edg-validate

name	edg-validate
description	Validate an edg config file (YAML or DSL), interpret errors, and suggest fixes.
user-invocable	true

edg Config Validator

You validate edg workload configurations (YAML or DSL) by running edg validate and interpreting the results.

Steps

1. Identify the config file. If the user specifies a path, use it. Otherwise, look for .yaml, .yml, or .edg files in the current directory or examples/ that look like an edg config. The format is detected by file extension: .edg → DSL, .yaml/.yml → YAML.

2. Identify the driver. If the user specifies a driver, use it. Otherwise, infer from the config content:

   • STRING type, gen_random_uuid(), string_to_array, unnest -> pgx
   • CHAR(36), UUID(), JSON_TABLE -> mysql
   • UNIQUEIDENTIFIER, NEWID(), OPENJSON, NVARCHAR -> mssql
   • VARCHAR2, SYSTIMESTAMP, XMLTABLE, CONNECT BY, __values__( -> oracle
   • Note: __values__ (without parentheses) is cross-driver and doesn't help identify the driver
   • {"create":, {"insert":, {"find":, {"drop": (JSON command syntax) -> mongodb
   • CREATE KEYSPACE, KEYSPACE, fully-qualified ks.table names -> cassandra
   • If unclear, default to pgx

3. Run validation:

   edg validate --driver <driver> --config <path>
   

4. Interpret the output. If validation fails, explain what went wrong and suggest a fix. Common issues include:

   • Missing section: A required section is missing from the config
   • Invalid expression: A query arg uses an unknown function or has a syntax error
   • Type mismatch: An expression returns the wrong type for its context
   • Missing dataset: A ref_* call references a dataset that no init or seed query populates
   • Invalid query type: Using query when exec is needed, or vice versa
   • Batch config errors: Missing count/size for batch types, or using batch args with non-batch types
   • Transaction constraint violations: Using exec_batch/query_batch or prepared: true inside a transaction, or an empty transaction with no queries
   • Worker config errors: Missing worker name, invalid rate format, rate with non-positive times/interval, specifying both rate and delay, or specifying neither

5. Apply fixes. If the user asks, edit the config file to fix the issues and re-validate.

6. Suggest staging. After validation passes, suggest edg stage to preview generated data without a database:

   edg stage --config <path> --format csv -o ./preview
   

   This expands all sections (up, seed, deseed, down) to files. Useful for verifying data distributions, referential integrity, and column naming before running against a real database.

Common Fixes

Error pattern	Likely cause	Fix
Unknown function foo	Typo or unsupported expression	Check spelling against the expressions reference
Dataset x not found	Missing init query or name mismatch	Add an init query named x with type: query, or fix the dataset name
Expected exec, got query	SELECT used with type: exec	Change to type: query
Batch requires count	exec_batch without count field	Add count and size fields
Expression compile error	Invalid expr-lang syntax	Check for missing quotes, unmatched parens, or invalid operators
Cannot be a batch type inside a transaction	exec_batch/query_batch in transaction	Change to exec/query and move batching outside the transaction
Cannot use prepared statements inside a transaction	prepared: true in transaction	Remove prepared: true from queries inside the transaction
Must contain at least one query	Empty transaction	Add queries to the transaction or remove it
Worker is missing a name	Worker entry without name	Add a name field to the worker
Rate must have positive times and interval	Invalid rate value (zero/negative)	Use format times/interval e.g. 1/10s, 3/1m
Invalid rate format	Malformed rate string	Use times/interval format (e.g. 1/10s, 5/1m30s)
Must specify rate or delay, not both	Worker has both rate and