situations: A UI toggle 'only check selected rules' switched on without any rules actually selected; programmatic clients that forward enabledOnly from config but compute enabled rule lists lazily/empty.

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

• You can specify 'noopLanguages' only when also using 'langua
• You specified altLanguage '{langCode}', but for this languag
• You cannot specify disabled rules or categories using enable
• Missing 'text' or 'data' parameter
• 'language' parameter missing

AI-assisted analysis of languagetool-org/languagetool@2e990059ce (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/72383b3c57f701d4. Report an issue: GitHub.