meteor/meteor · error · MiniMongoQueryError

$near argument must be coordinate pair or GeoJSON

Error message

$near argument must be coordinate pair or GeoJSON

What it means

Thrown by the $near operator in legacy coordinate-pair mode when the operand is not indexable as a coordinate pair. $near supports two forms: GeoJSON (operand has $geometry) and legacy [x, y] arrays. The else branch calls isIndexable(operand); if it is not a valid coordinate pair, the error is raised before pointToArray.

Source

Thrown at packages/minimongo/common.js:440

          return GeoJSON.pointDistance(
            point,
            {type: 'Point', coordinates: pointToArray(value)}
          );
        }

        if (value.type === 'Point') {
          return GeoJSON.pointDistance(point, value);
        }

        return GeoJSON.geometryWithinRadius(value, point, maxDistance)
          ? 0
          : maxDistance + 1;
      };
    } else {
      maxDistance = valueSelector.$maxDistance;

      if (!isIndexable(operand)) {
        throw new MiniMongoQueryError('$near argument must be coordinate pair or GeoJSON');
      }

      point = pointToArray(operand);

      distance = value => {
        if (!isIndexable(value)) {
          return null;
        }

        return distanceCoordinatePairs(point, value);
      };
    }

    return branchedValues => {
      // There might be multiple points in the document that match the given
      // field. Only one of them needs to be within $maxDistance, but we need to
      // evaluate all of them and use the nearest one for the implicit sort
      // specifier. (That's why we can't just use ELEMENT_OPERATORS here.)

View on GitHub (pinned to 5076d2f818)

Solutions

1. For legacy pairs, pass a two-number array in [longitude, latitude] order: {field: {$near: [lng, lat], $maxDistance: 1000}}.
2. For GeoJSON, wrap the geometry in $geometry: {field: {$near: {$geometry: {type: 'Point', coordinates: [lng, lat]}, $maxDistance: 1000}}}.
3. Validate the operand is a 2-element numeric array or contains $geometry before building the selector.

Example fix

// before
collection.find({ loc: { $near: { lat: 40, lng: -73 } } });
// after
collection.find({ loc: { $near: [-73, 40], $maxDistance: 1000 } });

function nearSelector(operand, maxDistance) {
  const isPair = Array.isArray(operand) && operand.length === 2 && operand.every(Number.isFinite);
  const isGeoJSON = operand && typeof operand === 'object' && '$geometry' in operand;
  if (!isPair && !isGeoJSON) {
    throw new TypeError('$near needs [lng,lat] or {$geometry: GeoJSON}');
  }
  const sel = { $near: operand };
  if (maxDistance !== undefined) sel.$maxDistance = maxDistance;
  return sel;
}

function isCoordinatePair(op) {
  return Array.isArray(op) && op.length === 2 && op.every(v => typeof v === 'number' && Number.isFinite(v));
}
function isGeoJSONNear(op) {
  return op !== null && typeof op === 'object' && '$geometry' in op;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Using {field: {$near: 'point'}}, {field: {$near: 5}}, {field: {$near: {lat:1,lng:2}}} (object without $geometry), or {field: {$near: [1]}} (single-element array) in a minimongo query.

Common situations: Passing a GeoJSON-like object but omitting the $geometry wrapper; passing lat/lng as a plain object instead of [lng, lat]; passing fewer/more than two coordinates; confusing latitude-first vs longitude-first ordering.

Related errors

• $maxDistance needs a $near
• $near can't be inside another $ operator
• argument to $mod must be an array of two numbers
• $in needs an array
• cannot nest $ under $in

AI-assisted analysis of meteor/meteor@5076d2f818 (2026-08-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/c0c2237cbe900c7d. Report an issue: GitHub.