read_file
Retrieve file content or specific sections from codebases to analyze, reference, or process data when symbolic operations are insufficient.
Instructions
Reads the given file or a chunk of it. Generally, symbolic operations like find_symbol or find_referencing_symbols should be preferred if you know which symbols you are looking for. Reading the entire file is only recommended if there is no other way to get the content required for the task. Returns the full text of the file at the given relative path.
Input Schema
TableJSON Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| relative_path | Yes | The relative path to the file to read. | |
| start_line | No | The 0-based index of the first line to be retrieved. | |
| end_line | No | The 0-based index of the last line to be retrieved (inclusive). If None, read until the end of the file. | |
| max_answer_chars | No | If the file (chunk) is longer than this number of characters, no content will be returned. Don't adjust unless there is really no other way to get the content required for the task. |
Implementation Reference
- src/solidlsp/ls_utils.py:167-179 (handler)The implementation of reading a file's contents, used as the core logic for file reading tools.
def read_file(logger: LanguageServerLogger, file_path: str) -> str: """ Reads the file at the given path and returns the contents as a string. """ if not os.path.exists(file_path): logger.log(f"File read '{file_path}' failed: File does not exist.", logging.ERROR) raise LanguageServerException(f"File read '{file_path}' failed: File does not exist.") try: with open(file_path, encoding="utf-8") as inp_file: return inp_file.read() except Exception as exc: logger.log(f"File read '{file_path}' failed to read with encoding 'utf-8': {exc}", logging.ERROR) raise LanguageServerException("File read failed.") from None