invalid ResultsCache config for query_range tripperware

Error message

invalid ResultsCache config for query_range tripperware

What it means

After the split check, Validate runs the Cortex ResultsCacheConfig.Validate against a stub querier.Config and wraps any failure with 'invalid ResultsCache config for query_range tripperware'. It indicates the underlying Cortex results-cache options for query_range are inconsistent (e.g. bad cache backend settings).

Solutions

Read the wrapped inner error for the precise Cortex validation failure and fix that option.
Regenerate the response-cache config file from a Thanos example matching your Thanos version.
Upgrade/align Thanos and Cortex versions if the config schema changed.
Temporarily disable the query_range results cache to confirm the rest of the config is fine.

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

// sanity-check the cache backend settings inside the results cache file before start
if cachingEnabled {
    if err := validateCacheBackend(cacheCfg); err != nil {
        return fmt.Errorf("results cache backend invalid: %w", err)
    }
}

Try / catch

if err := cfg.Validate(); err != nil {
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "invalid ResultsCache config for query_range tripperware") {
        return fmt.Errorf("fix inner Cortex results-cache option: %w", err)
    }
    return err
}

Prevention

Keep the results-cache config generated from version-matched examples.
Log full wrapped errors to expose the Cortex-level cause.
Pin Thanos version to keep the embedded Cortex schema stable.

When it happens

Trigger: cfg.QueryRangeConfig.ResultsCacheConfig.Validate(ignoredQueryConfig) returns an error — Cortex-level validation of the results cache config fails.

Common situations: Malformed cache backend options carried into the Cortex config, missing cache name/backend in the generated results-cache config, or version mismatch where Cortex added new required fields.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Invalid value" and "allowed values are" config errors: what your library rejected and how to fix it — this error's family across 41 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of thanos-io/thanos@35b8b99117 (2026-09-07). Data as JSON: /api/errors/cb43486cf61380d0. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at pkg/queryfrontend/config.go:272

	SplitQueriesByInterval time.Duration
	MaxRetries             int

	Limits *cortexvalidation.Limits
}

// Validate a fully initialized config.
func (cfg *Config) Validate() error {
	if cfg.QueryRangeConfig.ResultsCacheConfig != nil {
		if cfg.QueryRangeConfig.SplitQueriesByInterval <= 0 && !cfg.isDynamicSplitSet() {
			return errors.New("split queries or split threshold interval should be greater than 0 when caching is enabled")
		}
		// This is instantiated just to make the QFE config comply with validation against the Cortex Querier,
		// but in Thanos we don't use this configuration at all.
		ignoredQueryConfig := querier.Config{
			EnablePerStepStats: cfg.QueryRangeConfig.ResultsCacheConfig.CacheQueryableSamplesStats,
		}
		if err := cfg.QueryRangeConfig.ResultsCacheConfig.Validate(ignoredQueryConfig); err != nil {
			return errors.Wrap(err, "invalid ResultsCache config for query_range tripperware")
		}
	}

	if cfg.isDynamicSplitSet() && cfg.isStaticSplitSet() {
		return errors.New("split queries interval and dynamic query split interval cannot be set at the same time")
	}

	if cfg.isDynamicSplitSet() {

		if err := cfg.validateDynamicSplitParams(); err != nil {
			return err
		}
	}

	if cfg.LabelsConfig.ResultsCacheConfig != nil {
		if cfg.LabelsConfig.SplitQueriesByInterval <= 0 {
			return errors.New("split queries interval should be greater than 0  when caching is enabled")
		}

View on GitHub (pinned to 35b8b99117)