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Refuse a non-positive top_k at the schema - #1740

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MemMachine:mainfrom
wanghy73:fix/top-k-lower-bound
Oct 5, 2026
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wanghy73 merged 2 commits into
MemMachine:mainfrom
wanghy73:fix/top-k-lower-bound

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@wanghy73 wanghy73 commented Oct 2, 2026

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Purpose of the change

Refuse a non-positive top_k on search at the schema, so the server answers
422 instead of 500.

Description

SearchMemoriesSpec.top_k was an int with a default of 10 and no lower
bound, so 0 and -1 passed validation and reached retrieval, which cannot
use them. On the Qdrant path the request failed with a 500 and a bare
"Internal Server Error" body. Nothing caught the error, so the API's exception
handler never logged it.

This adds ge=1 to the field. The search route takes SearchMemoriesSpec as
its body, so FastAPI now returns a 422 that names the field.

I chose a bound over a guard because the guards that already exist further
down disagree about what a non-positive limit means:

  • retrieval_agent/common/agent_api.py treats <= 0 as "no limit" and
    returns everything.
  • The SQLite, sqlite-vec and Milvus vector stores treat it as "no results" and
    return nothing.

Picking either meaning would make the other wrong. Refusing the input means
neither path is reached. top_k is documented as "the maximum number of
memories to return", and -1 has no meaning under that.

Other callers:

  • MCP search_memory builds the spec inside its existing try, so a bad
    top_k comes back as a 422 McpResponse.
  • The Python client sends top_k=limit or 10, so limit=0 still becomes 10.
    limit=-1 now raises a pydantic ValidationError on the client before any
    request is sent.

Found by mm-test functional FV-30.

Fixes/Closes

No issue filed.

Type of change

  • Bug fix (non-breaking change which fixes an issue)

Clients that sent top_k <= 0 used to get a 500 (Qdrant) or a backend-specific
result. They now get a 422.

How Has This Been Tested?

  • Unit Test

New tests in server/api_v2/test_spec.py:

  • test_search_top_k_must_be_positive[0] and [-1]: validation is refused.
  • test_search_top_k_accepts_one_and_the_default: 1 and the default 10
    are still accepted.

Test Results: uv run pytest packages/server/server_tests/memmachine_server/server/api_v2/test_spec.py
gives 55 passed. ruff format --check and ruff check are clean on the
changed files.

Checklist

  • I have signed the commit(s) within this pull request
  • My code follows the style guidelines of this project (See STYLE_GUIDE.md)
  • I have performed a self-review of my own code
  • I have commented my code
  • I have added unit tests that prove my fix is effective or that my feature works
  • New and existing unit tests pass locally with my changes

top_k was declared int with a default of 10 and no lower bound, so 0 and
-1 passed validation and reached retrieval, which cannot use them. The
Qdrant path answered 500 with a bare "Internal Server Error" body --
nothing caught it, so nothing logged it through the API's exception
handler either.

A bound rather than a guard, because the two guards that already exist
disagree about what a non-positive limit means: agent_api treats <= 0 as
"no limit" and returns everything, sqlite_vector_store treats it as "no
results" and returns nothing. Picking either would make the other wrong;
refusing the input makes neither reachable, and top_k is documented as
"the maximum number of memories to return", under which -1 has no
reading at all.

Found by mm-test functional FV-30.

Signed-off-by: Haiyan Wang <[email protected]>
ruff format wanted the two long lines wrapped, and ruff check flagged the
unescaped "|" in the pytest.raises match pattern (RUF043).

Signed-off-by: Haiyan Wang <[email protected]>

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No issues found. The ge=1 bound on SearchMemoriesSpec.top_k works with every caller I checked: the Python client sends limit or 10, the MCP tool defaults to 20, the TS client to 10, and Dify and Strands send positive defaults. On the MCP path the ValidationError is caught and returned as a 422 McpResponse.

One behaviour change worth knowing: a negative limit passed to the Python client now raises a ValidationError on the client, before any request is sent.

@wanghy73 wanghy73 added this to the v0.4.0 milestone Oct 2, 2026
@wanghy73
wanghy73 merged commit c08cf26 into MemMachine:main Oct 5, 2026
44 checks passed
edwinyyyu added a commit to edwinyyyu/MemMachine that referenced this pull request Oct 7, 2026
…UUIDs and scores, and refuse invalid inputs (MemMachine#1733)

* Look up the segments that derivatives belong to in the segment store

Event memory resolves a search hit, a derivative's vector record, to the
derivative's segment through a `_segment_uuid` property it copies onto
every vector record. The segment store already holds that mapping, on the
derivative's own row.

`SegmentStorePartition.get_segment_uuids_by_derivative_uuids` reads it.
The SQLAlchemy partition answers with one query on the derivative table,
served by its primary key, and checks the partition's liveness in the same
statement, as its other reads do. A derivative the partition does not hold
is left out of the result. The in-memory partition the event memory tests
use implements it too.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <[email protected]>

* Resolve event memory's search hits through the segment store

A derivative's vector record carried its segment's UUID as the
`_segment_uuid` property, and a search read it back from each match. That
copy is only as fresh as the vector store's reads, and the segment store
holds the same mapping on the derivative's row.

A search now asks the vector store for no properties and maps the matched
derivatives to their segments with one
`get_segment_uuids_by_derivative_uuids` call. A match whose derivative the
segment store no longer holds, because its segment was deleted and its
vector outlived it, is dropped. Vector records no longer carry
`_segment_uuid`, and the schema event memory expects of its collection no
longer declares it; a collection created with it keeps declaring it.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <[email protected]>

* Resolve semantic search hits through a vector_uuid column on the feature row

A feature's vector record was keyed by a UUID derived from the feature's
id, and carried eleven properties copied from the feature's row, among
them `feature_id`, which a search read back to resolve a hit to its row.
The caller's feature metadata was merged into the same properties.
- `update_feature` read the stored vector back through
  `VectorStoreCollection.get` to write the record again with fresh
  properties, since an upsert replaces a whole record. The value read is
  written back, so a stale read becomes a lasting wrong write: of two
  concurrent updates of one feature, one with a new embedding and one
  without, the second can write the old embedding over the new one; and a
  read that misses the record fails the update after its row was
  committed (MemMachine#1721).
- Nothing filtered on the copied properties; the row is their authority.

The feature row now carries `vector_uuid`, a fresh UUID that keys its
vector record, and the record carries no properties. A search resolves
its hits through that column, in the order the search returned them,
dropping a hit whose row is gone. `update_feature` writes the vector
store only when given a new embedding, and reads nothing back. The delete
paths take the UUIDs of exactly the rows they delete with RETURNING. The
collection declares no indexed properties.

Breaking: a feature table created before this has no `vector_uuid`
column, and the table is created with `create_all`, which adds none; and
a collection created with the old declared properties no longer matches
the configuration `open_or_create_collection` asks for. No migration is
included.

Fixes MemMachine#1721.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <[email protected]>

* Answer a vector store query with record UUIDs and scores; remove get and close_collection

A query returned each match's record: its properties, and its vector on
request. They were copies of what the callers' own stores hold, only as
fresh as the vector store's reads, and since the previous two commits no
caller reads them. `get` has had no caller since semantic memory stopped
reading its vectors back, and a `get` safe to write from would need every
backend to reflect every write that returned before it, from any process.
Every store's `close_collection` did nothing, and nothing called it.

- `QueryMatch` carries a score and a `record_uuid`, and `query` loses
  `return_vector` and `return_properties`. Properties are still stored
  and filtered on.
- `VectorStoreCollection.get` and `VectorStore.close_collection` go, with
  what only served them: the stores' record parsing,
  `VectorSearchEngine.get_vectors`, and sqlite-vec's vector decoding.
- `Record` is input-only, so its vector is required and its properties
  default to `{}`. The model rejects a missing vector at construction, so
  the stores' checks for one and their coalescing of `None` properties go.

Mechanical: event memory and semantic memory read `match.record_uuid` in
place of `match.record.uuid` and stop passing the flags, and the
in-memory test collection follows the interface.

Tests of the return flags, of `get`, and of values read back through a
query go. Tests that check what a store holds read the backend past the
store: the SQLite stores' records tables, a Qdrant scroll of the
collection's partition, a Milvus `get` on the client. The tests of a
store refusing a `None` vector become tests that the model refuses a
missing one, plus one that properties default to `{}` and one that a
record without properties is stored.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <[email protected]>

* Refuse vector store inputs no collection can hold or search

Each store refuses, with a ValueError and before any backend call:
- a record whose declared property holds a value of another type, since
  the collection indexes and filters the property as its declared type
  (`require_declared_types`: the value's type is the declared type, and a
  bool is not an int);
- a record vector or a query vector whose width is not the collection's
  dimensions;
- a query vector with a coordinate that is not finite, or a score
  threshold that is not finite.

The model checks a record's own vector for finiteness: `Record.vector` is
`list[FiniteFloat]`, so pydantic refuses a NaN or infinite coordinate when
the record is built, in the pass that already validates each coordinate.
A query vector is a plain sequence, so the stores check it. An embedding
endpoint can return NaN whatever the caller does, so both kinds of vector
are checked.

Qdrant and Milvus check a filter's property keys with the other inputs,
before the early return for no query vectors.

`validate_identifier` uses `fullmatch`: `$` also matches before a trailing
newline, so `"name\n"` passed as a namespace, a collection name or a
property key.

The ABC states these refusals in `upsert` and `query`. Tests: each store
refuses each input, and a record refuses a coordinate that is not finite.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <[email protected]>

* State the vector store's consistency in its contract

The contract said nothing about what a query sees of earlier writes.
`VectorStoreCollection` now states what every store keeps:

  An `upsert` or `delete` is durable once it returns; queries may not
  reflect it right away. A store that guarantees more states it.

Neither event memory nor semantic memory reads its own writes back
through the vector store: a search's hits resolve through the segment
store or the feature row, which hold the mapping. Milvus reads at the
consistency level its collections are configured with, and a replicated
Qdrant may answer a query from a replica that has not applied a write
yet, so a stronger promise would bind every store to read settings with
costs of their own.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <[email protected]>

* Name the derivative-to-segment map segments_by_derivatives

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <[email protected]>

* Drop a None check no property reaches, and a filter branch no caller takes

- The Qdrant store's payload skipped a None property, but a Record's
  properties are PropertyValues, which exclude None, so the model refuses
  one before the store sees it.
- Semantic storage's _apply_feature_filter took a Select or a Delete, but
  only selects reach it: delete_feature_set filters its DELETE ...
  RETURNING itself. It takes and answers a Select, and the cast at its
  caller goes.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <[email protected]>

* Tidy the tests the review found out of place

- The SQLite stores' four input-validation tests sat inside TestFilters,
  under a "Delete" banner meant for TestDelete; they move into
  TestInputValidation, and the banner moves above TestDelete.
- Two event memory schemas still declared `_segment_uuid`, which event
  memory no longer reserves: the context test declares `_timestamp`
  alone, and the missing-base-field test declares nothing.
- The 40,000-feature test's comment says which SQLite the bind limit is
  the feature store's.

Tests only; the same tests run and pass.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <[email protected]>

* Fold the declared-type check into the vector store utilities

declared_properties.py held one function beside utils.py, which holds
the other input checks every store runs (dimensions, query vector,
score threshold, identifiers). It imports only common.data_types,
which imports nothing back, so it moves into utils.py as is.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <[email protected]>

* Resolve semantic search hits in one statement

Since queries answer record UUIDs alone, a semantic search mapped its
hits to feature ids in one select, then loaded the features by id with
the filter in another: two statements in two sessions, and the first
ran even when the search found nothing. One select on the vector_uuid
column with the filter now loads the features, ordered as the hits
were, and no select runs for a search with no hits. Results are
unchanged: the same features, in the same order, under the same
filter.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <[email protected]>

* Refuse a query limit that is not positive

The contract said nothing of a limit at or below zero, and the stores
disagreed: the SQLite stores and Milvus answered empty results, and
Qdrant passed the limit on for the server to reject. A limit that is
not positive is now a ValueError in every store, stated in the query
contract beside the other refused inputs, and checked whether or not
there are query vectors.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <[email protected]>

* Refuse a search for no memories before it does any work

A search whose top_k is not positive asks for nothing, yet it reached
the vector store, which refuses a limit that is not positive, only
after event memory had embedded the query: a request for nothing still
cost an embedding call. SearchMemoriesSpec.top_k is now positive
(gt=0), so request validation refuses it with a 422 naming top_k, the
MCP tool included, and LongTermMemory.search_scored refuses a
num_episodes_limit that is not positive before the query is embedded,
for callers of the Python API. The event backend's window test no
longer runs a limit of 0 on the in-memory vector fake, which does not
check limits; its lower bound is now exercised with a negative
expand_context.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <[email protected]>

* Show the positive top_k in the OpenAPI document

docs/openapi.json, as docs/tools/generate_openapi.py writes it for the
search specification's top_k: exclusiveMinimum 0 and the description.
The generator's other differences under the locked FastAPI are left to
the regeneration that carries them.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <[email protected]>

---------

Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <[email protected]>
Rebased onto main. Main refuses a top_k that is not positive since MemMachine#1740,
with ge=1 and its own tests, so this commit keeps that bound and those tests
in place of the gt=0 bound and the test described above, and
docs/openapi.json shows minimum 1. vector_store_semantic_storage.py keeps
importing datetime, which the history methods MemMachine#1707 added use.
@edwinyyyu edwinyyyu mentioned this pull request Oct 7, 2026
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