oraios/serena · error · FileNotFoundError

Memory maintenance template not found at {template_path}

Error message

Memory maintenance template not found at {template_path}

What it means

ensure_memory_maintenance_memory seeds a project-level memory-maintenance memory by copying a template shipped with the serena package. If the template file at _MEMORY_MAINTENANCE_TEMPLATE_PATH does not exist on disk, FileNotFoundError is raised. This indicates the installation is broken or the template was removed.

Source

Thrown at src/serena/memories/memory_manager.py:118

        Existing memory files are never overwritten; users may have customized them. To
        refresh from the shipped template, delete the existing memory first.

        :return: the bare name to reference the maintenance memory by (without the ``mem:``
            prefix); either ``"global/memory_maintenance"`` or ``"memory_maintenance"``.
        :raises FileNotFoundError: if the shipped template is missing on disk.
        :raises AssertionError: if this manager has no associated project directory.
        """
        global_name = f"{self.GLOBAL_TOPIC}/{self.MEMORY_MAINTENANCE_NAME}"
        if self.get_memory_file_path(global_name).exists():
            return global_name
        if self.get_memory_file_path(self.MEMORY_MAINTENANCE_NAME).exists():
            return self.MEMORY_MAINTENANCE_NAME

        # seed a project copy from the shipped template
        template_path = self._MEMORY_MAINTENANCE_TEMPLATE_PATH
        if not template_path.exists():
            raise FileNotFoundError(f"Memory maintenance template not found at {template_path}")
        content = template_path.read_text(encoding=self._encoding)
        self.save_memory(self.MEMORY_MAINTENANCE_NAME, content, is_tool_context=False)
        return self.MEMORY_MAINTENANCE_NAME

    def rename_references_to_memory(self, content: str, old_name: str, new_name: str) -> tuple[str, int]:
        r"""
        Replaces all occurrences of a memory reference (e.g. ``mem:foo``) in ``content`` with
        the reference to ``new_name``.

        Matches only references whose name is exactly ``old_name``: the match must not be
        embedded in a longer memory name. A memory name consists of the character class
        ``[A-Za-z0-9_\\-/]`` (alphanumerics, underscore, hyphen, slash for topic separation),
        which determines the boundary of the match. The surrounding delimiters (backticks,
        quotes, parentheses, whitespace, etc.) are intentionally unconstrained.

        :param content: the text to search through
        :param old_name: the memory name being renamed away from (without the ``mem:`` prefix)
        :param new_name: the memory name being renamed to (without the ``mem:`` prefix)

View on GitHub (pinned to 7fcbca7e62)

Solutions

1. Reinstall serena cleanly: pip uninstall serena && pip install --force-reinstall serena (or pip install -e . from a fresh checkout).
2. Verify the template exists at the path in _MEMORY_MAINTENANCE_TEMPLATE_PATH inside site-packages; if missing, the package data was not shipped.
3. If installing from source, ensure the template file is present in src/serena/memories/ and that package-data/include patterns cover .md resources.
4. As a workaround, pre-create the memory-maintenance memory in the project (.serena/memories/) so the template copy path is skipped.

Example fix

// before
pip install serena  # broken wheel without template resources
// after
pip uninstall -y serena
pip install --force-reinstall serena
# verify:
python -c "import serena.memories, pathlib; print(pathlib.Path(serena.memories.__file__).parent)"

from pathlib import Path
template = manager._MEMORY_MAINTENANCE_TEMPLATE_PATH
if not template.exists():
    raise RuntimeError(f"serena install broken: missing {template}; reinstall the package")

def template_available(manager) -> bool:
    return bool(getattr(manager, "_MEMORY_MAINTENANCE_TEMPLATE_PATH", None)
                and manager._MEMORY_MAINTENANCE_TEMPLATE_PATH.exists())

try:
    name = manager.ensure_memory_maintenance_memory()
except FileNotFoundError:
    log.warning("maintenance template missing; skipping seeding")
    name = None

When it happens

Trigger: Calling ensure_memory_maintenance_memory (directly or via initialize/apply) when the project has no memory-maintenance memory yet AND the bundled template file is missing from the installed package.

Common situations: Partial/broken pip install or wheel build that excluded the template resource; manually deleted files inside the installed serena package; running from a source checkout where the template was moved or not committed; packaging tools (e.g. setuptools without package-data config) that skipped non-.py resources.

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AI-assisted analysis of oraios/serena@7fcbca7e62 (2026-08-29). Data as JSON: /api/errors/4d7e92f0f3dfc2ec. Report an issue: GitHub.