abhigyanpatwari/GitNexus · error

File not found

Error message

File not found

What it means

HTTP 404 from the repo file-read API when fs.readFile throws ENOENT after the request passed validation and traversal containment — the path was well-formed and inside the repo, but no such file exists on disk. The handler distinguishes err.code === 'ENOENT' from other failures, which fall through to statusFromError (400/403/500). Note the API reads the real filesystem, not the index, so a file present in stale index results but deleted from the working tree will still 404.

Source

Thrown at gitnexus/src/server/api.ts:633

    if (startLine !== undefined && Number.isFinite(startLine)) {
      const lines = raw.split('\n');
      const start = Math.max(0, startLine);
      const end =
        endLine !== undefined && Number.isFinite(endLine)
          ? Math.min(lines.length, endLine + 1)
          : lines.length;
      res.json({
        content: lines.slice(start, end).join('\n'),
        startLine: start,
        endLine: end - 1,
        totalLines: lines.length,
      });
    } else {
      res.json({ content: raw, totalLines: raw.split('\n').length });
    }
  } catch (err: any) {
    if (err.code === 'ENOENT') {
      res.status(404).json({ error: 'File not found' });
    } else {
      // statusFromError returns err.status for BadRequestError / ForbiddenError
      // (assertString → 400 on array-form ?path=a&path=b; ForbiddenError → 403
      // on traversal). Falls back to 500 for unrecognized failures.
      res.status(statusFromError(err)).json({ error: err.message || 'Failed to read file' });
    }
  }
};

export const handleQueryRequest = async (
  req: express.Request,
  res: express.Response,
  resolveRepo: (repoName?: string) => Promise<{ storagePath: string } | undefined>,
): Promise<void> => {
  try {
    const cypher = req.body.cypher as string;
    if (!cypher) {
      res.status(400).json({ error: 'Missing "cypher" in request body' });

View on GitHub (pinned to aac7515d2a)

Solutions

1. Verify the file exists in the working tree of the served repository (git status / ls) at the exact case
2. Re-run gitnexus analyze or re-fetch search results so the UI's paths match the current tree
3. Check you are querying the right repository (?repo= matches the repo containing the file)
4. Handle 404 gracefully in the UI by invalidating cached result entries that reference the missing path

Example fix

// before
const res = await fetch(`${base}/api/file?path=${hit.path}`);
const body = await res.json(); // { error: 'File not found' } breaks the viewer

// after
const res = await fetch(`${base}/api/file?path=${encodeURIComponent(hit.path)}`);
if (res.status === 404) { removeFromResults(hit); notifyUser('File no longer exists — results refreshed'); return; }

// Only request files that the current results/tree actually reference.
if (!tree.has(filePath)) {
  await refreshIndex(); // re-fetch grep/query results or re-run analyze
  if (!tree.has(filePath)) throw new Error(`file not in current tree: ${filePath}`);
}

const res = await fetch(fileUrl);
if (res.status === 404 && (await res.json()).error === 'File not found') {
  dropStaleResult(filePath); // invalidate cached references instead of crashing the viewer
  return null;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Requesting a file deleted or renamed since it was indexed; a case mismatch on case-sensitive filesystems (README.md vs readme.md); pointing at the wrong repo (?repo=) where the relative path does not exist; requesting a path that only exists on another branch.

Common situations: Web UI holding stale grep/query results after a branch switch or rebase; files generated at index time but later cleaned (build artifacts); developers testing with paths from their laptop on a CI checkout that differs; typo in the filename.

Understand the failure class

Background: "File not found" and ENOENT errors: why libraries can't find a file that should exist — this error's family across 50 libraries.

Related errors

• Repository not found
• Failed to list repos
• Repository not found. Run: gitnexus analyze
• "path" must be a string
• "path" must be an absolute path

AI-assisted analysis of abhigyanpatwari/GitNexus@aac7515d2a (2026-08-20). Data as JSON: /api/errors/49f0ac4af33dd8ce. Report an issue: GitHub.