What causes "unable to find any migrations for dialect: %s" in ory/hydra?

Verify the migrations directory/embed pattern actually contains migration files and that the embed glob is not empty.

unable to find any migrations for dialect: %s

Error message

unable to find any migrations for dialect: %s

What it means

Status() computes migration status by sorting and filtering the embedded up-migrations for the connection's dialect (and its fallback dialects). If after that filtering no migration files remain, it refuses to guess and returns 'unable to find any migrations for dialect: %s'. This almost always means the migrations box was constructed without migration files matching your database dialect.

Source

Thrown at oryx/popx/migrator.go:621

func errIsTableNotFound(err error) bool {
	return strings.Contains(err.Error(), "no such table:") || // sqlite
		strings.Contains(err.Error(), "Error 1146") || // MySQL
		strings.Contains(err.Error(), "SQLSTATE 42P01") // PostgreSQL / CockroachDB
}

// Status prints out the status of applied/pending migrations.
func (mb *MigrationBox) Status(ctx context.Context) (MigrationStatuses, error) {
	ctx, span := startSpan(ctx, MigrationStatusOpName)
	defer span.End()

	con := mb.c.WithContext(ctx)

	dialect := mb.c.Dialect.Name()
	fallbacks := mb.migrationFallbacks()
	migrationsUp := mb.migrationsUp.sortAndFilter(dialect, fallbacks...)

	if len(migrationsUp) == 0 {
		return nil, errors.Errorf("unable to find any migrations for dialect: %s", dialect)
	}

	alreadyApplied := make([]string, 0, len(migrationsUp))
	err := con.RawQuery(fmt.Sprintf("SELECT version FROM %s", sanitizedMigrationTableName(con))).All(&alreadyApplied)
	if err != nil {
		if errIsTableNotFound(err) {
			// This means that no migrations have been applied and we need to apply all of them first!
			//
			// It also means that we can ignore this state and act as if no migrations have been applied yet.
		} else {
			// On any other error, we fail.
			return nil, errors.Wrap(err, "problem with migration")
		}
	}

	statuses := make(MigrationStatuses, len(migrationsUp))
	for k, mf := range migrationsUp {
		downContent := "-- error: no down migration defined for this migration"

View on GitHub (pinned to 4174065ffb)

Solutions

Verify the migrations directory/embed pattern actually contains migration files and that the embed glob is not empty.
Check migration file naming: files must follow the '<version>_<name>.<dialect>.up.sql' convention matching your connection's dialect.
If dialects are aliases (e.g. cockroach vs postgres), configure migrationFallbacks so the box falls back to matching files.
Print mb.c.Dialect.Name() and confirm it matches the dialect suffix used in your migration filenames.

Example fix

// before: files named 20210101000000_init.pg.up.sql while dialect is cockroach
// after: add fallback or correctly named files
-- migrations/20210101000000_init.cockroach.up.sql
-- or configure fallbacks so cockroach resolves postgres migrations

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

// verify migration files match the dialect before calling Status
entries, _ := fs.ReadDir(migrationsFS, ".")
dialect := c.Dialect.Name() // e.g. "postgres"
found := false
for _, e := range entries {
    if strings.HasSuffix(e.Name(), "."+dialect+".up.sql") {
        found = true
        break
    }
}
if !found {
    return fmt.Errorf("no %s up-migrations present in migrations FS", dialect)
}

Try / catch

statuses, err := mb.Status(ctx)
if err != nil && strings.HasPrefix(err.Error(), "unable to find any migrations for dialect:") {
    return fmt.Errorf("migrations not embedded/shipped for dialect: %w — fix embed glob or file naming", err)
}

Prevention

Use a non-empty go:embed pattern and assert at startup that it matched files.
Follow the '<version>_<name>.<dialect>.up.sql' naming convention exactly.
Configure dialect fallbacks (e.g. cockroach -> postgres) when sharing migration files.
Add a unit test listing embedded migrations per supported dialect.

When it happens

Trigger: Calling MigrationBox.Status(ctx) when mb.migrationsUp.sortAndFilter(dialect, fallbacks...) yields an empty list — i.e. no migration files whose name/dialect suffix matches the connection's dialect (e.g. postgres, mysql, sqlite, cockroach) or any configured fallback dialect.

Common situations: Pointing the migrations directory (or embedded FS) at the wrong path so no .sql files are loaded; migrations named without the required .up.sql / dialect naming convention; using a dialect name with no matching migration files (e.g. connecting with cockroach but only shipping postgres files without fallbacks configured); embedding migrations with a stale or empty go:embed pattern.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of ory/hydra@4174065ffb (2026-09-03). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d3f523d9f9deb321. Report an issue: GitHub.