VT09015

VT09015

Error message

VT09015: This query cannot be planned without more information on the SQL schema. Please turn on schema tracking or add authoritative columns information to your VSchema.

What it means

VT09015 is thrown by StarProjections.GetColumns() when something asks a `SELECT *` projection to enumerate its columns. Expanding `*` into concrete columns requires schema knowledge; without schema tracking or authoritative column info in the VSchema, the planner cannot list the columns and fails.

Source

Thrown at go/vt/vtgate/planbuilder/operators/projection.go:136

}

func newProjExprWithInner(ae *sqlparser.AliasedExpr, in sqlparser.Expr) *ProjExpr {
	return &ProjExpr{
		Original: ae,
		EvalExpr: in,
		ColExpr:  ae.Expr,
	}
}

func newAliasedProjection(src Operator) *Projection {
	return &Projection{
		unaryOperator: newUnaryOp(src),
		Columns:       AliasedProjections{},
	}
}

func (sp StarProjections) GetColumns() []*sqlparser.AliasedExpr {
	panic(vterrors.VT09015())
}

func (sp StarProjections) GetSelectExprs() []sqlparser.SelectExpr {
	return sp
}

func (ap AliasedProjections) GetColumns() []*sqlparser.AliasedExpr {
	return slice.Map(ap, func(from *ProjExpr) *sqlparser.AliasedExpr {
		return from.Original
	})
}

func (ap AliasedProjections) GetSelectExprs() []sqlparser.SelectExpr {
	return slice.Map(ap, func(from *ProjExpr) sqlparser.SelectExpr {
		return aeWrap(from.ColExpr)
	})
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 01a25a7d17)

Solutions

Enable schema tracking so vtgate learns columns from vttablets.
Add explicit `"columns": [...]` (and `column_list_authoritative` where valid) to the table in the VSchema.
Replace `SELECT *` with an explicit column list in the query.

Example fix

// before
SELECT * FROM users;
// after
SELECT id, name, email FROM users;

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

// Check the table exposes authoritative columns before SELECT *
tbl := vschema.Table(keyspace, name)
if tbl == nil || len(tbl.GetColumns()) == 0 {
    return errors.New("cannot run SELECT * without schema tracking or authoritative columns")
}

Try / catch

if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "VT09015") { // enable schema tracking / add vschema columns, then retry plan }

Prevention

Avoid SELECT * in sharded Vitess queries
Keep VSchema column lists up to date with DDL changes
Enable schema tracking so column info is discovered automatically

When it happens

Trigger: Calling GetColumns() on a StarProjections (from `SELECT *` / `t.*`) while planning, when the vschema lacks authoritative columns and schema tracking is off.

Common situations: Queries using `SELECT *` or table-qualified `*` against tables whose VSchema has no `columns` definition, with vtgate schema tracking disabled (common in older deployments or when `--schema_change_signal` is off).

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of vitessio/vitess@01a25a7d17 (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/3dc2d9b9aa05d48d. Report an issue: GitHub.