paperclipai/paperclip · error

Ambiguous skill slug

Error message

Ambiguous skill slug "${trimmed}". Use a skill ID or key instead.

What it means

The reference matched no id or key, and its normalized slug matched more than one company skill, so resolution is ambiguous and a unique id/key is required.

Solutions

1. Use the skill ID or key instead of the ambiguous slug.

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at cli/src/commands/client/skills.ts:624 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of paperclipai/paperclip@120ae5428f (2026-08-18). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d742995cfacde716. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at cli/src/commands/client/skills.ts:624

  skills: CompanySkillReferenceTarget[],
  reference: string,
): CompanySkillReferenceTarget {
  const trimmed = reference.trim();
  if (!trimmed) {
    throw new Error("Skill reference is required.");
  }

  const byId = skills.find((skill) => skill.id === trimmed);
  if (byId) return byId;

  const byKey = skills.find((skill) => skill.key === trimmed);
  if (byKey) return byKey;

  const normalizedSlug = normalizeSkillSlug(trimmed);
  const bySlug = skills.filter((skill) => skill.slug === normalizedSlug);
  if (bySlug.length === 1 && bySlug[0]) return bySlug[0];
  if (bySlug.length > 1) {
    throw new Error(`Ambiguous skill slug "${trimmed}". Use a skill ID or key instead.`);
  }

  throw new Error(`Skill not found: ${reference}`);
}

async function resolveCompanySkill(
  ctx: ResolvedClientContext,
  reference: string,
): Promise<CompanySkillReferenceTarget> {
  return resolveCompanySkillReference(await listCompanySkills(ctx), reference);
}

async function checkCompanySkills(
  ctx: ResolvedClientContext,
  skillRef: string | undefined,
): Promise<CompanySkillCheckRow[]> {
  const skills = await listCompanySkills(ctx);
  const selected = skillRef ? [resolveCompanySkillReference(skills, skillRef)] : skills;

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