crewAIInc/crewAI · error · SystemExit

Failed to download skill

Error message

Failed to download skill {ref}: {get_response.status_code}

What it means

The registry API `get_skill` call returned a non-200, non-404 status code (e.g. 401, 403, 429, 500, 502). The CLI surfaces the raw status number because it cannot infer the specific cause, and exits with SystemExit(1).

Solutions

1. Re-authenticate (`crewai org switch` / re-login) and retry — 401/403 are the most common non-404 failures.
2. Check the CrewAI registry status page or retry after a short delay for 5xx/429 responses.
3. If behind a corporate proxy, verify HTTPS_PROXY/NO_PROXY settings allow api calls to the registry host.

Example fix

# before
crewai skill install @org/tool   # Failed to download skill @org/tool: 401
# after
crewai org switch <org_id>   # refresh auth/token
crewai skill install @org/tool

import httpx

def registry_reachable(base_url: str) -> bool:
    try:
        return httpx.get(base_url, timeout=5).status_code < 500
    except httpx.HTTPError:
        return False

import subprocess, time

for attempt in range(3):
    proc = subprocess.run(["crewai", "skill", "install", ref], capture_output=True, text=True)
    if proc.returncode == 0:
        break
    if "401" in proc.stderr or "403" in proc.stderr:  # auth: retrying won't help
        subprocess.run(["crewai", "org", "switch", org_id], check=True)
        continue
    if attempt < 2:
        time.sleep(2 ** attempt)  # backoff for 429/5xx
else:
    raise RuntimeError(f"skill install failed: {proc.stderr}")

When it happens

Trigger: Expired or invalid auth token (401), rate limiting (429), registry outage or maintenance (5xx), or proxy/firewall intercepting the request with an unexpected status — any `get_response.status_code` outside {200, 404} on the `get_skill(org, name)` call.

Common situations: Stale login after rotating API keys; corporate proxies returning 407/502; registry incidents; hitting rate limits in CI loops that install many skills.

Related errors

• Skill not found. Ensure it has been published and you have…
• Directory already exists.
• Error executing crew with trigger
• Error fetching triggers
• Failed to parse SKILL.md frontmatter

AI-assisted analysis of crewAIInc/crewAI@754d7323be (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/522ac45a674cbc01. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at lib/cli/src/crewai_cli/skills/main.py:124

                "non-empty path segments (no slashes, no '..').[/red]"
            )
            raise SystemExit(1)

        self._print_current_organization()
        console.print(f"[bold blue]Downloading skill {ref}...[/bold blue]")

        get_response = self.plus_api_client.get_skill(org, name)

        if get_response.status_code == 404:
            console.print(
                f"[red]Skill {ref} not found. Ensure it has been published and you have access.[/red]"
            )
            raise SystemExit(1)
        if get_response.status_code != 200:
            console.print(
                f"[red]Failed to download skill {ref}: {get_response.status_code}[/red]"
            )
            raise SystemExit(1)

        data = get_response.json()
        version = data.get("latest_version") or data.get("version")

        download_url = data.get("download_url")
        if download_url:
            import httpx

            dl_response = httpx.get(download_url, follow_redirects=True)
            dl_response.raise_for_status()
            archive_bytes = dl_response.content
        else:
            encoded = data.get("file", "")
            if "," in encoded:
                encoded = encoded.split(",", 1)[1]
            archive_bytes = base64.b64decode(encoded)

        in_project = os.path.isfile("pyproject.toml")

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