> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.narrative.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Missing Required Default Statistics

> The defaults object must include enabled_stats because there is no parent scope to inherit from

## Error message

```
defaults: enabled_stats is required (no parent scope to inherit from)
```

## When this error occurs

The `defaults` object is the root of the inheritance chain. Every other level (namespace scope, field overrides, nested nodes) can optionally omit `enabled_stats` and inherit from its parent. But `defaults` has no parent — so `enabled_stats` must be explicitly provided.

This error is raised when:

* `defaults` contains only `stat_options` without `enabled_stats`
* `defaults` is an empty object

## Example: request that triggers this error

```json theme={null}
{
  "defaults": {
    "stat_options": {
      "histogram": { "max_bins": 200 }
    }
  },
  "refresh": { "trigger": "manual" }
}
```

The server cannot determine which stats to compute because `enabled_stats` is missing from `defaults`.

## How to fix

Add `enabled_stats` to the `defaults` object. Even if you only want to configure histogram options, you must declare the stat set:

```json theme={null}
{
  "defaults": {
    "enabled_stats": ["value_count", "null_value_count", "histogram"],
    "stat_options": {
      "histogram": { "max_bins": 200 }
    }
  },
  "refresh": { "trigger": "manual" }
}
```

To disable all stats globally, use an empty array:

```json theme={null}
{
  "defaults": {
    "enabled_stats": []
  },
  "refresh": { "trigger": "manual" }
}
```

## Related errors

* [EmptyScopeConfig](/reference/architecture/dataset-statistics/errors/empty-scope-config) — similar constraint at the namespace scope level