editDocument

Edit a document: the PREFERRED tool for small targeted changes. Two patch dialects — do NOT mix them in one call. (1) ANCHOR patches {oldText, newText, before?, after?} — RECOMMENDED: replace an exact snippet of existing text with new text. oldText must match the document byte-for-byte AND be unique; if it occurs more than once, either expand oldText until it is unique, or add before/after (the EXACT text immediately before/after the match) to disambiguate. A no-match returns nearby context; an ambiguous match returns the occurrence count. Anchors do NOT drift, so you don't need fresh line numbers and they survive concurrent edits. Use newText:"" to delete. (2) LINE patches {startLine, endLine, replacement} — 1-based and INCLUSIVE: call getDocument first for line numbers; replace line 5 with {startLine:5,endLine:5}; INSERT before line N (deleting nothing) with {startLine:N,endLine:N-1}; append to an L-line document with {startLine:L+1,endLine:L}. Line numbers are ABSOLUTE and GO STALE after ANY edit — re-call getDocument before further line patches; out-of-range patches are rejected with the current line count. versionTimestamp from getDocument (or from any mutating tool's response — they all return the fresh token) is required for optimistic locking, EXCEPT when dryRun:true. If your token is stale, the error tells you who changed the document, when, and the currentVersionTimestamp — anchor patches survive concurrent edits, so retrying with that token is usually safe. Set dryRun:true to apply the patches and get the resulting text back WITHOUT saving (verify before committing — kills retry loops). IMPORTANT: getDocument displays lines as NNNNN<TAB>content; that prefix is display-only — oldText/before/after must contain only the content AFTER the tab. Do not edit or delete DIAGRAM/IMAGE marker lines (rejected with guidance) — use dedicated diagram/image tools. To @-mention a person, insert <!-- REFERENCE: {"type":"user","id":"<user_uuid>","label":"Name"} -->; look up the user_id via listAssignablePrincipals. Mentioned users are notified automatically.