vercel/ai · error

Path not found: ${input.path ?? '.'}

Error message

Path not found: ${input.path ?? '.'}

What it means

Thrown by grep when the search target path does not exist inside the sandbox: the shell probe echoes the __CLINE_GREP_NOT_FOUND__ sentinel (the `[ ! -e target ]` test fails) and the library converts it into 'Path not found' using the caller-supplied input.path (default '.'). Note the default '.' in the message refers to the session working directory.

Source

Thrown at packages/harness-cline/src/cline-remote-ops.ts:314

          ? ['-C', String(input.context)]
          : []),
        ...(input.glob ? ['--include', input.glob] : []),
      ];
      const limit = Math.max(1, input.limit ?? 100);
      const result = await runShell({
        command: [
          `if [ ! -e ${shellQuote(
            target,
          )} ]; then echo "__CLINE_GREP_NOT_FOUND__"; exit 2; fi`,
          `grep ${flags.map(shellQuote).join(' ')} -- ${shellQuote(
            pattern,
          )} ${shellQuote(target)} 2>/dev/null | head -n ${limit}`,
        ].join('; '),
      });

      const output = result.output.trim();
      if (output.includes('__CLINE_GREP_NOT_FOUND__')) {
        throw new Error(`Path not found: ${input.path ?? '.'}`);
      }
      return output || 'No matches found';
    },

    async glob(pattern, inputPath = '.', limit = 1_000) {
      const remotePath = resolvePath(inputPath);
      const target = await resolveReadableSandboxPath({
        remotePath,
        inputPath,
      });
      const result = await runShell({
        command: [
          `if [ ! -e ${shellQuote(
            target,
          )} ]; then echo "__CLINE_FIND_NOT_FOUND__"; exit 2; fi`,
          `if [ -d ${shellQuote(target)} ]; then find ${shellQuote(
            target,
          )} -type f -print; else printf '%s\\n' ${shellQuote(target)}; fi`,

View on GitHub (pinned to 69428b1f8b)

Solutions

1. Run ops.ls('.') or ops.bash('pwd; ls') to see the actual sandbox tree before grepping.
2. Fix the path spelling/casing in the grep input.path option.
3. Omit input.path to search the session working directory by default.
4. Create the directory (or check out the code) inside the sandbox before searching.

Example fix

// before: searching a nonexistent dir
await ops.grep('TODO', { path: 'source' }); // Path not found: source

// after: verify the dir first
const entries = await ops.ls('.');
if (!entries.includes('src')) throw new Error('no src dir');
await ops.grep('TODO', { path: 'src' });

async function assertGrepPath(ops, searchPath = '.') {
  const r = await ops.bash(`test -e ${JSON.stringify(searchPath)} && echo ok || echo missing`);
  if (!r.output.includes('ok')) throw new Error(`grep target missing: ${searchPath}`);
}

try {
  return await ops.grep(pattern, { path });
} catch (e) {
  if (e instanceof Error && e.message.startsWith('Path not found:')) {
    return ops.grep(pattern); // fall back to the session working directory
  }
  throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: grep(pattern, { path: 'missing-dir' }) where missing-dir does not exist in the sandbox; grep with a path typo or a path outside the session workDir that normalizes to a nonexistent location; searching after the directory was deleted.

Common situations: Agents searching directories they assume exist (e.g. 'src' before checkout); wrong case (Src vs src) on case-sensitive sandbox filesystems; grep on a workDir that was never provisioned; typos in user-supplied search paths.

Related errors

• File not found: ${inputPath}
• Text to replace was not found in ${inputPath}
• Not a directory: ${inputPath}
• `Failed to create sandbox work directory ${workDir} (exit ${
• Cannot write harness skill '${skillName}': ${skillDir} alrea

AI-assisted analysis of vercel/ai@69428b1f8b (2026-08-30). Data as JSON: /api/errors/01d13347d6d1b590. Report an issue: GitHub.