Roo is having trouble - path parameter not provided - Roo XML parser should handle spaces between XML tags

[sergiobank]

App Version

latest

API Provider

OpenAI Compatible

Model Used

Qwen3-Coder

Roo Code Task Links (Optional)

No response

🔁 Steps to Reproduce

Hey @daniel-lxs
First of all, thanks for all the work put in the project! It's amazing!!

Regarding the missing parameter 'path' issue, what you wrote in issue #7406 isn't entirely accurate. I extensively debugged this issue, and can confirm that when using Qwen3-Coder, most of the time the parameter 'path' is being generated properly (you can also see that the 'path' parameter was correctly generated in @serjrd example). The issue here is that the model generates space(s) between the XML tags, which is completely understandable/even logically correct, but Roo's parser currently is not robust enough to handle these spaces gracefully, and throws an error. After extensive investigation, I am confident that Roo's XML parser should support removing spaces between XML tags. This would significantly improve Roo's experience with those models, especially Qwen3-Coder, such a popular option these days. Let me know what you think @daniel-lxs , hoping to hear from you soon!
Thanks again for all the incredible work!!

💥 Outcome Summary

Hey @daniel-lxs
First of all, thanks for all the work put in the project! It's amazing!!

Regarding the missing parameter 'path' issue, what you wrote isn't entirely accurate. I extensively debugged this issue, and can confirm that when using Qwen3-Coder, most of the time the parameter 'path' is being generated properly (you can also see that the 'path' parameter was correctly generated in @serjrd example). The issue here is that the model generates space(s) between the XML tags, which is completely understandable/even logically correct, but Roo's parser currently is not robust enough to handle these spaces gracefully, and throws an error. After extensive investigation, I am confident that Roo's XML parser should support removing spaces between XML tags. This would significantly improve Roo's experience with those models, especially Qwen3-Coder, such a popular option these days. Let me know what you think @daniel-lxs , hoping to hear from you soon!
Thanks again for all the incredible work!!

📄 Relevant Logs or Errors (Optional)

[roomote]

I'm exploring a potential fix for the XML parser to handle spaces between tags more gracefully. This should improve compatibility with models like Qwen3-Coder. I'll open a PR to share progress.

[roomote]

I've investigated the XML parser whitespace handling issue and have some findings to share:

Investigation Results

I added comprehensive tests to verify how the XML parser handles whitespace between tags, and discovered that the existing XML parser already handles whitespace correctly. The tests I added for various whitespace scenarios (spaces, newlines, tabs) all pass without any code changes.

What I Found:

1. The parseXml function in src/utils/xml.ts uses the fast-xml-parser library with trimValues: true, which properly handles whitespace in tag values.

2. All the following scenarios work correctly:

   • Spaces between XML tags: <path> ./test/file.ts </path>
   • Newlines in nested XML
   • Multiple files with varying whitespace
   • Mixed tabs and spaces

Questions for Clarification:

Since the core XML parser already handles whitespace correctly, I suspect the issue might be occurring elsewhere. Could you help clarify:

1. Where exactly does the error occur? Is it during tool execution, or at a different parsing stage?
2. Can you provide a specific example of the XML that Qwen3-Coder generates that causes the "missing parameter 'path'" error?
3. Which tool specifically fails? (e.g., read_file, write_to_file, etc.)

The issue might be in:

• The assistant message parsing layer (before XML parsing)
• A different XML parser used elsewhere in the codebase
• The way parameters are extracted after parsing

I've pushed a branch with the test cases to fix/xml-parser-whitespace-handling. These tests confirm the parser works correctly, but I'd like to understand the exact failure scenario to provide the right fix.

Would you be able to share a concrete example of the failing XML output from Qwen3-Coder? This would help me locate and fix the actual issue.

[juliettefournier-econ]

@roomote-agent I'm encountering the same issue with Grok Code Fast. Here is an extract from the task history–I'm quite confused, not sure what the formatting issue is!

---

**Assistant:**

<read_file>
<args>
<file>
<path>src/shared/infrastructure/supabase/factory.py</path>
<line_range>10-20</line_range>
</file>
</args>
</read_file>

---

**User:**

[read_file with missing path] Result:
<file><error>The tool execution failed with the following error:
<error>
Missing value for required parameter 'path'. Please retry with complete response.

[roomote]

@juliettefournier-econ Thanks for providing this example! I can see the issue - it appears the XML parser is having trouble with the nested structure and line_range parameter. I'll investigate this alongside the whitespace handling issue to ensure the parser can handle both scenarios properly. I'll explore the codebase and work on a fix.