What causes "only one expression is allowed for %s" in temporalio/temporal?

Emit exactly one SearchPrecision clause per query

only one expression is allowed for %s

Error message

only one expression is allowed for %s

What it means

Returned by the S3 archival query parser when a query string for a Visibility SQL filter contains more than one expression for the given field (e.g. multiple comparisons on the same key). Only a single expression per field is supported.

Source

Thrown at common/archiver/s3store/query_parser.go:177

	case StartTime:
		timestamp, err := sqlquery.ConvertToTime(valStr)
		if err != nil {
			return err
		}
		if op != "=" {
			return fmt.Errorf("only operation = is support for %s", StartTime)
		}
		parsedQuery.startTime = &timestamp
	case SearchPrecision:
		val, err := sqlquery.ExtractStringValue(valStr)
		if err != nil {
			return err
		}
		if op != "=" {
			return fmt.Errorf("only operation = is support for %s", SearchPrecision)
		}
		if parsedQuery.searchPrecision != nil && *parsedQuery.searchPrecision != val {
			return fmt.Errorf("only one expression is allowed for %s", SearchPrecision)
		}
		switch val {
		case PrecisionDay:
		case PrecisionHour:
		case PrecisionMinute:
		case PrecisionSecond:
		default:
			return fmt.Errorf("invalid value for %s: %s", SearchPrecision, val)
		}
		parsedQuery.searchPrecision = new(val)

	default:
		return fmt.Errorf("unknown filter name: %s", colNameStr)
	}

	return nil
}

View on GitHub (pinned to bde624efd1)

Solutions

Emit exactly one SearchPrecision clause per query
Deduplicate precision clauses in query-builder code, keeping the first value
Remember a query may contain only one of StartTime or CloseTime anyway, so one precision suffices

Example fix

// before
`StartTime = "2023-01-01" AND SearchPrecision = "Day" AND SearchPrecision = "Hour"`
// after
`StartTime = "2023-01-01" AND SearchPrecision = "Day"`

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

if strings.Count(q, "SearchPrecision") > 1 {
    return fmt.Errorf("query must contain at most one SearchPrecision filter")
}

Try / catch

parsed, err := parser.Parse(q)
if err != nil {
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "only one expression is allowed") {
        return nil, fmt.Errorf("conflicting SearchPrecision values: %w", err)
    }
    return err
}

Prevention

Emit the precision clause exactly once, alongside the single time filter
Deduplicate composed query fragments
Only attach precision when StartTime or CloseTime is present (it is required then)

When it happens

Trigger: Parsing `SearchPrecision = "Day" AND SearchPrecision = "Hour"` — parsedQuery.searchPrecision is already set and differs from the new value, so the error is returned.

Common situations: Query builders emitting a precision clause for both StartTime and CloseTime; combining query fragments that each add their own precision; user confusion between AND semantics and single-value constraints.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of temporalio/temporal@bde624efd1 (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d7cbcb93af60f6d1. Report an issue: GitHub.