quickwit-oss/quickwit · error

`index_id_patterns` must not be empty

Error message

`index_id_patterns` must not be empty

What it means

`IndexTemplate::validate` requires an index template to declare at least one `index_id_pattern`, since a template with no patterns can never match any index id. Before checking each pattern's validity, it ensures the list is not empty and fails fast with this message.

Solutions

1. Add at least one index id pattern, e.g. `index_id_patterns: ["my-index-*"]`
2. If the template should not match anything, remove the template instead of emptying its patterns
3. Validate the generated template JSON/YAML before submission

Example fix

// before
index_id_patterns: []
// after
index_id_patterns:
  - "my-index-*"

function validateTemplate(tpl) {
  if (!Array.isArray(tpl.index_id_patterns) || tpl.index_id_patterns.length === 0) {
    throw new Error("index_id_patterns must contain at least one pattern");
  }
  return true;
}

function hasIndexIdPatterns(tpl) {
  return Array.isArray(tpl.index_id_patterns) && tpl.index_id_patterns.length > 0;
}

try {
  client.sendIndexTemplateRequest(request).await?;
} catch (e) {
  if (e.message.includes("`index_id_patterns` must not be empty")) {
    console.error("Add at least one index_id_pattern to the template.");
  } else { throw e; }
}

When it happens

Trigger: Submitting an index template (via the template API or a template config file) where the `index_id_patterns` array is missing or empty `[]`.

Common situations: Creating a template programmatically and forgetting to populate patterns; a config generation bug that emits an empty list; cleaning out patterns before re-adding them and applying the half-finished template.

Understand the failure class

Background: "must not be empty", "cannot be empty" — required-field validation errors across open-source libraries — this error's family across 41 libraries.

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AI-assisted analysis of quickwit-oss/quickwit@a39730c5cd (2026-09-08). Data as JSON: /api/errors/b1eabbcf3a3a1656. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at quickwit/quickwit-config/src/index_template/mod.rs:87

        let mut doc_mapping = self.doc_mapping.clone();
        doc_mapping.doc_mapping_uid = DocMappingUid::random();

        let index_config = IndexConfig {
            index_id,
            index_uri,
            doc_mapping,
            indexing_settings: self.indexing_settings.clone(),
            ingest_settings: self.ingest_settings.clone(),
            search_settings: self.search_settings.clone(),
            retention_policy_opt: self.retention_policy_opt.clone(),
        };
        Ok(index_config)
    }

    pub fn validate(&self) -> anyhow::Result<()> {
        validate_identifier("template", &self.template_id)?;

        ensure!(
            !self.index_id_patterns.is_empty(),
            "`index_id_patterns` must not be empty"
        );
        for index_id_pattern in &self.index_id_patterns {
            validate_index_id_pattern(index_id_pattern, true)?;
        }
        validate_index_config(
            &self.doc_mapping,
            &self.indexing_settings,
            &self.search_settings,
            &self.retention_policy_opt,
        )?;
        Ok(())
    }

    #[cfg(any(test, feature = "testsuite"))]
    pub fn for_test(template_id: &str, index_id_patterns: &[&str], priority: usize) -> Self {
        let index_id_patterns: Vec<IndexIdPattern> = index_id_patterns

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