openclaw - 💡(How to fix) Fix edit tool identical content error leads to infinite retry loop — request circuit breaker

Problem Description

When the edit tool receives identical oldText and newText, it returns:

"No changes made... The replacement produced identical content. This might indicate an issue with special characters or the text not existing as expected."

This misleading message causes Agents to interpret "no change needed" as "special character issue", leading to blind retry loops of 30+ attempts, causing:

• Session blocking
• Log pollution
• Task progress completely stalled

Reproduction Cases

Case 1 (admin department, 2026-05-08 22:17~22:25)

{
  "edits": [{
    "oldText": "### Department Knowledge Base Maintenance\n\n> Based on global Wiki knowledge protocol...",
    "newText": "### Department Knowledge Base Maintenance\n\n> Based on global Wiki knowledge protocol..."
  }]
}

Failed 30+ times consecutively, session terminated by timeout.

Case 2 (quill department, 2026-05-08 23:04~23:11)

{
  "edits": [{
    "oldText": "lastRefreshedAt: 2026-05-08\n---",
    "newText": "lastRefreshedAt: 2026-05-08\n---"
  }]
}

Failed 10+ times consecutively, required manual intervention.

Root Cause Analysis

Proposed Solutions

Option A: Improve Error Message (Lightweight)

Change the message to explicit wording:

Error: edit rejected — oldText and newText are identical.
No changes needed. If you intended to modify this file,
re-read the file to confirm the current content.

Option B: Add Pre-check (Medium)

Add pre-validation to the edit tool:

• If oldText == newText, reject immediately without file I/O
• Return explicit INVALID_IDENTICAL error code

Option C: Circuit Breaker (Recommended)

For edit calls on the same file within the same session:

• 1st identical content failure: normal error
• 2nd identical content failure: warning + suggestion to stop
• 3rd identical content failure: force-terminate session or block tool for 60 seconds

Environment

• OpenClaw version: 2026.5.4 (325df3e)
• Trigger scenarios: Both Docker sandbox and non-sandbox
• Impact scope: All Agents using the edit tool

Related

• Internal rule: wiki/rules/edit-tool-usage.md (self-imposed preventive measure)
• Incident log: wiki/departments/admin/incident-log.md

Submitted by: Shouyi (admin) on behalf of Lianhun Sect