anthropics/financial-services · error · FileNotFoundError

File not found: {excel_path}

Error message

File not found: {excel_path}

What it means

Raised in DCFModelValidator.__init__ of the vertical-plugins (financial-analysis) source copy of validate_dcf.py when Path(excel_path).exists() returns False. The check runs before openpyxl.load_workbook, so the validator never attempts to open a nonexistent workbook. At runtime the message contains the literal path that was passed in.

Source

Thrown at plugins/vertical-plugins/financial-analysis/skills/dcf-model/scripts/validate_dcf.py:26

import json
from pathlib import Path
from typing import Optional


class DCFModelValidator:
    """Validates DCF models for errors and quality issues"""

    def __init__(self, excel_path: str):
        try:
            import openpyxl
        except ImportError:
            raise ImportError("openpyxl not installed. Run: pip install openpyxl")

        self.excel_path = excel_path
        self.openpyxl = openpyxl

        if not Path(excel_path).exists():
            raise FileNotFoundError(f"File not found: {excel_path}")

        self.workbook_formulas = openpyxl.load_workbook(excel_path, data_only=False)
        self.workbook_values = openpyxl.load_workbook(excel_path, data_only=True)
        self.errors = []
        self.warnings = []
        self.info = []
        
    def validate_all(self) -> dict:
        """
        Run all validation checks

        Returns:
            Dict with validation results
        """
        from datetime import datetime

        self.check_sheet_structure()
        self.check_formula_errors()

View on GitHub (pinned to 69cbc81467)

Solutions

1. Verify from the script's working directory: ls -l '<path>'; fix the path or CWD accordingly
2. Normalize to an absolute path: DCFModelValidator(str(Path(raw).resolve()))
3. Clean paths from external sources: raw.strip().strip('"\'') and expand ~ with Path.expanduser()
4. If the file should have been generated upstream, inspect that step's output/logs to find where it was actually written

Example fix

# before
validator = DCFModelValidator('exports/dcf_final.xlsx')  # FileNotFoundError

# after
from pathlib import Path
p = Path('exports/dcf_final.xlsx').expanduser().resolve()
if not p.is_file():
    raise SystemExit(f'Missing model file: {p}')
validator = DCFModelValidator(str(p))

from pathlib import Path
p = Path(excel_path).expanduser().resolve()
if not p.is_file():
    raise SystemExit(f'Model file not found: {p}')
validator = DCFModelValidator(str(p))

def is_valid_model_path(raw: str) -> bool:
    p = Path(raw).expanduser()
    return p.is_file() and p.suffix.lower() in {'.xlsx', '.xlsm'}

try:
    validator = DCFModelValidator(path)
except FileNotFoundError as e:
    raise SystemExit(f'Could not open model: {e}. Verify the path and that the upstream export produced the file.')

When it happens

Trigger: Calling DCFModelValidator(excel_path) where excel_path points to a missing file: wrong CWD for a relative path, typo, wrong case on a case-sensitive FS, or a model that an upstream export/generation step never wrote. The message interpolates the exact constructor argument.

Common situations: Automation that generates a DCF into a temp/output dir and validates from a different CWD; batch scripts looping over filenames where one is absent; paths quoted or whitespace-padded from CLI args or agent output; files deleted by concurrent cleanup before validation runs.

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

• File not found: {excel_path}
• File not found: {excel_path}
• openpyxl not installed. Run: pip install openpyxl
• openpyxl not installed. Run: pip install openpyxl
• openpyxl not installed. Run: pip install openpyxl

AI-assisted analysis of anthropics/financial-services@69cbc81467 (2026-08-27). Data as JSON: /api/errors/b546812469601d38. Report an issue: GitHub.