[BUG] edit_note resolves nonexistent identifiers to nearest match via fuzzy search

[Brennall]

edit_note resolves nonexistent identifiers to nearest match via fuzzy search

Summary

edit_note uses non-strict entity resolution, which means a misspelled or nonexistent identifier silently resolves to the nearest matching note and edits it. This is a data loss risk — destructive edit operations should fail on unresolved identifiers, not fuzzy-match to a different note.

Reproduction

1. Create two notes:

write_note(title="Routing Test A", content="# A\n\nContent A.\n\n## Observations\n\n- [test] Note A\n\n## Relations", directory="test", project="aurora")
write_note(title="Routing Test B", content="# B\n\nContent B.\n\n## Observations\n\n- [test] Note B\n\n## Relations", directory="test", project="aurora")

2. Edit a note that does not exist:

edit_note(identifier="Routing Test NONEXISTENT", operation="append", content="\n- THIS SHOULD FAIL", project="aurora")

3. Expected: Error — note not found.
4. Actual: The edit silently lands on Routing Test B (nearest fuzzy match). No error. No indication the wrong note was edited.

Root Cause

In mcp/tools/edit_note.py, the resolve call does not pass strict=True:

entity_id = await knowledge_client.resolve_entity(identifier)

The KnowledgeClient.resolve_entity method supports a strict parameter that disables fuzzy fallback, but edit_note doesn't use it. The resolution chain falls through to fuzzy/vector search, which returns the nearest match rather than failing.

Suggested Fix

entity_id = await knowledge_client.resolve_entity(identifier, strict=True)

One line change. The edit_note docstring already states "Must be an exact match — fuzzy matching is not supported for edit operations" — the code should match the documented behaviour.

Impact

This has caused real data loss in production use. A note edit targeting a nonexistent identifier silently overwrote unrelated content in a different note. The user did not discover the damage until later inspection.

The risk is highest when:

• A note has been deleted or moved but an edit targets the old identifier
• An AI assistant misspells an identifier during an automated edit
• append or prepend operations are used (these auto-create on not-found, but only after fuzzy resolution fails — if fuzzy resolution succeeds against the wrong note, the auto-create path is never reached)

Environment

• Basic Memory v0.19.0 (also present in v0.18.5)
• Windows, installed via uv tool install
• Reproduced via Claude Desktop MCP integration