theonedev/onedev · error · RuntimeException

Malformed query

Error message

Malformed query

What it means

ProjectQuery.parse wires ANTLR lexer/parser with error listeners that convert any lexer or parser syntax error into a RuntimeException('Malformed query'). It means the supplied project query string does not match the query grammar (bad token, missing quotes, unknown keyword).

Source

Thrown at server-core/src/main/java/io/onedev/server/search/entity/project/ProjectQuery.java:93

	public ProjectQuery(@Nullable Criteria<Project> criteria) {
		this(criteria, new ArrayList<>());
	}
	
	public ProjectQuery() {
		this(null);
	}
	
	public static ProjectQuery parse(@Nullable String queryString) {
		if (queryString != null) {
			CharStream is = CharStreams.fromString(queryString); 
			ProjectQueryLexer lexer = new ProjectQueryLexer(is);
			lexer.removeErrorListeners();
			lexer.addErrorListener(new BaseErrorListener() {

				@Override
				public void syntaxError(Recognizer<?, ?> recognizer, Object offendingSymbol, int line,
						int charPositionInLine, String msg, RecognitionException e) {
					throw new RuntimeException("Malformed query", e);
				}
				
			});
			CommonTokenStream tokens = new CommonTokenStream(lexer);
			ProjectQueryParser parser = new ProjectQueryParser(tokens);
			parser.removeErrorListeners();
			parser.setErrorHandler(new BailErrorStrategy());
			QueryContext queryContext = parser.query();
			CriteriaContext criteriaContext = queryContext.criteria();
			Criteria<Project> projectCriteria;
			if (criteriaContext != null) {
				projectCriteria = new ProjectQueryBaseVisitor<Criteria<Project>>() {

					@Override
					public Criteria<Project> visitFuzzyCriteria(FuzzyCriteriaContext ctx) {
						return new FuzzyCriteria(getValue(ctx.getText()));
					}
					

View on GitHub (pinned to d44925c47c)

Solutions

1. Validate/escape the query string: quote field values with double quotes and escape embedded quotes.
2. Simplify the query and add tokens back incrementally to find the offending part.
3. Check the grammar/keyword list (ProjectQueryLexer rule names) for supported operators.
4. Catch RuntimeException from parse and show a user-facing 'malformed query' message with the original cause.

Example fix

// before
ProjectQuery.parse("name = my project"); // unquoted value -> Malformed query
// after
ProjectQuery.parse("\"name\" == \"my project\"");

// validate quotes balance before parsing
long quotes = queryText.chars().filter(c -> c == '"').count();
if (quotes % 2 != 0) throw new IllegalArgumentException("Unbalanced quotes in query");

null

try { q = ProjectQuery.parse(text); } catch (RuntimeException e) { showInvalidQuery(e.getCause()); }

When it happens

Trigger: Calling ProjectQuery.parse / parseProjectQuery with a syntactically invalid query string, e.g. unbalanced quotes, stray characters, or an unrecognized criterion token.

Common situations: Hand-written saved queries pasted into REST calls; programmatic query construction with unescaped values; query text from older OneDev versions using removed syntax.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Invalid query parameter" / "Failed to parse value of ...": fixing bad query string parameters across APIs — this error's family across 36 libraries.

• Parsing and encoding errors: unexpected token, malformed input — why parsers reject input and how to find the real culprit.

Related errors

• Malformed query
• Malformed query
• Unknown revision type
• Malformed query
• Unexpected operator: ${operator}

AI-assisted analysis of theonedev/onedev@d44925c47c (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/55eacfbce4695444. Report an issue: GitHub.