nearIMU.targetVectors cannot provide more than 1 target vect

Error message

nearIMU.targetVectors cannot provide more than 1 target vector value

What it means

nearIMU's targetVectors array must hold at most one vector name; more than one makes the search target ambiguous. validateNearIMUFn enforces len(nearIMU.TargetVectors) > 1 as an error. Single-target is required because each near* clause resolves one similarity computation.

Source

Thrown at usecases/modulecomponents/arguments/nearImu/param.go:58

}

func validateNearIMUFn(param interface{}) error {
	nearIMU, ok := param.(*NearIMUParams)
	if !ok {
		return errors.New("'nearIMU' invalid parameter")
	}

	if len(nearIMU.IMU) == 0 {
		return errors.New("'nearIMU.imu' needs to be defined")
	}

	if nearIMU.Certainty != 0 && nearIMU.WithDistance {
		return errors.New(
			"nearIMU cannot provide both distance and certainty")
	}

	if len(nearIMU.TargetVectors) > 1 {
		return errors.New(
			"nearIMU.targetVectors cannot provide more than 1 target vector value")
	}

	return nil
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 75aa4b6d11)

Solutions

Reduce targetVectors to a single name in the nearIMU clause
Run one nearIMU query per target vector if multiple searches are needed
Omit targetVectors to fall back to the default vector

Example fix

// before
nearIMU: { imu: "...", targetVectors: ["imu","motion"] }
// after
nearIMU: { imu: "...", targetVectors: ["imu"] }

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

if (Array.isArray(args.nearIMU?.targetVectors) && args.nearIMU.targetVectors.length > 1) {
  throw new Error("nearIMU.targetVectors allows at most 1 entry");
}

Type guard

function hasSingleTarget(clause) {
  return !Array.isArray(clause.targetVectors) || clause.targetVectors.length <= 1;
}

Prevention

Keep targetVectors to one entry for every near* clause
Generate one query per named vector for multi-vector needs
Default to omitting targetVectors unless a specific named vector is required

When it happens

Trigger: GraphQL nearIMU clause with targetVectors containing 2+ names, e.g. ["imu","motion"].

Common situations: Assuming near* targetVectors behaves like Explore/nearText multi-target searches; code generators emitting every configured vector; users copying nearText multi-vector examples.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of weaviate/weaviate@75aa4b6d11 (2026-09-04). Data as JSON: /api/errors/0eada7e4fa8ce066. Report an issue: GitHub.