Fix Ask in plain words warnings and errors
While Ask in plain words writes a query, a status line shows its progress. Afterwards, notes under the prompt say what it understood or warn that the query may not match, and error messages explain a failed generation. For how to ask, see Ask your data in plain words.
What the status line shows
The messages vary with your request; extra ones appear if a query needs correcting.
| Phase | Status message |
|---|---|
| Start | Initializing..., then Starting SQL generation process... |
| Data | Preparing data and metadata... |
| Columns | Identifying relevant columns for your request... |
| Sample values | Fetching sample values for selected columns... |
| Writing | Creating SQL query based on your request... or Writing SQL query to match your request... |
| Testing | Testing query correctness... |
| Checking | Checking the result matches your request... |
| If needed | Correcting the query..., or Trying the query on your data (attempt 2)... |
When it finishes, the result shows in Preview and Apply turns on.
Notes after generation: what Mammoth understood
After generation, the panel can show these notes:
| Note | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| "Understood as: Groups rows by property, ... and orders properties from highest to lowest total net revenue." | How Mammoth read your request | Check it matches what you meant. If not, rephrase and click Generate again. |
| "This query could not be confirmed to match your request, and it may not run. Review and test it before applying." | Mammoth wrote a query but couldn't confirm the results match. A reason may follow. | Click Show the SQL and review it, edit it, or generate again. A query with this warning is not previewed. |
| "This task moved after its query was generated, so its input columns can be different now. Generate the query again before you apply it." | The task changed position in the pipeline after generation | Click Generate again |
| "This task failed when the pipeline last ran: Column "Region" not found" | You are editing a saved task whose last run failed here | Fix the SQL using the message, then apply |
When you edit the SQL by hand, the Understood as line and the unconfirmed warning go away. The query is now yours.
Error messages when generating SQL
| Message | What it means | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| The "could not be confirmed" warning, with a reason under it such as "Query doesn't match intent" | Mammoth tried up to 3 times (the first query plus up to 2 corrections) and couldn't confirm the result matches. It stops sooner if a correction repeats a query that already failed. | Rephrase the request, or edit the SQL by hand |
| "Failed to generate SQL query" | The AI service request failed | Try again |
| "No SQL query was generated" | The AI returned an empty response | Try again or rephrase |
| "An error occurred while processing your SQL query" | An unexpected processing error | Try again |
| "Generating the SQL query took too long, so it was stopped. Try again." | Generation timed out | Try again, perhaps with a simpler request |
When Mammoth can't confirm a query, it still puts its last attempt in the editor with the warning above. Click Show the SQL to fix it, or rephrase and click Generate.
If the task runs but the result doesn't match what you meant, open it, make the request more specific, and compare the output on a few rows with what you expect.
Related
- Ask your data in plain words: ask, check and apply a query.
- Write SQL by hand and reuse snippets: edit the query yourself.
- Fix a failing step: when a SQL task errors.
Something wrong? support@mammoth.io