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Common Errors

Error messages and their solutions.

Config Errors​

config not found: run 'skillshare init' first​

Cause: No configuration file exists.

Solution:

skillshare init

Add --source if you want a custom path:

skillshare init --source ~/my-skills

failed to load project config: ...​

Cause: .skillshare/config.yaml exists but cannot be parsed (malformed YAML, wrong types, etc.). Mutating commands (uninstall, new, enable/disable, check) refuse to proceed in this state so they don't accidentally touch the default .skillshare/skills/ directory when you have a custom sources configuration.

Solution: Fix the YAML and re-run the command. Common issues:

# WRONG — targets must be a list
targets: {}

# RIGHT
targets: []
# WRONG — skills must be a list
skills: my-skill

# RIGHT
skills:
  - name: my-skill
    source: github.com/org/my-skill

Validate the file with any YAML linter, or temporarily restore from .skillshare/backups/ if you have one.

target "<name>": skills target path X overlaps skills source Y​

Cause: Your sources.skills resolves to the same directory as a target's skills path (or one contains the other). For example, configuring sources.skills: .claude/skills together with a claude target — both point to .claude/skills/. Without this guard, sync --force would treat the source as a target directory and delete its contents.

Solution: Choose a source path that does not alias any target. Common safe choices:

# Co-locate with project docs
sources:
  skills: ./docs/skills

# Keep under .skillshare/ (default — remove the sources key entirely)

The same check applies to sources.agents against agent target paths.

Target Errors​

target add: path does not exist​

Cause: The skills directory doesn't exist yet.

Solution:

mkdir -p ~/.myapp/skills
skillshare target add myapp ~/.myapp/skills

target path does not end with 'skills'​

Cause: Warning that path doesn't follow convention.

Solution: This is a warning, not an error. Proceed if your path is intentional, or fix it:

skillshare target add myapp ~/.myapp/skills  # Preferred

target directory already exists with files​

Cause: Target has existing files that might be overwritten.

Solution:

skillshare backup
skillshare sync

Sync Errors​

deleting a symlinked target removed source files​

Cause: You ran rm -rf on a target in symlink mode.

Solution:

# If git is initialized
cd ~/.config/skillshare/skills
git checkout -- .

# Or restore from backup
skillshare restore <target>

Prevention: Use skillshare target remove instead of manual deletion.

sync keeps showing the same changes​

Cause: Two targets sync skills into the same folder with different include or exclude filters. Each sync adds what one target wants and removes what the other filters out, so the folder never settles. sync names them:

! codex and universal sync skills to ~/.agents/skills with different filters, so each sync undoes the other
  keep one: skillshare target codex --skills=false

Solution: Let one target write the folder and turn skills off for the other. Its agents, MCP servers and instructions stay managed, and the tool still reads the skills in the shared folder:

skillshare target codex --skills=false --dry-run
skillshare target codex --skills=false

In the dashboard, the Sync page shows the same warning with a button that stops syncing skills for that target. Giving both targets the same filters also works.

sync seems stuck or slow​

Cause: Large files in skills directory.

Solution: Add ignore patterns:

# ~/.config/skillshare/config.yaml
ignore:
  - "**/.DS_Store"
  - "**/.git/**"
  - "**/node_modules/**"

no space left on device / ENOSPC during sync​

Cause: Something is filling the volume. Check the backup directory first, then your source.

Solution:

df -h ~                                     # Confirm the volume is full
du -sh ~/.local/share/skillshare/backups    # Backup usage
du -sh ~/.config/skillshare/skills          # Source usage

If backups are large, prune them — retention runs automatically after each sync, but a directory grown before that can be cleared on demand:

skillshare backup --cleanup --dry-run   # Preview
skillshare backup --cleanup

If a volume is pinned at 100%, rm can fail with "Permission denied" until a little space is freed. Free one large file first, then prune.

If the source is large, the artifacts are inside your skills. Backups do not copy them (symlinked skills are skipped), but every target in copy mode does. Move runtime caches, model weights, and browser profiles outside the skill tree, or exclude them with ignore:.

See Backups & Disk Space for how backup scope differs from .gitignore and ignore:.

Extras Errors​

These come from single-file extras in prepend or append mode, which keep the source's content in a managed block of the target file. See single-file extras.

the managed block of <source> in <target> was edited by hand​

Cause: The text between the block's markers no longer matches what skillshare wrote. Sync does not overwrite it.

Solution: On the dashboard's AGENTS.md tab, use Collect block into to keep the edit in the shared file, or Rewrite block from to drop it (it is kept as a drift backup). For other single-file extras, copy the edit back to the source file, or delete the block from the target, then sync again.

<target> has a damaged managed block​

Cause: A block marker was removed or changed by hand, for example the <!-- /skillshare:extra --> end marker was deleted. skillshare cannot tell the block from your own lines, so sync, mode changes and restore all stop for that target.

Solution: Put the missing marker back, or delete the whole block including its begin marker, then sync again.

<target> ends inside an open code fence​

Cause: The target file ends inside a Markdown code block that was never closed (a ``` line without its closing pair). A block appended after it would read as code.

Solution: Close the code block in the target file, or use prepend for that target.

<source> has lines that read as skillshare block markers​

Cause: The source file has a line that looks like a block marker, such as <!-- /skillshare:extra --> outside a code block. Written into a block, it would end the block early.

Solution: Put the example inside a fenced code block, or change the line.

Git Errors​

Could not read from remote repository​

Cause: SSH key not set up, or the remote URL is wrong.

Solution:

# Check SSH access
ssh -T [email protected]

# If SSH isn't set up, use HTTPS instead
git -C ~/.config/skillshare/skills remote set-url origin https://github.com/you/my-skills.git

# Or set up SSH keys
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "[email protected]"
# Then add the public key to GitHub → Settings → SSH keys

push: remote has changes​

Cause: Remote repository is ahead of local.

Solution:

skillshare pull   # Get remote changes first
skillshare push   # Now push works

pull: local has uncommitted changes​

Cause: You have local changes that haven't been pushed.

Solution:

# Option 1: Push your changes first
skillshare push -m "Local changes"
skillshare pull

# Option 2: Discard local changes
cd ~/.config/skillshare/skills
git checkout -- .
skillshare pull

pull stopped: this machine and the remote both changed ...​

Cause: The same file was edited on two machines. pull undid the merge, so the repository is unchanged. Conflicts in .metadata.json alone never cause this; they are resolved automatically.

Solution:

cd ~/.config/skillshare/skills
git pull --no-rebase          # Redo the merge and keep the conflicts
# Edit the conflicted files
git add .
git commit --no-edit
skillshare push
skillshare sync

Git had no identity​

Cause: Git had no user.name / user.email when skillshare init created the source repo. skillshare wrote a fallback (skillshare@local) into that repo's own config so its commits work. The repo setting outranks git config --global, so setting a global identity later does not replace it.

A repo you created yourself is left alone: skillshare uses the fallback only for its one initial commit.

Solution: set your identity in the repo (the path the message prints; this is the default):

git -C ~/.config/skillshare/skills config user.name "Your Name"
git -C ~/.config/skillshare/skills config user.email "[email protected]"

Or remove the repo setting so your global identity applies: git -C ~/.config/skillshare/skills config --unset user.name (and user.email).

Git root mismatch​

Cause: git_root in config.yaml points to a scope directory that has no git repo, but another scope directory does. This happens when you change git_root without relocating the repository — switching scope means "start versioning a different directory", not "move the existing history". See git_root.

Solution: Pick one of the three options the error prints:

# Start a fresh repo at the configured scope (no history)
skillshare init --git-root <scope>

# Move the existing repo over, keeping history
mv <old-scope>/.git <new-scope>/.git

# Or keep using the existing repo: set git_root back in config.yaml
#   git_root: <scope-that-has-the-repo>

tracked repository clone is missing​

Cause: A tracked repo is declared in .metadata.json, but the clone directory (for example skills/_team-skills/) is missing locally. This often happens after cloning your skillshare source repo on a new machine because tracked repo directories are intentionally listed in the managed .gitignore block.

Solution: Rehydrate the missing tracked repo clones from metadata:

skillshare install
skillshare sync

For project mode:

skillshare install -p
skillshare sync -p

status, check, update --all, and doctor report this state and suggest skillshare install.

nested git repositories must be disabled first​

Cause: With git_root: root, a subdirectory (e.g. a tracked skill repo under skills/_org/) has its own .git. Git would upload it as an empty submodule, silently dropping its files, so commit/push abort until each nested repo is disabled.

Solution:

# Disable each reported nested repo (reversible — just rename back to re-enable)
mv ~/.config/skillshare/<dir>/.git ~/.config/skillshare/<dir>/.git.disabled

Or use the one-click disable on the web UI Git Sync page. skillshare also keeps config.yaml out of a root-scope repo automatically (it holds machine-specific paths).

Invalid git_root​

Cause: git_root in config.yaml is set to an unrecognized value (e.g. a typo).

Solution: Use one of skills, agents, extras, or root — or leave it empty (defaults to skills).

Install Errors​

skill already exists​

Cause: A skill with the same name is already installed.

Solution:

# Update the existing skill
skillshare install <source> --update

# Or force overwrite
skillshare install <source> --force

git failed (exit 128): repository not found or authentication required​

Cause: The repository URL is wrong, the repo doesn't exist, or authentication is missing.

skillshare now provides actionable error messages for common git failures instead of raw exit codes. The error message includes suggestions:

Error: git failed (exit 128): repository not found or authentication required

If a token was used but rejected:

Error: git failed (exit 128): authentication token was rejected — check permissions and expiry

Solution: See the authentication options below.

Authentication failed / Access denied​

Cause: HTTPS credentials are missing, expired, or wrong token type.

Solution — Option 1: Set a token env var:

# GitHub
export GITHUB_TOKEN=ghp_xxxx

# GitLab (must be a Personal Access Token, prefix glpat-)
export GITLAB_TOKEN=glpat-xxxx

# Bitbucket
export BITBUCKET_TOKEN=your_app_password

Windows (PowerShell):

$env:GITLAB_TOKEN = "glpat-xxxx"

# Permanent (survives restarts)
[Environment]::SetEnvironmentVariable("GITLAB_TOKEN", "glpat-xxxx", "User")

Solution — Option 2: Use SSH URL:

skillshare install [email protected]:team/private-skills.git
skillshare install [email protected]:team/skills.git
skillshare install [email protected]:team/skills.git

Solution — Option 3: Git credential helper:

gh auth login          # GitHub CLI
git credential approve # or platform-specific credential manager

Required token permissions:

PlatformToken typeScopes / Permissions
GitHubPersonal Access Token (ghp_)repo (private repos), none (public)
GitLabPersonal Access Token (glpat-)read_repository + write_repository
BitbucketRepository Access TokenRead + Write
BitbucketApp Password + BITBUCKET_USERNAMERepositories: Read + Write
GitLab token types

Only Personal Access Token (glpat-) works for git operations. Feed Tokens (glft-) do not have git access.

See Environment Variables and Private Repositories.

SSL certificate problem / certificate verification failed​

Cause: The Git server uses a self-signed certificate or an internal CA that your system doesn't trust. Common with self-hosted GitLab, Gitea, or Gogs instances.

Solution — Option 1: Custom CA bundle (recommended):

export GIT_SSL_CAINFO=/path/to/company-ca-bundle.crt
skillshare install https://gitlab.internal.company.com/team/skills.git --track

Solution — Option 2: Use SSH instead (avoids SSL entirely):

skillshare install [email protected]:team/skills.git --track

Solution — Option 3: Disable SSL verification (not recommended):

GIT_SSL_NO_VERIFY=true skillshare install https://gitlab.internal.company.com/team/skills.git --track
warning

Disabling SSL verification is a security risk. Prefer Option 1 or 2.

See Environment Variables — Git SSL / TLS.

invalid skill: SKILL.md not found​

Cause: The source doesn't have a valid SKILL.md file.

Solution: Check the source path is correct and points to a skill directory.

"<path>" is in git submodule "<submodule>" ..., and skillshare does not fetch submodules​

Cause: The path you asked for is a git submodule in the repository, or sits inside one. skillshare does not fetch submodules, so the directory would be empty.

Solution: Install from the upstream repository named in the error. If you maintain the hub, copy the skill files into it instead of mounting them as a submodule.

Update Errors​

pull stopped: this machine and the remote both changed ... (tracked repository)​

Cause: A tracked repository has local commits that conflict with the remote. update merges diverged history, but a conflicting file stops it and the merge is undone.

Solution:

# Force update (replaces local with remote)
skillshare update --force

# Or manually resolve
cd ~/.config/skillshare/skills/_repo-name
git pull --no-rebase
# Edit the conflicted files, then
git add . && git commit --no-edit
tip

skillshare update and skillshare install now show actionable error messages for git failures (authentication, SSL, divergent branches) instead of raw exit codes.

Audit Errors​

security audit failed — critical threats detected​

Cause: The skill contains patterns matching critical security threats (prompt injection, data exfiltration, credential access).

Solution:

# Review the findings
skillshare audit <skill-name>

# If you trust the source, force install
skillshare install <source> --force

audit HIGH: Hidden zero-width Unicode characters detected​

Cause: The skill contains invisible Unicode characters, which may be a copy-paste artifact or intentional obfuscation.

Solution: Open the file in an editor that shows hidden characters and remove them, or force install if you trust the source.

Upgrade Errors​

GitHub API rate limit exceeded​

Cause: Too many unauthenticated API requests.

Solution:

# Option 1: Set a GitHub token (recommended)
export GITHUB_TOKEN=ghp_your_token_here
skillshare upgrade

# Option 2: Force upgrade
skillshare upgrade --cli --force

Create a token at: https://github.com/settings/tokens (no scopes needed for public repos)

Skill Errors​

skill not appearing in AI CLI​

Causes:

  1. Skill not synced
  2. Invalid SKILL.md format
  3. AI CLI caching

Solutions:

# 1. Sync
skillshare sync

# 2. Check format
skillshare doctor

# 3. Restart AI CLI

Antigravity does not load synced skills​

Cause: The Antigravity app's skill scanner only discovers real directories — it skips symlinks. skillshare's default merge mode creates one symlink per skill (an NTFS junction on Windows), so none of them are picked up. On Windows this surfaces as an Incorrect function error; on macOS and Linux the skills are silently absent.

This is an Antigravity-side limitation, not a skillshare bug. It applies to the antigravity target (the app, ~/.gemini/config/skills); the standalone agy CLI is a separate antigravity-cli target reading ~/.gemini/antigravity-cli/skills. Two workarounds:

Option 1 — switch the target to copy mode

skillshare target antigravity --mode copy
skillshare sync --force

Real directories are written instead of symlinks. Trade-off: re-run skillshare sync after editing a source skill.

Option 2 — point Antigravity at your source directory

In Antigravity: Settings → Customizations → Skill Custom Paths → "+ Add", then enter the absolute path to your skillshare source (e.g. /Users/you/.config/skillshare/skills). The ~ shorthand is not expanded, so a full path is required.

Either way, restart Antigravity to reload skills.

skill name 'X' is defined in multiple places​

Cause: Multiple skills have the same name field and land on the same target.

Solution: Rename one in SKILL.md or use include/exclude filters to route them to different targets:

# Option 1: Namespace in SKILL.md
name: team-a-skill-name

# Option 2: Route with filters (global config)
targets:
  codex:
    path: ~/.codex/skills
    include: [_team-a__*]
  claude:
    path: ~/.claude/skills
    include: [_team-b__*]

# Option 2: Route with filters (project config)
targets:
  - name: claude
    exclude: [codex-*]
  - name: codex
    include: [codex-*]
tip

If filters already isolate the duplicates, sync shows an info message instead of a warning — no action needed. See Target Filters for full syntax.

Agent Errors​

Warning: No agents folder: <targets>​

Cause: You ran skillshare sync (or skillshare sync agents) and one or more configured targets don't define an agents directory. Only Claude, Cursor, Augment, and OpenCode have built-in agent paths; other targets are silently skipped.

Solutions:

  1. Ignore the warning if those targets don't need agents.
  2. Add an agents: sub-key to the target in config.yaml to enable agent sync for it:
targets:
  myapp:
    path: ~/myapp/skills
    agents:
      path: ~/myapp/agents

Then re-run skillshare sync agents.

backup is not supported in project mode (except for agents)​

Cause: You ran skillshare backup -p (or skillshare backup -p <target>) without the agents filter. In project mode, only agent backups are supported — skill backups are global-only.

Solution: Add the agents positional argument or use --all:

skillshare backup -p agents          # Project agent targets
skillshare backup -p agents claude   # Specific target
skillshare backup -p --all           # Same as above (narrows to agents)

The same rule applies to restore: restore is not supported in project mode (except for agents).

agent name 'X' has invalid characters​

Cause: An agent filename or name: frontmatter field contains characters outside the allowed set.

Solution: Agent names must use only a-z, 0-9, _, -, .. Rename the file (and update its name: field to match) so they share the same canonical name.

.agentignore patterns not taking effect​

Causes:

  1. The file is in the wrong location. It must live at the agents source root: ~/.config/skillshare/agents/.agentignore (global) or .skillshare/agents/.agentignore (project).
  2. Your pattern matches a different segment than you expect — the file uses gitignore syntax.

Solution: Confirm the file path with skillshare doctor and re-check the pattern. Agents are matched by basename (without .md), so draft-* matches draft-experiment.md. Use skillshare disable <agent> --kind agent to let the CLI write the entry for you.

Plugin Errors​

<agent> CLI is not installed or not on PATH​

Cause: Plugin commands run the Agent's native CLI (claude, codex, and so on) on the machine running Skillshare, and that CLI was not found. A scheduled job or a dashboard started from a service often has a shorter PATH than your terminal.

Solutions:

  1. Install the Agent's CLI on that machine.
  2. If it is installed, add its directory to the PATH of whatever starts Skillshare, such as the scheduled job's environment.
  3. For an account target, you can set cli to the executable's absolute path instead.

Codex CLI not found on the machine running Skillshare​

Cause: Skillshare looked for the Codex CLI on PATH, in the Homebrew folders, and inside the Codex desktop app, and found none. The message lists every place it looked.

Solutions:

  1. Install the Codex app or the Codex CLI on that machine.
  2. If Codex is somewhere else, set SKILLSHARE_CODEX_CLI to its path in the environment that starts Skillshare, such as the scheduled job. It stays on that machine, so a config shared with another OS is not affected.

The native marketplace X is gone​

Cause: The plugin was imported, so Skillshare reinstalls it from the native marketplace it came from, and that marketplace is not registered in the Agent. This is common on a second machine: the import was recorded on the first machine only.

Solutions:

  1. Add the marketplace again in the Agent, then run skillshare sync plugins.
  2. Or remove that Agent from the plugin and add the plugin again from its source. See Cross-Machine Sync — Plugins.

Binary Errors​

integration tests cannot find the binary​

Cause: Binary not built or wrong path.

Solution:

go build -o bin/skillshare ./cmd/skillshare
# Or set
export SKILLSHARE_TEST_BINARY=/path/to/skillshare

Still Having Issues?​

See Troubleshooting Workflow for a systematic debugging approach.