JuliusBrussee/caveman · error · Error

source does not exist: ${input}

Error message

source does not exist: ${input}

What it means

Error "source does not exist: ${input}" thrown in JuliusBrussee/caveman.

Source

Thrown at packages/cli/src/index.ts:1347

	schema: "caveman.skill-import.v1";
	id: string;
	source_sha256: string;
	activation: { status: string; basis: string };
	entry_condition: { status: string; value?: string };
	stop_condition: { status: string; value?: string };
	prompt: { bytes: number; byte_budget: number; status: string };
	resources: { scripts: string[]; references: string[]; assets: string[]; status: string };
	transformations: { exact_duplicate_blocks_removed: number; decorative_separators_removed: number };
	conflicts: { status: "needs_review"; declared: string[] };
	benchmarks: { status: "required"; fixtures: string[] };
	evidence_status: "unevaluated";
	publication: { status: "blocked"; blockers: string[] };
};

function importedSkillSource(input: string): { root: string; file: string } {
	let resolved: string;
	try { resolved = realpathSync(resolve(process.cwd(), expandTilde(input))); } catch {
		throw new Error(`source does not exist: ${input}`);
	}
	const stat = lstatSync(resolved);
	const file = stat.isDirectory() ? join(resolved, SKILL_MD) : resolved;
	if (!stat.isDirectory() && basename(resolved) !== SKILL_MD) throw new Error("source file must be named SKILL.md");
	if (!hasFile(file)) throw new Error(`SKILL.md missing under ${resolved}`);
	return { root: stat.isDirectory() ? resolved : dirname(resolved), file };
}

function cavemannifyImportedSkill(bytes: Buffer): { body: string; removedDuplicates: number; removedSeparators: number } {
	if (bytes.length === 0 || bytes.length > 256 * 1024) throw new Error("SKILL.md must be 1..262144 bytes");
	if (bytes.includes(0)) throw new Error("SKILL.md contains NUL bytes");
	const text = bytes.toString("utf8");
	if (!Buffer.from(text, "utf8").equals(bytes)) throw new Error("SKILL.md must be valid UTF-8");
	if (/-----BEGIN [A-Z ]*PRIVATE KEY-----|\b(?:sk|ghp|github_pat|xox[baprs])[-_][A-Za-z0-9_-]{16,}/i.test(text)) {
		throw new Error("SKILL.md contains credential-shaped material");
	}
	const split = splitSkillMarkdown(bytes);
	if (!split) throw new Error("SKILL.md needs closed YAML frontmatter");

View on GitHub (pinned to 27d5a3981a)

Solutions

1. Point --source at an existing SKILL.md file path.

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at packages/cli/src/index.ts:1347 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of JuliusBrussee/caveman@27d5a3981a (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/f64e2c3b47189f21. Report an issue: GitHub.