skill ' ' exists in both project and global Codewhale…

Error message

skill '{name}' exists in both project and global Codewhale roots; specify --project or --global

What it means

When a name-based mutation matches more than one owned skill — one in the project root and one in the global root — the library refuses to guess which one to operate on and requires an explicit scope selection (--project or --global, or the scoped request variants).

Solutions

Re-run the mutation with --project to target the project-root copy
Or re-run with --global to target the global-root copy
In code, construct the scoped request variant (project or global) instead of the name-only variant
Remove one of the duplicate copies to make future unscoped commands unambiguous

Example fix

// before
cmd.args(["skills", "remove", "my-skill"]);
// after
cmd.args(["skills", "remove", "my-skill", "--project"]);

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

fn scope_is_unambiguous(catalog: &SkillCatalog, name: &str) -> bool {
    let canonical = canonicalize_name(name);
    let hits = catalog.owned_skills().iter()
        .filter(|s| s.id.canonical_name == canonical).count();
    hits <= 1
}

Try / catch

if !scope_is_unambiguous(&catalog, name) {
    eprintln!("skill exists in both project and global roots; pass --project or --global");
} else {
    mutation::execute(request, &ctx)?;
}

Prevention

Always pass --project or --global in scripts that mutate skills by name
Avoid keeping the same skill in both roots, or remove duplicates deliberately
Detect duplicates at install time by checking the other scope first

When it happens

Trigger: execute/execute_sync with an unscoped name-based request (remove/update/trust by name) while the canonical name exists in both the project and the global Codewhale skills roots, so the resolver's match list has more than one entry.

Common situations: A user installed the same skill both per-project and globally (common after promoting a project skill to global) and then runs an unscoped uninstall/update; scripts that omit the scope flag after a global install was added.

Understand the failure class

Background: "--flag is required" and "must specify" CLI errors: how missing-required-flag validation works and how to fix it — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of Hmbown/CodeWhale@73e0f67d83 (2026-09-22). Data as JSON: /api/errors/fe5e370b04ba301a. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at crates/tui/src/skills/mutation.rs:509

                    && s.source_kind == SkillSourceKind::CompatibleExternal
            }) {
                bail!(
                    "skill '{name}' exists only in a compatible external root; \
                     import it with /skills (refusing to write external harness directories)"
                );
            }
            bail!("skill '{name}' not found in Codewhale-owned project/global roots");
        }
        [only] => {
            let DigestState::Known(digest) = &only.digest else {
                bail!("skill '{name}' has unknown package digest; refusing mutation");
            };
            Ok(ResolvedOwnedSkill {
                id: only.id.clone(),
                digest: digest.clone(),
            })
        }
        _ => bail!(
            "skill '{name}' exists in both project and global Codewhale roots; \
             specify --project or --global"
        ),
    }
}

fn find_audited_skill(
    ctx: &MutationContext<'_>,
    skill_id: &AuditedSkillId,
) -> Result<(AuditedSkill, PathBuf)> {
    let snap = scan_with_configured(
        ctx.workspace,
        ctx.home,
        ctx.configured_skills_dir,
        SkillAuditMode::Compatible,
        None,
    );
    let skill = snap

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