thanos-io/thanos · error

split queries interval should be greater than 0 when…

Error message

split queries interval should be greater than 0  when caching is enabled

What it means

Validate checks the labels tripperware configuration: when the labels results cache is enabled (LabelsConfig.ResultsCacheConfig != nil), LabelsConfig.SplitQueriesByInterval must be > 0 so label queries can be split into cacheable chunks. Note the message contains a double space ('> 0 when'), a known typo.

Solutions

  1. Set --labels.split-queries-by-interval to a positive duration (e.g. 24h).
  2. Or disable the labels results cache if splitting is not desired.
  3. Review Thanos release notes for labels caching defaults after upgrades.

Example fix

// before
flags := []string{"--labels.response-cache-config-file=cache.yml"}
// after
flags := []string{"--labels.response-cache-config-file=cache.yml", "--labels.split-queries-by-interval=24h"}
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

if labelsCachingEnabled && labelsSplitInterval <= 0 {
    return errors.New("--labels.split-queries-by-interval must be > 0 when labels caching is enabled")
}

Try / catch

if err := cfg.Validate(); err != nil {
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "split queries interval should be greater than 0") && labelsCachingEnabled {
        return fmt.Errorf("set --labels.split-queries-by-interval: %w", err)
    }
    return err
}

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Labels caching is enabled while cfg.LabelsConfig.SplitQueriesByInterval is 0 or negative.

Common situations: Operator enables --labels.response-cache-config but forgets --labels.split-queries-by-interval; flag defaults changed between Thanos versions leaving it unset.

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/e008574b07cf76c5. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at pkg/queryfrontend/config.go:289

		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")
		}
		if err := cfg.LabelsConfig.ResultsCacheConfig.Validate(querier.Config{}); err != nil {
			return errors.Wrap(err, "invalid ResultsCache config for labels tripperware")
		}
	}

	if cfg.DefaultTimeRange == 0 {
		return errors.New("labels.default-time-range cannot be set to 0")
	}

	if cfg.DownstreamURL == "" {
		return errors.New("downstream URL should be configured")
	}

	return nil
}

func (cfg *Config) validateDynamicSplitParams() error {

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