rg: The system cannot find the file specified. (os error 2)

The error

$ rg retries src/config.ts
rg: src/config.ts: IO error for operation on src/config.ts: The system cannot find the file specified. (os error 2)

Given several paths, rg names the missing one more briefly, and still searches the rest:

$ rg -n retries src/main.ts src/config.ts
rg: src/config.ts: The system cannot find the file specified. (os error 2)
src/main.ts:1:import { retries } from "./lib/config";

On Linux and macOS the same error reads No such file or directory (os error 2).

Why it happens

rg searches exactly the paths you give it. When one doesn't exist, it says so and exits with status 2, even if it found matches in the others, and --no-messages hides the message but not the status. A script that reads 0 as found and 1 as not found sees an error instead.

Coding agents hit it when they name the file they expect, src/config.ts, rather than the one there is, src/lib/config.ts. It's the same habit as Get-Content's Cannot find path.

The fix

Find the file by name, or search its folder and let rg find it:

rg --files -g '*config*'          # src\lib\config.ts
rg -n retries src -g '*.ts'       # every .ts file under src

A glob given as a path fails differently on Windows, where no shell expands it: os error 123, also fixed with -g.