IllegalArgumentException / UNEXPECTED_SERVER_ERROR in FindAndRerank when omitting $vectorize in $hybrid

[sl-at-ibm]

A collection with lexical, rerank and vectorize support still may return a "naked" Unexpected server error / IllegalArgumentException when a findAndRerank command does not provide a $vectorize (rather only $lexical) in its sort clause and rerankQuery is provided.

Expectation: an error message that does not expose an internal exception, rather wraps it and rejects it gracefully at command-validation stage. (see current error below)

Verified on 2026-09-03 on a prod Astra Data API on kube 189267260851 (AWS us-east-2)

Reproduction

Note: below, "bad query" means not that this does not succeed (which is the correct thing): it means that the returned error looks like a unhandled internal "IllegalArgumentException" rather than a clean validation error. When omitting $vectorize from the sort, but also skipping rerankQuery, the error is a good, clear validation error as it should be (==> MISSING_RERANK_QUERY_TEXT).

Create collection:

{
    "createCollection": {
        "name": "c",
        "options": {
            "vector": {
                "service": {
                    "provider": "nvidia",
                    "modelName": "nvidia/nv-embedqa-e5-v5"
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

Bad query 1:

{
    "findAndRerank": {
        "filter": {
            "$lexical": {
                "$match": "bla"
            }
        },
        "sort": {
            "$hybrid": {
                "$lexical": "ble"
            }
        },
        "options": {
            "rerankOn": "$lexical",
            "rerankQuery": "blo"
        }
    }
}

Bad query 2:

{
    "findAndRerank": {
        "filter": {
            "$lexical": {
                "$match": "bla"
            }
        },
        "sort": {
            "$hybrid": {
                "$lexical": "ble"
            }
        },
        "options": {
            "rerankQuery": "blo"
        }
    }
}

Naked error the caller receives:

Unexpected server error: An unexpected server error occurred while processing the request. 

Error Class: IllegalArgumentException
Error Message: buildVectorRead() - no vector or vectorize

Review the Error Message before retrying this request. (UNEXPECTED_SERVER_ERROR)