CherryHQ/cherry-studio · error · ValueError

SKILL.md missing frontmatter (no closing ---)

Error message

SKILL.md missing frontmatter (no closing ---)

What it means

Error "SKILL.md missing frontmatter (no closing ---)" thrown in CherryHQ/cherry-studio.

Source

Thrown at resources/skills/skill-creator/scripts/utils.py:22



def parse_skill_md(skill_path: Path) -> tuple[str, str, str]:
    """Parse a SKILL.md file, returning (name, description, full_content)."""
    content = (skill_path / "SKILL.md").read_text()
    lines = content.split("\n")

    if lines[0].strip() != "---":
        raise ValueError("SKILL.md missing frontmatter (no opening ---)")

    end_idx = None
    for i, line in enumerate(lines[1:], start=1):
        if line.strip() == "---":
            end_idx = i
            break

    if end_idx is None:
        raise ValueError("SKILL.md missing frontmatter (no closing ---)")

    name = ""
    description = ""
    frontmatter_lines = lines[1:end_idx]
    i = 0
    while i < len(frontmatter_lines):
        line = frontmatter_lines[i]
        if line.startswith("name:"):
            name = line[len("name:"):].strip().strip('"').strip("'")
        elif line.startswith("description:"):
            value = line[len("description:"):].strip()
            # Handle YAML multiline indicators (>, |, >-, |-)
            if value in (">", "|", ">-", "|-"):
                continuation_lines: list[str] = []
                i += 1
                while i < len(frontmatter_lines) and (frontmatter_lines[i].startswith("  ") or frontmatter_lines[i].startswith("\t")):
                    continuation_lines.append(frontmatter_lines[i].strip())
                    i += 1

View on GitHub (pinned to 726446b54c)

Solutions

  1. Close the YAML frontmatter block with a second --- line after the frontmatter fields.
  2. Check for unterminated or malformed frontmatter near the top of SKILL.md.

Example fix

Ensure SKILL.md has both delimiters:
---
name: my-skill
---
<body>

When it happens

Trigger: parse_skill_md finds the opening '---' of SKILL.md frontmatter but no subsequent closing '---' line.

Common situations: Raised for truncated or malformed SKILL.md files where the frontmatter block was never terminated. Fix by adding the closing '---' line after the YAML frontmatter fields.

AI-assisted analysis of CherryHQ/cherry-studio@726446b54c (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/c23cef499d1566d4. Report an issue: GitHub.