analyze vs run & decode [FEATURE REQUEST] ?

[sbilello]

When I run the analyze command I get an error message INVALID_RESULT_PATTERNS while if I breakdown the execution and the result decoding it works correctly. Why?

❯ codeql database analyze \
  --rerun  \
  --format=csv \
  --output=output.csv \
  propdb \
  ./properties.ql
Running queries.
Compiling query plan for /Users/sergiobilello/Documents/repositories/asset-service/properties.ql.
[1/1] Found in cache: /Users/sergiobilello/Documents/repositories/asset-service/properties.ql.
Starting evaluation of asset-service/properties.ql.
[1/1 eval 217ms] Evaluation done; writing results to asset-service/properties.bqrs.
Shutting down query evaluator.
Interpreting results.
A fatal error occurred: Could not process query metadata.
Error was: Expected result pattern(s) are not present for query kind "problem": Expected alternating entity/string and string columns. [INVALID_RESULT_PATTERNS]

VS
I created a script prop.sh to automate the steps for running and results decoding

❯ ./prop.sh properties.ql

• codeql query run --database propdb properties.ql --output=constants.bqrs
  Compiling query plan for /Users/sergiobilello/Documents/repositories/asset-service/properties.ql.
  [1/1] Found in cache: /Users/sergiobilello/Documents/repositories/asset-service/properties.ql.
  Starting evaluation of asset-service/properties.ql.
  [1/1 eval 221ms] Evaluation done; writing results to /Users/sergiobilello/Documents/repositories/asset-service/constants.bqrs.
  Shutting down query evaluator.
• codeql bqrs decode --output=decoded.csv --format=csv constants.bqrs
• cat decoded.csv
  "col0","col1","col2"
  "/Users/sergiobilello/Documents/repositories/asset-service/.mvn/wrapper/maven-wrapper.properties:1[1-115]","distributionUrl","https://repo.maven.apache.org/maven2/org/apache/maven/apache-maven/3.6.3/apache-maven-3.6.3-bin.zip"
  "/Users/sergiobilello/Documents/repositories/asset-service/.mvn/wrapper/maven-wrapper.properties:2[1-101]","wrapperUrl","https://repo.maven.apache.org/maven2/io/takari/maven-wrapper/0.5.6/maven-wrapper-0.5.6.jar"

[sbilello]

I understand that analyze has strict metadata restrictions accordingly to the documentation but it can not be added a flag to avoid that you need to write your own script to get the results in the format that the developer requests?
I also found this problem #5319

[hvitved]

The meta data on the query (in this case @kind problem) requires that the output has a certain structure, so either you have to change the output structure to be valid, or use codeql query run as you have done above.

[aeisenberg]

Marking this as answered, please let us know if there is anything left that is unclear.