mem0ai/mem0 · error · Error

Unsupported filter operator '${op}' for Pinecone

Error message

Unsupported filter operator '${op}' for Pinecone

What it means

When translating mem0 SearchFilters to Pinecone metadata filter syntax, each operator in an object-valued filter is switched over. Recognized operators (eq, ne, gt, gte, lt, lte, in, nin) are mapped; contains/icontains are skipped with a warning because Pinecone metadata filtering does not support substring matching; any other operator throws this error.

Source

Thrown at mem0-ts/src/oss/src/vector_stores/pinecone.ts:227

              pineconeOps["$lt"] = opVal;
              break;
            case "lte":
              pineconeOps["$lte"] = opVal;
              break;
            case "in":
              pineconeOps["$in"] = opVal;
              break;
            case "nin":
              pineconeOps["$nin"] = opVal;
              break;
            case "contains":
            case "icontains":
              console.warn(
                `Filter operator '${op}' is not supported by Pinecone metadata filters; skipping.`,
              );
              break;
            default:
              throw new Error(
                `Unsupported filter operator '${op}' for Pinecone`,
              );
          }
        }
        if (Object.keys(pineconeOps).length > 0) {
          result[key] = pineconeOps;
        }
        continue;
      }

      result[key] = { $eq: value };
    }

    return Object.keys(result).length > 0 ? result : undefined;
  }

  async insert(
    vectors: number[][],

View on GitHub (pinned to 001c235229)

Solutions

1. Use only translated operators: eq, ne, gt, gte, lt, lte, in, nin
2. Replace contains/icontains substring filters with exact-match (eq/in) on pre-normalized metadata values, since Pinecone cannot do substring matching
3. Remove Mongo '$' prefixes from operator names
4. If you need contains semantics, store a lowercased exact field (e.g. tag_exact) and filter with eq

Example fix

// before
const r = await vs.search(vec, { filters: { tag: { $regex: 'news' } } });

// after
const r = await vs.search(vec, { filters: { tag: { in: ['news', 'world'] } } });

const PINECONE_OPS = new Set(['eq','ne','gt','gte','lt','lte','in','nin']);
function validatePineconeFilters(filters: any): void {
  for (const v of Object.values(filters ?? {})) {
    if (v && typeof v === 'object' && !Array.isArray(v)) {
      for (const op of Object.keys(v)) {
        if (!PINECONE_OPS.has(op)) throw new Error(`Operator '${op}' unsupported on Pinecone`);
      }
    }
  }
}
validatePineconeFilters(filters);

const isPineconeOperator = (op: string): boolean =>
  ['eq','ne','gt','gte','lt','lte','in','nin'].includes(op);

try { await vs.search(vec, { filters }); } catch (e) { if (e instanceof Error && e.message.includes('for Pinecone')) { /* reduce filter to supported ops, retry */ } throw e; }

When it happens

Trigger: Passing filters like { tag: { has: 'x' } }, { f: { exists: true } }, or Mongo-style { '$gte': 1 } to a search on the Pinecone store; using an operator supported by pgvector/qdrant but not translated here.

Common situations: Sharing filter-building code across multiple vector store backends where one supports extra operators; typos in operator names; copying filter examples from Qdrant-style docs.

Related errors

• Unsupported filter operator: ${op}
• Cannot mix range operators (${ops.filter((o) => rangeOps.inc
• Unsupported filter operator(s) for field '${key}': ${ops.joi
• Invalid filter key '${key}': only letters, digits, and under
• ${key} filter value must be a list of filter dicts, got ${ty

AI-assisted analysis of mem0ai/mem0@001c235229 (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/86ee9b1d89130e21. Report an issue: GitHub.