anthropics/skills · error · SystemExit

1

Error message

1

What it means

This is not a raised exception but a process exit: the CLI prints the result message from accept_changes() and, if the message contains the substring 'Error', exits with status 1 via raise SystemExit(1). The message '1' seen by callers is therefore the nonzero exit code, indicating the operation failed (typically a missing/invalid input file or a LibreOffice 'soffice' subprocess failure captured in the message text). Inspect the printed message on stdout/stderr for the underlying cause.

Source

Thrown at skills/docx/scripts/accept_changes.py:135

        logger.warning(f"Failed to setup LibreOffice macro: {e}")
        return False


if __name__ == "__main__":
    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(
        description="Accept all tracked changes in a DOCX file"
    )
    parser.add_argument("input_file", help="Input DOCX file with tracked changes")
    parser.add_argument(
        "output_file", help="Output DOCX file (clean, no tracked changes)"
    )
    args = parser.parse_args()

    _, message = accept_changes(args.input_file, args.output_file)
    print(message)

    if "Error" in message:
        raise SystemExit(1)

View on GitHub (pinned to f6656c1256)

Solutions

1. Re-run the script and read the printed message — it names the actual failure (missing file, invalid DOCX, or LibreOffice stderr).
2. Verify the input path exists and is a valid .docx (unzip -l shows word/document.xml).
3. Confirm LibreOffice is installed and 'soffice' is on PATH ('soffice --headless --version').
4. If the LibreOffice profile is corrupted, remove the profile directory referenced by LIBREOFFICE_PROFILE so the macro setup recreates it.

Example fix

# before
subprocess.run(["python", "accept_changes.py", "in.docx", "out.docx"], check=True)

# after
proc = subprocess.run(["python", "accept_changes.py", "in.docx", "out.docx"], capture_output=True, text=True)
if proc.returncode != 0:
    print(proc.stdout)  # message names the real failure
    # handle: fix input file or install LibreOffice

from pathlib import Path
import shutil, subprocess

def can_accept_changes(input_file: str) -> tuple[bool, str]:
    p = Path(input_file)
    if not p.is_file():
        return False, f"input not found: {p}"
    import zipfile
    try:
        with zipfile.ZipFile(p) as zf:
            if "word/document.xml" not in zf.namelist():
                return False, "not a valid .docx (missing word/document.xml)"
    except zipfile.BadZipFile:
        return False, "not a zip/OOXML file"
    if not shutil.which("soffice"):
        return False, "LibreOffice (soffice) not on PATH"
    return True, "ok"

# subprocess caller pattern
import subprocess
proc = subprocess.run([sys.executable, "accept_changes.py", inp, outp], capture_output=True, text=True)
if proc.returncode != 0:
    log.error("accept_changes failed: %s", proc.stdout.strip())  # printed message has the cause
    # do NOT retry unchanged; fix input/env first

When it happens

Trigger: Running `python accept_changes.py in.docx out.docx` where accept_changes() returns a message containing 'Error' — e.g. the input file does not exist, is not a valid DOCX, the soffice binary is missing from PATH, or LibreOffice exits nonzero (result.returncode != 0 with 'Error: LibreOffice failed: ...' stderr).

Common situations: Headless servers without LibreOffice installed; a stale or locked LibreOffice user profile (-env:UserInstallation) causing soffice to fail; passing a .doc/.odt or corrupt file instead of a real DOCX; wrong argument order so the input path points at a nonexistent file.

Related errors

• {word} not found (not an unpacked .docx?)
• parent comment {parent_id} not found
• relationship target is not a POSIX part name: {target!r}
• relationship target escapes the package: {target!r}
• relationship target resolves to nothing: {target!r}

AI-assisted analysis of anthropics/skills@f6656c1256 (2026-08-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/56e9f06f24a885e5. Report an issue: GitHub.