fix: avoid Post(**metadata) crash when frontmatter contains 'content' or 'handler' keys

frontmatter.Post.__init__ takes `content` and `handler` as positional
parameters. When user YAML frontmatter contains these as field names,
unpacking metadata via **kwargs causes "got multiple values for argument
'content'".

Replace frontmatter.loads() with frontmatter.parse() + Post() + update()
in entity_parser, and replace the **metadata unpacking in
entity_service.update_entity() with the same safe pattern.

Fixes basic-memory-cloud#375

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Signed-off-by: phernandez <paul@basicmachines.co>

Author: phernandez

src/basic_memory/markdown/entity_parser.py

@@ -249,9 +249,15 @@ async def parse_markdown_content(
 
         content = strip_bom(content)
 
-        # Parse frontmatter with proper error handling for malformed YAML
+        # Parse frontmatter with proper error handling for malformed YAML.
+        # We use frontmatter.parse() instead of frontmatter.loads() because
+        # loads() does Post(content, handler, **metadata), which crashes when
+        # the YAML contains reserved keys like 'content' or 'handler'.
+        # See basic-memory-cloud#375.
         try:
-            post = frontmatter.loads(content)
+            fm_metadata, fm_content = frontmatter.parse(content)
+            post = frontmatter.Post(fm_content)
+            post.metadata.update(fm_metadata)
         except yaml.YAMLError as e:
             logger.warning(
                 f"Failed to parse YAML frontmatter in {file_path}: {e}. "

src/basic_memory/services/entity_service.py

@@ -361,8 +361,11 @@ async def update_entity(self, entity: EntityModel, schema: EntitySchema) -> Enti
         # in the existing file. Setting it unconditionally preserves the correct value.
         existing_markdown.frontmatter.metadata["permalink"] = new_permalink
 
-        # Create a new post with merged metadata
-        merged_post = frontmatter.Post(post.content, **existing_markdown.frontmatter.metadata)
+        # Create a new post with merged metadata.
+        # Avoid **metadata unpacking — user frontmatter may contain reserved keys
+        # like 'content' or 'handler' that conflict with Post.__init__ (cloud#375).
+        merged_post = frontmatter.Post(post.content)
+        merged_post.metadata.update(existing_markdown.frontmatter.metadata)
 
         # write file
         final_content = dump_frontmatter(merged_post)

tests/markdown/test_date_frontmatter_parsing.py

@@ -311,3 +311,35 @@ async def test_parse_file_with_datetime_objects(tmp_path):
     assert "2025-10-24" in updated_at and "00:00:00" in updated_at, (
         f"Datetime at midnight should be normalized to ISO format, got: {updated_at}"
     )
+
+
+@pytest.mark.asyncio
+async def test_parse_file_with_reserved_frontmatter_field_content(tmp_path):
+    """Test that a 'content' field in frontmatter doesn't break parsing.
+
+    Reproduces basic-memory-cloud#375 where frontmatter containing a field named
+    'content' causes frontmatter.Post.__init__() to receive multiple values for
+    the 'content' positional argument.
+    """
+    test_file = tmp_path / "topic-note-template.md"
+    test_file.write_text(dedent("""\
+        ---
+        title: Topic Note Template
+        content: Template for topic notes
+        handler: some-handler-value
+        ---
+
+        # Template Body
+
+        Actual body content here.
+    """))
+
+    parser = EntityParser(tmp_path)
+    entity_markdown = await parser.parse_file(test_file)
+
+    assert entity_markdown.frontmatter.title == "Topic Note Template"
+    # The 'content' and 'handler' fields should be preserved in metadata
+    assert entity_markdown.frontmatter.metadata.get("content") == "Template for topic notes"
+    assert entity_markdown.frontmatter.metadata.get("handler") == "some-handler-value"
+    # The actual body content should be parsed correctly
+    assert "Template Body" in entity_markdown.content