stanfordnlp/CoreNLP · error · RuntimeException

No tune treebank path specified...

Error message

No tune treebank path specified...

What it means

In the order-dependent LexicalizedParser constructor used for training/tuning, a tuning filter or tune path was supplied but tunePath itself was null and no treebankPath (train path) had yet been parsed, so there is nothing to default the tuning set to. The constructor throws "No tune treebank path specified..." to signal the required argument is missing.

Solutions

  1. Add a -tuneTreebank <path> argument (with optional filter) to your training command
  2. Or pass -treebank <trainPath> BEFORE the tune options so tunePath can default to the train path
  3. If you don't need tuning, drop the tune filter/flags entirely

Example fix

// before
String[] args = {"-tuneFilter", "regex:.*02.*", "-treebank", "/data/ptb"}; // tune opts processed first
// after
String[] args = {"-tuneTreebank", "/data/ptb/wsj/02", "-treebank", "/data/ptb"};
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

// Before invoking the constructor: verify tune options carry a path
if ((tuneFilter != null || tuneTreebankFlag) && tunePath == null && treebankPath == null)
  throw new IllegalArgumentException("-tuneTreebank (or -treebank before tune options) is required");

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Passing -tuneFilter (or a tuneTreebank flag) on the command line / to the constructor without also passing a -tuneTreebank path, and before any -treebank argument that could serve as the default.

Common situations: Building a custom training command and adding a tune filter copied from an example but forgetting -tuneTreebank; argument ordering mistakes so treebankPath is still null when the tune options are processed.

Understand the failure class

Background: "missing required argument" and "the following required arguments were not provided": what required-argument errors mean and how to fix them — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of stanfordnlp/CoreNLP@1b7edd19c4 (2026-09-10). Data as JSON: /api/errors/3997f8564668bdd2. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at src/edu/stanford/nlp/parser/lexparser/LexicalizedParser.java:1316

      } else if (args[argIndex].equalsIgnoreCase("-tune")) {
        Pair<String, FileFilter> treebankDescription = ArgUtils.getTreebankDescription(args, argIndex, "-tune");
        argIndex = argIndex + ArgUtils.numSubArgs(args, argIndex) + 1;
        tunePath = treebankDescription.first();
        tuneFilter = treebankDescription.second();
      } else {
        int oldIndex = argIndex;
        argIndex = op.setOptionOrWarn(args, argIndex);
        optionArgs.addAll(Arrays.asList(args).subList(oldIndex, argIndex));
      }
    } // end while loop through arguments

    // all other arguments are order dependent and
    // are processed in order below

    if (tuneFilter != null || tunePath != null) {
      if (tunePath == null) {
        if (treebankPath == null) {
          throw new RuntimeException("No tune treebank path specified...");
        } else {
          log.info("No tune treebank path specified.  Using train path: \"" + treebankPath + '\"');
          tunePath = treebankPath;
        }
      }
      tuneTreebank = op.tlpParams.testMemoryTreebank();
      tuneTreebank.loadPath(tunePath, tuneFilter);
    }

    if (!train && op.testOptions.verbose) {
      StringUtils.logInvocationString(log, args);
    }
    LexicalizedParser lp; // always initialized in next if-then-else block
    if (train) {
      StringUtils.logInvocationString(log, args);

      // so we train a parser using the treebank
      GrammarCompactor compactor = null;

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