risingwavelabs/risingwave · error · SinkError::Config

Turbopuffer sink does not support column type

Error message

Turbopuffer sink does not support column type {}

What it means

turbopuffer_type maps RisingWave data types to Turbopuffer schema types ([N]f32 vectors, string, int, boolean, etc.). Any column type outside the supported set reaches the catch-all arm, which produces this error naming the unsupported Rust DataType. The sink cannot be created until all columns map to a supported Turbopuffer type.

Solutions

1. Inspect the type name in the error and exclude that column from the sink (or from the schema list).
2. Cast unsupported columns in a materialized view: DECIMAL→DOUBLE PRECISION (if float mapping exists) or TIMESTAMP/DATE→VARCHAR.
3. Flatten STRUCT columns into scalars or serialize them to JSON strings before sinking.
4. Check turbopuffer_type in src/connector/src/sink/turbopuffer.rs for the currently supported type set.

Example fix

// before: created_at TIMESTAMP column sinking to turbopuffer
// after
CREATE MVIEW mv AS SELECT *, created_at::VARCHAR AS created_at FROM src;
-- sink from mv

-- check all sink columns map to supported Turbopuffer types
-- SELECT name, data_type FROM rw_catalog.rw_columns WHERE relation_id = <table_id>;
fn tpuf_supported(dt: &str) -> bool {
    matches!(dt,
        "BOOLEAN" | "SMALLINT" | "INTEGER" | "BIGINT" | "REAL" | "DOUBLE PRECISION" |
        "VARCHAR" | "VARCHAR[]" | "DATE" ) || dt.starts_with("VECTOR")
}

When it happens

Trigger: Creating a Turbopuffer sink whose table contains a column of an unmapped type — e.g. DECIMAL, DATE/TIME/TIMESTAMP, JSONB, STRUCT, MAP, LIST of non-string elements, BYTEA — detected during schema construction in try_from.

Common situations: Sinking tables with decimal money columns or timestamp columns directly; complex nested structs from upstream sources; bytea blobs.

Understand the failure class

Background: UnsupportedOperationException and "is not supported" errors: when a library deliberately refuses a call — this error's family across 30 libraries.

Related errors

• Turbopuffer document id column must be an integer or…
• Turbopuffer document id column must be an integer or varchar
• Turbopuffer namespace_column must be varchar, got
• Turbopuffer schema option references unknown attribute…
• Turbopuffer sink requires exactly one primary_key column

AI-assisted analysis of risingwavelabs/risingwave@6469eb736d (2026-09-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/e3357ca8d436c45f. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at src/connector/src/sink/turbopuffer.rs:871

        DataType::List(list_type) => match list_type.elem() {
            DataType::Boolean => Ok("[]bool".to_owned()),
            DataType::Int16 | DataType::Int32 | DataType::Int64 | DataType::Serial => {
                Ok("[]int".to_owned())
            }
            DataType::Float32 | DataType::Float64 | DataType::Decimal => Ok("[]float".to_owned()),
            DataType::Varchar => Ok("[]string".to_owned()),
            DataType::Date | DataType::Timestamp | DataType::Timestamptz => {
                Ok("[]datetime".to_owned())
            }
            elem_type => Err(unsupported_type(&format!("list element {:?}", elem_type))),
        },
        DataType::Vector(dimension) => Ok(format!("[{}]f32", dimension)),
        data_type => Err(unsupported_type(&format!("{:?}", data_type))),
    }
}

fn unsupported_type(data_type: &str) -> SinkError {
    SinkError::Config(anyhow!(
        "Turbopuffer sink does not support column type {}",
        data_type
    ))
}

#[cfg(test)]
mod tests {
    #[cfg(not(madsim))]
    use std::collections::VecDeque;
    #[cfg(not(madsim))]
    use std::io::{Read, Write};
    #[cfg(not(madsim))]
    use std::net::TcpListener;
    #[cfg(not(madsim))]
    use std::sync::{Arc, Mutex, mpsc};
    #[cfg(not(madsim))]
    use std::thread;

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