[Thanatos9404]

Description

When a node reference is kept from an earlier read or update (in a closure,
an event handler or React state) and the node is removed before the
reference is used again, getLatest() and getWritable() throw:

Lexical node does not exist in active editor state. Avoid using the same node references between nested closures from editorState.read/editor.update.

The message doesn't say which node it was or how to avoid the error, and
"avoid using the same node references" reads as if keeping a node reference
were the mistake, while the docs recommend storing one. As discussed in
#9111, the fix on the caller's side is to check node.isAttached(), or to
look the node up with $getNodeByKey(), inside the read or update that uses
the reference.

This rewords the invariant in getLatest() and getWritable() (they share
one message) so that it includes the node key and type and names those two
guards. The Lexical node does not exist in active editor state prefix is
unchanged, so existing searches and assertions still match. The JSDoc of
both methods now says when they throw. scripts/error-codes/codes.json is
not touched, so the new message gets its production code in the usual
release step.

The documentation part of #9111 is in #9268; this change only covers the
error message.

Related to #9111

Test plan

Before

New tests in LexicalWritableNode.test.ts, run against main:

$ npx vitest --project unit --no-watch packages/lexical/src/__tests__/unit/LexicalWritableNode.test.ts -t "stale node references"
     × explains how to guard a stale reference when reading 34ms
     × explains how to guard a stale reference when writing 6ms
Received: "Lexical node does not exist in active editor state. Avoid using the same node references between nested closures from editorState.read/editor.update."
Received: "Lexical node does not exist in active editor state. Avoid using the same node references between nested closures from editorState.read/editor.update."
 Test Files  1 failed (1)
      Tests  2 failed | 1 passed | 8 skipped (11)

After

$ npx vitest --project unit --no-watch packages/lexical/src/__tests__/unit/LexicalWritableNode.test.ts -t "stale node references" --reporter=verbose
 ✓ |unit| packages/lexical/src/__tests__/unit/LexicalWritableNode.test.ts > stale node references > explains how to guard a stale reference when reading 26ms
 ✓ |unit| packages/lexical/src/__tests__/unit/LexicalWritableNode.test.ts > stale node references > explains how to guard a stale reference when writing 3ms
 ✓ |unit| packages/lexical/src/__tests__/unit/LexicalWritableNode.test.ts > stale node references > the suggested guards do not throw for a stale reference 3ms
 Test Files  1 passed (1)
      Tests  3 passed | 8 skipped (11)

The thrown message is now:

Lexical node does not exist in active editor state (node 1, type text). The reference was probably kept from another read or update, for example in a closure, event handler or component state, and the node has since been removed or is not part of this editor state. Before using a node reference that may be stale, check node.isAttached() or look the node up again with $getNodeByKey(node.getKey()), inside the read or update where it is used.

$ npx vitest --project unit --project scripts-unit --no-watch packages/lexical/ scripts/error-codes
      Tests  1 failed | 2201 passed (2202)

The one failure is LexicalGeneratedJSON.test.ts ("the checked-in outputs
are what the generator produces"), which fails the same way on a clean
main checkout on my machine, so it is unrelated. tsc, flow full-check
(0 errors), and eslint and prettier --check on the changed files pass.
All of this was run on Windows with Node 24.21.0; browser and e2e tests were
not run since only the message text changed.

[vercel]

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Project	Deployment	Actions	Updated
lexical	Ready	Preview	Oct 18, 2026 6:23pm UTC
lexical-playground	Ready	Preview	Oct 18, 2026 6:23pm UTC

[etrepum]

Suggested change

'Lexical node does not exist in active editor state (node %s, type %s). The reference was probably kept from another read or update, for example in a closure, event handler or component state, and the node has since been removed or is not part of this editor state. Before using a node reference that may be stale, check node.isAttached() or look the node up again with $getNodeByKey(node.getKey()), inside the read or update where it is used.',

'Lexical node does not exist in active editor state (key %s, type %s). The reference was probably kept from another read or update, for example in a closure, event handler or component state, and the node has since been removed or is not part of this editor state. Before using a node reference that may be stale, check node.isAttached() or look the node up again with $getNodeByKey(node.getKey()), inside the read or update where it is used.',

[etrepum]

Suggested change

'Lexical node does not exist in active editor state (node %s, type %s). The reference was probably kept from another read or update, for example in a closure, event handler or component state, and the node has since been removed or is not part of this editor state. Before using a node reference that may be stale, check node.isAttached() or look the node up again with $getNodeByKey(node.getKey()), inside the read or update where it is used.',

'Lexical node does not exist in active editor state (key %s, type %s). The reference was probably kept from another read or update, for example in a closure, event handler or component state, and the node has since been removed or is not part of this editor state. Before using a node reference that may be stale, check node.isAttached() or look the node up again with $getNodeByKey(node.getKey()), inside the read or update where it is used.',

[etrepum]

I don't think that changing the API docs will provide much value because getLatest and getWritable are almost always called indirectly from getter and setter methods, not explicitly. The improvements to the exception should be sufficient, and the types already imply that it needs to throw if the node doesn't exist.

[Thanatos9404]

Thanks @etrepum, applied both suggestions and dropped the JSDoc changes in bac421e.