earendil-works/pi · error · Error

Could not find the exact text in ${path}. The old text must

Error message

Could not find the exact text in ${path}. The old text must match exactly including all whitespace and newlines.

What it means

Error "Could not find the exact text in ${path}. The old text must match exactly including all whitespace and newlines." thrown in earendil-works/pi.

Source

Thrown at packages/coding-agent/src/core/tools/edit-diff.ts:325

		newText: normalizeToLF(edit.newText),
	}));

	for (let i = 0; i < normalizedEdits.length; i++) {
		if (normalizedEdits[i].oldText.length === 0) {
			throw getEmptyOldTextError(path, i, normalizedEdits.length);
		}
	}

	const initialMatches = normalizedEdits.map((edit) => fuzzyFindText(normalizedContent, edit.oldText));
	const usedFuzzyMatch = initialMatches.some((match) => match.usedFuzzyMatch);
	const replacementBaseContent = usedFuzzyMatch ? normalizeForFuzzyMatch(normalizedContent) : normalizedContent;

	const matchedEdits: MatchedEdit[] = [];
	for (let i = 0; i < normalizedEdits.length; i++) {
		const edit = normalizedEdits[i];
		const matchResult = fuzzyFindText(replacementBaseContent, edit.oldText);
		if (!matchResult.found) {
			throw getNotFoundError(path, i, normalizedEdits.length);
		}

		const occurrences = countOccurrences(replacementBaseContent, edit.oldText);
		if (occurrences > 1) {
			throw getDuplicateError(path, i, normalizedEdits.length, occurrences);
		}

		matchedEdits.push({
			editIndex: i,
			matchIndex: matchResult.index,
			matchLength: matchResult.matchLength,
			newText: edit.newText,
		});
	}

	matchedEdits.sort((a, b) => a.matchIndex - b.matchIndex);
	for (let i = 1; i < matchedEdits.length; i++) {
		const previous = matchedEdits[i - 1];

View on GitHub (pinned to 4af9d21d3b)

Solutions

1. Re-read the file and copy the exact text, including all whitespace and newlines, into oldText.

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at packages/coding-agent/src/core/tools/edit-diff.ts:325 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of earendil-works/pi@4af9d21d3b (2026-08-24). Data as JSON: /api/errors/74e675eed9000bda. Report an issue: GitHub.