JuliusBrussee/caveman · error · Error

${skill.file} changed during interrupted removal; refusing d

Error message

${skill.file} changed during interrupted removal; refusing destructive recovery

What it means

During recovery of an interrupted removal, each journaled skill file is checked: if it still exists, its hash must equal the recorded after_sha256, or the file must byte-equal the pre-install original (skillMatchesBefore). A file that exists but matches neither was edited by the user after the interrupted removal, and deleting it (completing the removal) would destroy those edits — so recovery refuses.

Source

Thrown at packages/cli/src/index.ts:2496

  installAgentNativeCloudMcp(agent, journal.cloud_mcp);
  installAgentNativeBundleSkills(agent, journal);
  verifyAgentNativeBundle(agent, journal, journal.cloud_mcp);
  atomicWriteFile(agentNativeBundleJournalPath(agent), Buffer.from(JSON.stringify(journal, null, 2) + "\n"));
}

function recoverPendingAgentNativeRemoval(agent: "claude" | "codex"): void {
  const pending = readPendingAgentNativeBundleRemoval(agent);
  if (!pending) return;
  if (agentNativeBundleRemovalCompleted(agent, pending)) {
    try { unlinkSync(agentNativeBundleJournalPath(agent)); } catch { /* removal already committed */ }
    unlinkSync(agentNativeBundleRemovalJournalPath(agent));
    process.stderr.write(`${mark("warn")} completed interrupted ${agent} agent-native bundle removal\n`);
    return;
  }
  for (const skill of pending.skills) {
    const current = fileBytes(skill.file);
    if (current && bytesHash(current) !== skill.after_sha256 && !skillMatchesBefore(skill)) {
      throw new Error(`${skill.file} changed during interrupted removal; refusing destructive recovery`);
    }
  }
  const marker = readMcpServerMarker(agent, "caveman-cloud");
  const markerKnown = !marker || sameMcpCommand(marker, pending.cloud_mcp) || sameMcpCommand(marker, pending.previous_cloud_mcp);
  const hostIsInstalled = agentNativeCloudMcpMatches(agent, pending.cloud_mcp);
  const hostIsPrevious = pending.previous_cloud_mcp
    ? agentNativeCloudMcpMatches(agent, pending.previous_cloud_mcp)
    : agentNativeCloudMcpHostAbsent(agent);
  if (!markerKnown || (!hostIsInstalled && !hostIsPrevious)) {
    throw new Error(`${agent} caveman-cloud MCP changed during interrupted removal; refusing destructive recovery`);
  }
  restoreInstalledAgentNativeBundle(agent, pending);
  unlinkSync(agentNativeBundleRemovalJournalPath(agent));
  process.stderr.write(`${mark("warn")} rolled back interrupted ${agent} agent-native bundle removal before continuing\n`);
}

function preflightAgentNativeSetup(agent: "claude" | "codex"): void {
  recoverPendingAgentNativeRemoval(agent);

View on GitHub (pinned to 27d5a3981a)

Solutions

  1. Back up your edited skill file, delete it (or restore the original/after content), and re-run so removal completes
  2. Or keep your edits and remove the pending removal journal plus the skill files manually, accepting you own the cleanup
Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

function skillSafeToRemove(file: string, afterSha: string, beforeB64: string | null): boolean {
  let bytes: Buffer;
  try { bytes = readFileSync(file); } catch { return true; } // gone = fine
  const h = createHash("sha256").update(bytes).digest("hex");
  if (h === afterSha) return true;
  if (beforeB64 === null) return false;
  return bytes.equals(Buffer.from(beforeB64, "base64"));
}

Type guard

function isSkillChangedDuringRemovalError(e: unknown): boolean {
  return e instanceof Error && e.message.endsWith("changed during interrupted removal; refusing destructive recovery");
}

Try / catch

try {
  runCavemanAgentCommand("codex");
} catch (e) {
  if (isSkillChangedDuringRemovalError(e)) {
    // message names the file — back it up, move it aside, re-run to complete removal
  } else throw e;
}

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Kill an uninstall mid-way, edit one of the still-present Caveman skill files, then run any command that triggers recoverPendingAgentNativeRemoval.

Common situations: User customized a skill thinking uninstall was complete; an agent tool rewrote SKILL.md bodies; pixel convert ran over the skills directory in between.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of JuliusBrussee/caveman@27d5a3981a (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/21408c8e09171ac4. Report an issue: GitHub.