anthropics/skills · error · ValueError

parent comment {parent_id} not found

Error message

parent comment {parent_id} not found

What it means

Raised by add_comment() when a parent_id was supplied for a reply comment but no comment with that ID could be found in word/comments.xml (or comments.xml does not exist yet, so no parent can exist). It prevents writing a reply that references a nonexistent parent, which would produce a corrupt or orphaned comment thread.

Source

Thrown at skills/docx/scripts/comment.py:261

) -> tuple[int, str, str]:
    unpacked_dir = Path(unpacked_dir)
    if not raw:
        text = xml_escape(text)
    author = xml_escape(author, {'"': """})
    initials = xml_escape(initials, {'"': """})
    word = unpacked_dir / "word"
    if not word.exists():
        raise FileNotFoundError(f"{word} not found (not an unpacked .docx?)")

    comments = word / "comments.xml"
    if comment_id is None:
        comment_id = _next_comment_id(comments)

    parent_para = None
    if parent_id is not None:
        parent_para = _find_para_id(comments, parent_id) if comments.exists() else None
        if not parent_para:
            raise ValueError(f"parent comment {parent_id} not found")

    para_id, durable_id = _generate_hex_id(), _generate_hex_id()
    ts = datetime.now(timezone.utc).strftime("%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ")

    if not comments.exists():
        shutil.copy(TEMPLATE_DIR / "comments.xml", comments)
    _ensure_comment_relationships(unpacked_dir)
    _ensure_comment_content_types(unpacked_dir)
    _append_xml(
        comments,
        "w:comments",
        COMMENT_XML.format(
            id=comment_id, author=author, date=ts, initials=initials,
            para_id=para_id, text=text,
        ),
    )

    ext = word / "commentsExtended.xml"

View on GitHub (pinned to f6656c1256)

Solutions

1. List existing comments first (read word/comments.xml w:comment/@w:id) and pass a verified id as parent_id.
2. If the document genuinely has no comments, drop parent_id and create a top-level comment instead.
3. Re-extract IDs from the CURRENT document version rather than reusing IDs from a prior edit session.
4. If comments.xml is missing unexpectedly, confirm you are operating on the same unpacked tree the earlier comments were added to.

Example fix

# before
add_comment(unpacked_dir=d, text="reply", parent_id=7)  # ValueError if 7 absent

# after
from defusedxml import minidom
ids = {c.getAttribute("w:id") for c in minidom.parse(str(d/"word"/"comments.xml")).getElementsByTagName("w:", )} if False else {c.getAttribute("w:id") for c in minidom.parse(str(d/"word"/"comments.xml")).getElementsByTagName("w:comment")}
add_comment(unpacked_dir=d, text="reply", parent_id=7 if "7" in ids else None)

from pathlib import Path
from defusedxml import minidom

def comment_ids(unpacked_dir: Path) -> set[str]:
    f = Path(unpacked_dir) / "word" / "comments.xml"
    if not f.exists():
        return set()
    return {c.getAttribute("w:id") for c in minidom.parseString(f.read_bytes()).getElementsByTagName("w:comment")}

try:
    add_comment(unpacked_dir=d, text="reply", parent_id=pid)
except ValueError as e:
    if "parent comment" in str(e):
        add_comment(unpacked_dir=d, text=text)  # degrade to top-level comment, or re-fetch IDs
    else:
        raise

When it happens

Trigger: Calling add_comment(..., parent_id=N) where N is not a comment id present in word/comments.xml — e.g. N came from a previous run against a different document, comments.xml was deleted/never created, or the ID was read from a tool that reports para ids rather than comment ids.

Common situations: Reply workflows where the caller cached comment IDs from an older version of the document; documents with no existing comments (comments.xml absent) where a reply was attempted; ID confusion between w:comment/@w:id, w15:paraId, and durableId.

Related errors

• {word} not found (not an unpacked .docx?)
• relationship target is not a POSIX part name: {target!r}
• relationship target resolves to nothing: {target!r}
• relationship target escapes the package: {target!r}
• symlink archive entry not allowed: {m.filename!r}

AI-assisted analysis of anthropics/skills@f6656c1256 (2026-08-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/5a4e7078b54efef4. Report an issue: GitHub.