delete_footnote
Destructive
Remove a footnote and its reference from a DOCX document to clean up content and maintain formatting.
Instructions
Delete a footnote and its reference from the document.
Input Schema
TableJSON Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| file_path | Yes | Path to the DOCX file. | |
| note_id | Yes | Footnote ID to delete. |
Implementation Reference
- Core implementation of footnote deletion logic in docx-core.
export async function deleteFootnote( documentXml: Document, zip: DocxZip, params: { noteId: number }, ): Promise<void> { const { noteId } = params; const footnotesXml = await zip.readText('word/footnotes.xml'); const footnotesDoc = parseXml(footnotesXml); const fnEl = findFootnoteById(footnotesDoc, noteId); if (!fnEl) throw new Error(`Footnote ID ${noteId} not found`); if (isReservedFootnote(fnEl)) throw new Error(`Cannot delete reserved footnote ID ${noteId}`); // Remove from footnotes.xml fnEl.parentNode?.removeChild(fnEl); zip.writeText('word/footnotes.xml', serializeXml(footnotesDoc)); // Remove footnoteReference elements from document.xml const refs = documentXml.getElementsByTagNameNS(OOXML.W_NS, W.footnoteReference); const refsToRemove: Element[] = []; for (let i = 0; i < refs.length; i++) { const ref = refs.item(i) as Element; const idStr = getWAttr(ref, 'id'); if (idStr && parseInt(idStr, 10) === noteId) { refsToRemove.push(ref); } } for (const ref of refsToRemove) { const run = ref.parentNode as Element | null; if (!run) continue; // Remove only the footnoteReference element, not the entire run run.removeChild(ref); // If the run is now empty (no visible content), remove it if (!hasVisibleContent(run)) { run.parentNode?.removeChild(run); } } } - MCP tool handler wrapper for deleting a footnote.
export async function deleteFootnote( manager: SessionManager, params: { file_path?: string; note_id?: number; }, ): Promise<ToolResponse> { const resolved = await resolveSessionForTool(manager, params, { toolName: 'delete_footnote' }); if (!resolved.ok) return resolved.response; const { session, metadata } = resolved; if (params.note_id == null) { return err('MISSING_PARAMETER', 'note_id is required.', 'Provide the footnote ID to delete.'); } try { await session.doc.deleteFootnote({ noteId: params.note_id }); manager.markEdited(session); return ok(mergeSessionResolutionMetadata({ note_id: params.note_id, file_path: manager.normalizePath(session.originalPath), }, metadata)); } catch (e: unknown) { const msg = errorMessage(e); if (msg.includes('reserved')) { return err('RESERVED_TYPE', msg, 'Reserved footnotes (separator, continuationSeparator) cannot be deleted.'); } if (msg.includes('Missing file in .docx: word/footnotes.xml')) { return err('NOTE_NOT_FOUND', `Footnote ID ${params.note_id} not found`, 'Use get_footnotes to list available footnotes.'); } if (msg.includes('not found')) { return err('NOTE_NOT_FOUND', msg, 'Use get_footnotes to list available footnotes.'); } return err('FOOTNOTE_ERROR', msg); } }