redis/redis-py · error · DataError

Cannot set 'sortable' or 'no_index' in Vector fields.

Error message

Cannot set 'sortable' or 'no_index' in Vector fields.

What it means

Raised by VectorField.__init__() (redis/commands/search/field.py:195) as a DataError when kwargs include sortable or no_index. Vector fields cannot be made SORTABLE and are always indexed (NOINDEX is meaningless for vectors), so the client rejects these flags up front rather than letting the server reject the schema.

Solutions

  1. Do not pass sortable or no_index to VectorField.
  2. If a generic builder forwards kwargs, filter them out for vector fields: {k: v for k, v in kwargs.items() if k not in ('sortable', 'no_index')}.
  3. Vectors are implicitly indexed; there is no opt-out.

Example fix

# before
VectorField('embedding', 'FLAT', {'TYPE': 'FLOAT32', 'DIM': 128, 'DISTANCE_METRIC': 'L2'}, sortable=True)
# after
VectorField('embedding', 'FLAT', {'TYPE': 'FLOAT32', 'DIM': 128, 'DISTANCE_METRIC': 'L2'})
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

def safe_vector_kwargs(kwargs):
    bad = {'sortable', 'no_index'} & set(kwargs)
    if bad:
        raise ValueError(f'VectorField does not accept {bad}')
    return {k: v for k, v in kwargs.items() if k not in bad}

Type guard

def vector_kwargs_ok(kwargs) -> bool:
    return not ({'sortable', 'no_index'} & set(kwargs))

Try / catch

from redis.exceptions import DataError
try:
    VectorField(name, algo, attrs, **kwargs)
except DataError as e:
    if 'Vector fields' in str(e):
        kwargs.pop('sortable', None); kwargs.pop('no_index', None)
        VectorField(name, algo, attrs, **kwargs)
    else:
        raise

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Constructing VectorField('vec', 'FLAT', {...}, sortable=True) or VectorField('vec', 'HNSW', {...}, no_index=True). Passing these via **kwargs from a generic field-builder also triggers it.

Common situations: Reusing a generic field-construction helper that always forwards sortable/no_index, or assuming all field types support the same kwargs as TextField/NumericField.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of redis/redis-py@6a6b581b48 (2026-08-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/3e5efbf8f2f26ec2. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at redis/commands/search/field.py:195

    def __init__(self, name: str, algorithm: str, attributes: dict, **kwargs):
        """
        Create Vector Field. Notice that Vector cannot have sortable or no_index tag,
        although it's also a Field.

        ``name`` is the name of the field.

        ``algorithm`` can be "FLAT", "HNSW", or "SVS-VAMANA".

        ``attributes`` each algorithm can have specific attributes. Some of them
        are mandatory and some of them are optional. See
        https://oss.redis.com/redisearch/master/Vectors/#specific_creation_attributes_per_algorithm
        for more information.
        """
        sort = kwargs.get("sortable", False)
        noindex = kwargs.get("no_index", False)

        if sort or noindex:
            raise DataError("Cannot set 'sortable' or 'no_index' in Vector fields.")

        if algorithm.upper() not in ["FLAT", "HNSW", "SVS-VAMANA"]:
            raise DataError(
                "Realtime vector indexing supporting 3 Indexing Methods:"
                "'FLAT', 'HNSW', and 'SVS-VAMANA'."
            )

        attr_li = []

        for key, value in attributes.items():
            attr_li.extend([key, value])

        Field.__init__(
            self, name, args=[Field.VECTOR, algorithm, len(attr_li), *attr_li], **kwargs
        )

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