What causes "cannot remove primary key field" in siyuan-note/siyuan?

Filter out the KeyTypeBlock column before issuing remove operations

cannot remove primary key field

Error message

cannot remove primary key field

What it means

The remove-attribute-view-field operation refuses to delete the primary key (Block-type) field. Every attribute view requires its primary key column, which binds rows to blocks, so it is not removable.

Solutions

Filter out the KeyTypeBlock column before issuing remove operations
Remove a different, non-primary column
If the whole view is unwanted, delete the attribute view instead of its primary key

Example fix

// before
keys.forEach(k => removeKey(k.id))
// after
keys.filter(k => k.type !== "block").forEach(k => removeKey(k.id))

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

if (key.type === "block") throw new Error("primary key field cannot be removed");

Type guard

const isRemovable = (key) => key.type !== "block";

Try / catch

try { await removeKey(id); } catch (e) { if (String(e).includes("cannot remove primary key")) return; throw e; }

Prevention

Filter out the primary key in delete flows
Mark the primary key immutable in plugin UIs
Fetch fresh key metadata before batch deletions

When it happens

Trigger: Calling the remove attribute view key/column API with the ID of the column whose type is av.KeyTypeBlock.

Common situations: A cleanup script deletes 'unused' columns and includes the primary key; a plugin's delete-column menu does not filter out the primary key; batch removal built from stale column listings.

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

AI-assisted analysis of siyuan-note/siyuan@8641553a1f (2026-09-11). Data as JSON: /api/errors/8c52d9a69c8071d5. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at kernel/model/attribute_view.go:7690

	if err != nil {
		return &TxErr{code: TxErrHandleAttributeView, id: operation.AvID, msg: err.Error()}
	}
	return
}

func RemoveAttributeViewKey(avID, keyID string, removeRelationDest bool) (err error) {
	attrView, err := av.ParseAttributeView(avID)
	if err != nil {
		return
	}

	key, keyErr := attrView.GetKey(keyID)
	if nil != keyErr {
		err = keyErr
		return
	}
	if av.KeyTypeBlock == key.Type {
		err = errors.New("cannot remove primary key field")
		return
	}

	var removedKey *av.Key
	for i, keyValues := range attrView.KeyValues {
		if keyValues.Key.ID == keyID {
			attrView.KeyValues = append(attrView.KeyValues[:i], attrView.KeyValues[i+1:]...)
			removedKey = keyValues.Key
			attrView.RemoveNewItemTemplateFieldValue(keyID)
			break
		}
	}
	if nil != removedKey && av.KeyTypeRelation == removedKey.Type && nil != removedKey.Relation {
		if removedKey.Relation.IsTwoWay {
			var destAv *av.AttributeView
			if avID == removedKey.Relation.AvID {
				destAv = attrView
			} else {

View on GitHub (pinned to 8641553a1f)