usememos/memos · error

text match argument must be a string

Error message

text match argument must be a string

What it means

After verifying a text-match call has exactly one argument, the parser requires that argument to be a string literal. getConstValue succeeds for ints, doubles, bools, and strings; anything other than a string cannot be compiled into the SQL text-match predicate, so the parse fails with this error.

Source

Thrown at internal/filter/parser.go:336

	}

	field, ok := schema.Field(targetName)
	if !ok {
		return nil, errors.Errorf("unknown identifier %q", targetName)
	}
	if !field.SupportsContains {
		return nil, errors.Errorf("identifier %q does not support text matching", targetName)
	}
	if len(call.Args) != 1 {
		return nil, errors.New("text match expects exactly one argument")
	}
	value, err := getConstValue(call.Args[0])
	if err != nil {
		return nil, errors.Wrap(err, "text match only supports literal arguments")
	}
	str, ok := value.(string)
	if !ok {
		return nil, errors.New("text match argument must be a string")
	}
	return &TextMatchCondition{
		Field: targetName,
		Mode:  mode,
		Value: str,
	}, nil
}

func buildMatchesCondition(call *exprv1.Expr_Call, schema Schema) (Condition, error) {
	if call.Target == nil {
		return nil, errors.New("matches requires a target")
	}
	targetName, err := getIdentName(call.Target)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}

	field, ok := schema.Field(targetName)

View on GitHub (pinned to 14d757ce1f)

Solutions

1. Quote the argument so it is a string literal: content.contains("42")
2. If interpolating values from code, serialize them as JSON strings (strconv.Quote / JSON.stringify) before embedding
3. Use a plain comparison (row_status == 1) for non-text fields instead of a text matcher

Example fix

// before
content.contains(42)

// after
content.contains("42")

// TS: ensure interpolated text-match args are quoted strings
const arg = String(value);
if (!/^"(?:[^"\\]|\\.)*"$/.test(JSON.stringify(arg).replace(/^"|"$/g, '"'))) {
  throw new Error('argument must be a quoted string');
}
const filter = `content.contains(${JSON.stringify(String(value))})`;

const isStringLiteral = (v: unknown): v is string => typeof v === 'string';

try { const conds = parseFilter(expr); } catch (e) { if (String(e).includes('must be a string')) showUserError('text match needs a quoted string'); else throw e; }

When it happens

Trigger: Filter strings such as content.contains(42), content.contains(true), or content.contains(someIdent) where the argument is a non-string literal or an identifier instead of a quoted string.

Common situations: Programmatically interpolating a number or unquoted variable into the filter template, or assuming CEL will coerce types like JavaScript does.

Related errors

• equality argument must be a string
• startsWith argument must be a string
• endsWith argument must be a string
• contains argument must be a string
• filter must evaluate to a boolean value

AI-assisted analysis of usememos/memos@14d757ce1f (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/87a4fb0785a8c1e4. Report an issue: GitHub.