René's URL Explorer Experiment

{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"DiscussionForumPosting","headline":"[bug] Ask cannot handle files with special characters","articleBody":"### Describe the bug\n\nSay you have a file named: `(pr` that you want to find. You can search for this with Sourcebot via the query `file:\"\\(pr\"`.\n\nIf you Ask Sourcebot about it, it will try a number of things, all of which either result in query failure or returning incorrect results.\n\nQuery: `find me file:\"\\(pr\"`\n\n\u003cdetails\u003e\u003csummary\u003eGPT-5-nano Response\u003c/summary\u003e\n\n1. Searched for `\\(pr`\nFailed with the following error: `Failed to parse query \"\\(pr reposet:gitlab/example-repo\" with message: No parse at 65`\n\n2. Searched for `\\(pr ( repo:gitlab/example-repo )`\nFailed with the following error: `Failed to parse query \"\\(pr reposet:gitlab/example-repo ( repo:gitlab/example-repo )\" with message: No parse at 127`\n\n3. Searched for `pr ( repo:gitlab/example-repo )`\nReturned src/app/routes/endpoint.py\n\u003c/details\u003e\n\n\n\u003cdetails\u003e\u003csummary\u003eGPT-5-mini Response\u003c/summary\u003e\n\n1. I'll search the repository for files containing the literal substring \"(pr\" using the code search tool to locate all matches. This helps find files that include that pattern (likely a regex or string with an escaped parenthesis). I'll search only the selected repository.\nSearched for `\\\\(pr ( repo:gitlab/example-repo )`\nFailed with the following error: `Failed to parse query \"\\\\(pr reposet:gitlab/example-repo ( repo:gitlab/example-repo )\" with message: No parse at 128`\n\n2. Searched for `\"\\\\(pr\" ( repo:gitlab/example-repo )`\nFailed with the following error: `Unexpected error: An unexpected error occurred. Please try again later.`\n\u003c/details\u003e\n\n\u003cdetails\u003e\u003csummary\u003eAnthropic Claude Haiku 4.5\u003c/summary\u003e\n\n1. The user is asking me to find files with a pattern \"\\(pr\". This seems to be a search for code that contains this literal string pattern - likely a regex or string pattern in code.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLet me use the searchCode function to find this pattern. The user wants to search for the literal string \"\\(pr\" which appears to be a regex or escape sequence pattern.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSince this is a regex search, I should search for files that contain this pattern. The user's query is \"\\(pr\" which I should escape properly for a regex search.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLet me search for this code pattern.\u003cbr\u003e\"Search code\" tool call failed\n\n2. Searched for `\\\\\"\\(pr ( repo:example-repo )`\nFailed with the following error: `Failed to parse query \"\\\\\"\\(pr reposet:gitlab/example-repo ( repo:example-repo )\" with message: No parse at 90`\n\n3. Let me try a simpler regex pattern:\nSearched for `\\(pr ( repo:example-repo )`\nFailed with the following error: `Failed to parse query \"\\(pr reposet:gitlab/example-repo ( repo:example-repo )\" with message: No parse at 87`\n\n4. Let me try searching for just \"pr\" pattern:\nSearched for `pr ( repo:example-repo )`\nsrc/app/routes/endpoint.py\n\u003c/details\u003e\n\n### To reproduce\n\nUse Sourcebot's Ask tool about files with strange names, such as `(pr`.\n\n### Sourcebot deployment information\n\nSourcebot version: v4.10.13\n\n\n### Additional information\n\n_No response_","author":{"url":"https://github.com/marshallwp","@type":"Person","name":"marshallwp"},"datePublished":"2026-01-21T20:13:27.000Z","interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":"https://schema.org/CommentAction","userInteractionCount":0},"url":"https://github.com/771/sourcebot/issues/771"}