Intervals.term(term, payloadFilter) throws IllegalArgumentException ('no indexed payloads') for every segment in which no document indexed a payload for the field, so the whole search fails and whether it fails depends on segment layout

Finding LFV-455Area: queries / intervals (PayloadFilteredTermIntervalsSource per-segment hasPayloads check)Priority: lowImpact: crashNovelty: new

Finding page for LFV-455

AI-assisted finding, confirmed by automated checks, not yet triaged by a human Lucene committer. This site files nothing upstream.

What it shows

Index a text field in which only some tokens carry payloads (for example with DelimitedPayloadTokenFilter: 'big|adj dog|noun' next to 'dog walks') and search it with Intervals.term("dog", payloadFilter). You expect the documents whose 'dog' payload passes the filter, however the documents happen to be split into segments. Instead, as soon as one segment contains only documents without payloads for that field, the whole search throws IllegalArgumentException 'Cannot create a payload-filtered iterator over field f because it has no indexed payloads', while the same documents after forceMerge(1) return the right hits.

The test shows that two one-document segments, "dog" with a payload and "dog" without; count(new IntervalQuery("f", Intervals.term("dog", p -> p != null))) fails for the whole index.

Expected vs actual

Expected: 1 hit (the document whose "dog" has a payload); actual (-ea and -da): IllegalArgumentException "Cannot create a payload-filtered iterator over field f because it has no indexed payloads" from the payload-less segment (PayloadFilteredTermIntervalsSource.java:58).

Files

• src/org/apache/lucene/queries/intervals/TestPayloadFilteredIntervalsSegmentWithoutPayloads.java (JUnit test)

Run it

• Tested on Lucene main e1faeba08bde (2026-11-02): still reproduces.
• Tested on Lucene main 645d4fe14a20 (2026-10-28): reproduced.
• Recorded outcome of run 1 on Lucene main 645d4fe14a20: 1 test(s) run, 1 failed.
• How to read the outcome: a failing test is the finding reproducing (the failure message states expected against actual).
• Seeds: a rerun with the same seed replays the same random choices. Assertions off (-da -dsa -Dtests.asserts=false) is the production-like setting.

# Lucene checkout at the tested commit, built with: ./gradlew --no-daemon assemble   (JDK 25)
LUCENE=/path/to/lucene; V=12.0.0-SNAPSHOT
CP=$LUCENE/lucene/core/build/libs/lucene-core-$V.jar
CP=$CP:$LUCENE/lucene/codecs/build/libs/lucene-codecs-$V.jar
CP=$CP:$LUCENE/lucene/test-framework/build/libs/lucene-test-framework-$V.jar
CP=$CP:$LUCENE/lucene/queries/build/libs/lucene-queries-$V.jar
CP=$CP:randomizedtesting-runner-2.9.2.jar:junit-4.13.2.jar:hamcrest-3.0.jar   # test-framework dependencies (Maven Central)
CP=$CP:junit-platform-console-standalone-6.1.3.jar   # JUnit Platform console launcher (Maven Central)

javac -d classes -cp "$CP" $(find src -name '*.java')

# run 1: assertions on, seed DEADBEEF
java -ea -esa --add-modules jdk.incubator.vector --enable-native-access=ALL-UNNAMED -Dtests.seed=DEADBEEF \
     -cp "classes:$CP" org.junit.platform.console.ConsoleLauncher \
     execute --select-class org.apache.lucene.queries.intervals.TestPayloadFilteredIntervalsSegmentWithoutPayloads

Gradle alternative: copy the test into the matching module's src/test/ tree of the checkout and run ./gradlew -p lucene/<module> test --tests <class> -Ptests.seed=<seed> (add -Ptests.asserts=false for a run without assertions).

Feedback

Open an issue in lucene-ai-bug-hunt. Please do not open issues or pull requests in apache/lucene about this finding unless a Lucene committer agrees it should be filed.

Snapshot of 2026-11-04. AI-assisted; not yet triaged by a human Lucene committer. Feedback: open an issue in lucene-ai-bug-hunt.