thedotmack/claude-mem · error

observation_context: "query" is required

Error message

observation_context: "query" is required

What it means

Validation error inside the observation_context tool handler. After the server-runtime guard passes, the handler requires args.query to be a non-empty trimmed string and throws this plain Error otherwise. It runs before ServerClient.contextObservations() issues the /v1/context request.

Source

Thrown at src/servers/mcp-server.ts:329

    query: args.query,
    ...(args.limit !== undefined ? { limit: args.limit } : {}),
    ...(args.platformSource !== undefined ? { platformSource: normalizeMcpPlatformSource(args.platformSource) } : {}),
  };
  const response = await ctx.client.searchObservations(request);
  return formatJsonResult(response);
});

interface ObservationContextArgs {
  projectId?: string;
  query: string;
  limit?: number;
  platformSource?: string | null;
}

const handleObservationContext = wrapHandler('observation_context', async (args: ObservationContextArgs) => {
  const ctx = requireServerForObservationTool('observation_context');
  if (typeof args?.query !== 'string' || args.query.trim().length === 0) {
    throw new Error('observation_context: "query" is required');
  }
  const projectId = args.projectId && args.projectId.trim().length > 0 ? args.projectId : ctx.projectId;
  const request: ServerContextObservationsRequest = {
    projectId,
    query: args.query,
    ...(args.limit !== undefined ? { limit: args.limit } : {}),
    ...(args.platformSource !== undefined ? { platformSource: normalizeMcpPlatformSource(args.platformSource) } : {}),
  };
  const response = await ctx.client.contextObservations(request);
  return formatJsonResult(response);
});

interface ObservationGenerationStatusArgs {
  jobId?: string;
  job_id?: string;
}

interface SessionStartContextArgs {

View on GitHub (pinned to d768ba3643)

Solutions

1. Supply a non-empty query string describing the context you want assembled.
2. If you want project-scoped injection context without a query, use session_start_context with a projects list instead.
3. Trim/validate the query client-side before calling.

Example fix

// before
await tools.observation_context({ limit: 5 });
// throws 'observation_context: "query" is required'

// after
await tools.observation_context({ query: 'authentication flow', limit: 5 });

if (typeof args?.query !== 'string' || args.query.trim().length === 0) {
  return { content: [{ type: 'text', text: 'query is required for observation_context' }], isError: true };
}

function hasContextQuery(v: unknown): v is { query: string; limit?: number } {
  return typeof (v as any)?.query === 'string' && (v as any).query.trim().length > 0;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling observation_context with query omitted, null, non-string, or whitespace-only. observation_context shares the same query requirement as observation_search but returns a pre-joined context string rather than a result list.

Common situations: Caller passes only limit/platformSource; an LLM confuses context (needs a query) with session_start_context (needs projects); query sourced from an empty variable.

Related errors

• observation_add: "content" is required
• observation_record_event: "eventType" is required
• observation_search: "query" is required
• observation_generation_status: "jobId" is required
• "${key}" is required

AI-assisted analysis of thedotmack/claude-mem@d768ba3643 (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/72647f50580879e1. Report an issue: GitHub.