Could not refresh instance

First Check

I added a very descriptive title to this issue.
I used the GitHub search to find a similar issue and didn't find it.
I searched the SQLModel documentation, with the integrated search.
I already searched in Google "How to X in SQLModel" and didn't find any information.
I already read and followed all the tutorial in the docs and didn't find an answer.
I already checked if it is not related to SQLModel but to Pydantic.
I already checked if it is not related to SQLModel but to SQLAlchemy.

Commit to Help

I commit to help with one of those options 👆

Example Code

from typing import Optional  
from sqlmodel import Field, SQLModel

class Server(SQLModel, table=True):  
    id: Optional[int] = Field(default=None, primary_key=True)  
    ip: str  
    health_status: Optional[str] = None 
    cpu_cores: Optional[int] = None

@router.post("/add")
def add_server(item:Server):
    return server_action.add_server(item)

def add_server(item): 
    with Session(engine) as session:  
        session.add(item) 
        session.commit()
        session.refresh(item) # could not refresh instance
        return item

Description

In sql model documentation I saw an example of session.refresh() but when I am trying to implement this in my fastapi project this not working and raise exception that is could not refresh instance and also I am trying to print item.id, this is not also working, raise exception that is expired.

Operating System

Linux

Operating System Details

No response

SQLModel Version

0.0.8

Python Version

3.10.6

Additional Context

raise sa_exc.InvalidRequestError(
sqlalchemy.exc.InvalidRequestError: Could not refresh instance '<Server at 0x7f69b549f500>'

database is mysql

del session.refresh(item)
add session.flush()
maybe work

@JeseYe

@JeseYe thanks but I want to know why session.refresh not refresh item.

You cannot refresh the item because there is no database instance connected with it.
To do that you need to retrieve the item from the database using an select statement.
You can use refresh in the following:

retrieve a instance from the database hero = session.get(Hero, {'name': 'Hans'}) or a select statement
change attributes hero.age=42
add to session session.add(hero)
write changes session.commit()
refresh the instance collected from 1. session.refresh(hero)

I'm running into this problem myself as well. Pardon my ignorance, but shouldn't SQLModel do this for us? Or is this just something that must be done when using MySQL (assuming this isn't a problem for other DB types)?

I discovered a solution for this:

As it turns out, the object I was passing to the REST endpoint had an ID specified (the ID was 0). When I either don't specify an ID or set it to None prior to adding/committing/refreshing then everything works as desired.

def add_server(item): 
    with Session(engine) as session:
        if item.id == 0:
            item.id = None
        session.add(item)
        session.commit()
        session.refresh(item) # now refreshes properly!
        return item

Although... again... shouldn't SQLModel (or FastAPI?) determine that since default=None is specified that it pass id=None inside the /docs endpoint? Right now, it passes id=0 for the primary key when I assumed it would've passed id=None...

    id: Optional[int] = Field(default=None, primary_key=True)

Depends on what the default value in the Item schema is, whether 0 or None. However, we shouldn't be having to do this. Using an if condition to check for an id that is passed from a request seems like hacky fix to this problem. If the id is set as the primary key in the models it should be auto incremented by the orm.

I also have this (or, rather, a similar) issue. But in my case I do have both defaults that are not none, and a record with the same primary key in DB.

Code that doesn't work (right now at least)

Models

import uuid

import pydantic
from sqlmodel import Field, Relationship, SQLModel

from .faculty import FacultyModel

class CreateDepartment(SQLModel):
    name: str = Field(unique=True, index=True)
    description: str | None = Field(default=None, nullable=True)


class DepartmentRepresentation(BaseDepartment):
    department_id: pydantic.UUID4
    faculties: list[FacultyModel]


class DepartmentModel(BaseDepartment, table=True):
    """
    Describes a department in an educational institution.
    Highest level of organization in an educational institution.

    Departments have a list of associated faculties.
    """

    department_id: pydantic.UUID4 = Field(
        default_factory=uuid.uuid4,
        primary_key=True,
        index=True,
    )

    faculties: list[FacultyModel] = Relationship(back_populates="department")

Endpoint

Code sample:

@admin_router.put(
    "/department/{department_id}",
    description="Update a department",
)
async def update_department(
    db: Annotated[database_session_type, Depends(database_session)],
    department_id: str,
    department: Annotated[CreateDepartment, Body()],
    _: Annotated[DepartmentModel, Depends(department_exists)],
) -> DepartmentRepresentation:
    department_obj = DepartmentModel.model_validate(department)
    department_obj.department_id = department_id
    return update_entity(
        db=db,
        entity=department_obj,
    )

Basically - it takes in the model for a department, and spits out it's representation from the database by performing an update.
I'm using model validation to convert input to the DB model, and set the foreign key to the one specified in path.
department_exists just verifies that specified department_id is valid and is present in the DB

Update call

from sqlalchemy.exc import IntegrityError, InvalidRequestError
from sqlmodel import Session, SQLModel

from samurai_backend.errors import SamuraiIntegrityError

...

def update_entity(
    db: Session,
    entity: SQLModel,
) -> SQLModel:
    try:
        db.add(entity)
        db.commit()
        db.refresh(entity)

        return entity
    except (IntegrityError, InvalidRequestError) as e:
        db.rollback()
        raise SamuraiIntegrityError from e

Error

I get exception InvalidRequestError that looks like this:

(psycopg2.errors.UniqueViolation) duplicate key value violates unique constraint "departmentmodel_pkey"\nDETAIL:  Key (department_id)=(1523095d-3d9d-46a7-bed5-2e19d3314712) already exists.\n\n[SQL: INSERT INTO departmentmodel (name, description, department_id)...

There's a lengthy INSERT SQL query, which is performed in db.commit() line. Which is expected, I guess, but not helpful in this case.

Code that does work (right now)

Update the update_entity and call to it by adding primary_key parameter. In my case it's department_id, and the method now looks like this:

from sqlalchemy.exc import IntegrityError, InvalidRequestError
from sqlmodel import Session, SQLModel, update

from samurai_backend.errors import SamuraiIntegrityError

...

def update_entity(
    db: Session,
    entity: SQLModel,
    primary_key: str,
) -> SQLModel:
    try:
        entity_class = entity.__class__
        update_query = (
            update(entity_class)
            .where(getattr(entity_class, primary_key) == getattr(entity, primary_key))
            .values(**entity.model_dump(exclude={primary_key}))
        )
        db.exec(update_query)
        db.commit()

        return entity
    except (IntegrityError, InvalidRequestError) as e:
        db.rollback()
        raise SamuraiIntegrityError from e

Right now I see this as my only solution, but if you have different ideas, please, let me (or, rather - us) know.

P.S. Just using refresh won't do, since then you will get an error that this object is not in registry yet.

Thanks!

Additional info

I'm using sqlmodel 0.0.16, the latest version at the moment of writing this comment.

had a similar issue, setting auto_increment=True on primary_key id solved it

The code example from the initial post seems to work well. I can't reproduce the issue.

from typing import Optional

from fastapi import FastAPI
from fastapi.testclient import TestClient
from sqlalchemy import StaticPool
from sqlmodel import Field, Session, SQLModel, create_engine

class Server(SQLModel, table=True):
    id: Optional[int] = Field(default=None, primary_key=True)
    ip: str
    health_status: Optional[str] = None
    cpu_cores: Optional[int] = None

engine = create_engine(
    "sqlite://", connect_args={"check_same_thread": False}, poolclass=StaticPool
)
SQLModel.metadata.create_all(engine)

app = FastAPI()

@app.post("/add")
def add_server(item: Server):
    return _add_server(item)

def _add_server(item):
    with Session(engine) as session:
        session.add(item)
        session.commit()
        session.refresh(item)
        return item

def test_():
    with TestClient(app) as client:
        resp = client.post("/add", json={"ip": "127.0.0.1"})

    assert resp.json()["id"] == 1

@makisukurisu

@makisukurisu, your issue is different from the issue above.
You are trying to update the existing item, but use session.add. You should either use approach with update(entity_class).where() or use db.get() to fetch the object that you can then update and commit.

Navigation Menu

Repository navigation

Could not refresh instance #536

First Check

Commit to Help

Example Code

Description

Operating System

Operating System Details

SQLModel Version

Python Version

Additional Context

Code that doesn't work (right now at least)

Models

Endpoint

Update call

Error

Code that does work (right now)

Additional info

Metadata

Assignees

Labels

Type

Projects

Milestone

Relationships

Development

Could not refresh instance #536

Description

First Check

Commit to Help

Example Code

Description

Operating System

Operating System Details

SQLModel Version

Python Version

Additional Context

Activity

AshikurRahman-sec commented on Jan 25, 2023

JeseYe commented on Feb 2, 2023

AshikurRahman-sec commented on Feb 6, 2023

fishfacegit commented on Apr 3, 2023

starryknight64 commented on Dec 27, 2023

starryknight64 commented on Dec 27, 2023

starryknight64 commented on Dec 27, 2023

thebirdgr commented on Feb 26, 2024

makisukurisu commented on Mar 19, 2024

Code that doesn't work (right now at least)

Models

Endpoint

Update call

Error

Code that does work (right now)

Additional info

AbirAbbas commented on Jun 19, 2024

YuriiMotov commented on Aug 6, 2025

YuriiMotov commented on Aug 6, 2025

Metadata

Metadata

Assignees

Labels

Type

Projects

Milestone

Relationships

Development

Issue actions