FoundationAgents/MetaGPT · error · FileNotFoundError

File {path} not found.

Error message

File {path} not found.

What it means

Document.from_path (metagpt/document.py) constructs a Document from a file by first checking Path.exists(); a missing path raises FileNotFoundError with the offending path in the message. This is a caller-input guard before read_text() would fail with a less clear error.

Source

Thrown at metagpt/document.py:79

    Document: Handles operations related to document files.
    """

    path: Path = Field(default=None)
    name: str = Field(default="")
    content: str = Field(default="")

    # metadata? in content perhaps.
    author: str = Field(default="")
    status: DocumentStatus = Field(default=DocumentStatus.DRAFT)
    reviews: list = Field(default_factory=list)

    @classmethod
    def from_path(cls, path: Path):
        """
        Create a Document instance from a file path.
        """
        if not path.exists():
            raise FileNotFoundError(f"File {path} not found.")
        content = path.read_text()
        return cls(content=content, path=path)

    @classmethod
    def from_text(cls, text: str, path: Optional[Path] = None):
        """
        Create a Document from a text string.
        """
        return cls(content=text, path=path)

    def to_path(self, path: Optional[Path] = None):
        """
        Save content to the specified file path.
        """
        if path is not None:
            self.path = path

        if self.path is None:

View on GitHub (pinned to 11cdf466d0)

Solutions

1. Check path.exists() and resolve to an absolute path before calling from_path.
2. Verify the producing step (e.g. WritePrd) succeeded and actually wrote the file.
3. Fix the filename or regenerate the document.

Example fix

# before
doc = Document.from_path(Path('requirements/old_name.txt'))  # FileNotFoundError

# after
p = Path('requirements/requirement.txt').resolve()
if not p.exists():
    raise SystemExit(f'missing {p}')
doc = Document.from_path(p)

p = p.resolve()
if not p.is_file():
    raise FileNotFoundError(f'expected document not found: {p}')
doc = Document.from_path(p)

def is_existing_file(p: Path) -> TypeGuard[Path]:
    return p.exists() and p.is_file()

try:
    doc = Document.from_path(p)
except FileNotFoundError:
    doc = Document.from_text('', path=p)  # or regenerate the file upstream

When it happens

Trigger: Document.from_path(Path('docs/prd.txt')) when the file was never created, was deleted, or the path is relative and resolved against the wrong working directory.

Common situations: Referencing PRD/design docs that a prior pipeline step failed to write; wrong cwd when using relative paths; typos or stale filenames after renames; race with another process still writing the file.

Related errors

• File {data_path} not found.
• File {file_path} not found
• json_file: {json_file} not exist, return []
• json_file: {jsonl_file} not exist, return []
• {image_path_or_pil} not exists

AI-assisted analysis of FoundationAgents/MetaGPT@11cdf466d0 (2026-08-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/8de0cb4051db71d9. Report an issue: GitHub.