santifer/career-ops · error · Error

plugins.local/${name} already exists

Error message

plugins.local/${name} already exists

What it means

Thrown by scaffoldNew() when the destination plugins.local/<name> already exists. Mirrors the install path's guard: scaffolding over an existing plugin would clobber user edits silently, so it refuses and asks for an explicit remove first.

Source

Thrown at plugin-install.mjs:123

  let parsed;
  try { parsed = parseRepoArg(url); } catch (e) { return [e.message]; }
  if (expectId && parsed.id !== expectId) return [`repo "${url}" → id "${parsed.id}" but registry id is "${expectId}"`];
  let dir;
  try { dir = safeClone(parsed.url, sha); } catch (e) { return [e.message]; }
  let result;
  try { result = validateInstall(dir, parsed.id); }
  catch (e) { rmSync(dir, { recursive: true, force: true }); return [e.message]; }
  try { rmSync(result.dir || dir, { recursive: true, force: true }); } catch { /* best-effort */ }
  return result.ok ? [] : result.problems;
}

/** Scaffold a new local plugin from plugins/_template/. */
export function scaffoldNew(root, name) {
  if (!/^[a-z0-9][a-z0-9-]*$/.test(name)) throw new Error(`plugin name must match [a-z0-9-] (got "${name}")`);
  const tpl = path.join(root, 'plugins', '_template');
  if (!existsSync(tpl)) throw new Error('plugins/_template/ not found');
  const dest = path.join(root, 'plugins.local', name);
  if (existsSync(dest)) throw new Error(`plugins.local/${name} already exists`);
  mkdirSync(path.join(root, 'plugins.local'), { recursive: true });
  cpSync(tpl, dest, { recursive: true });
  // Substitute {{NAME}} placeholders in shipped text files.
  const sub = (p) => { if (existsSync(p)) writeFileSync(p, readFileSync(p, 'utf8').replaceAll('{{NAME}}', name), 'utf8'); };
  for (const f of readdirSync(dest, { withFileTypes: true })) {
    if (f.isFile()) sub(path.join(dest, f.name));
  }
  if (existsSync(path.join(dest, 'test'))) for (const f of readdirSync(path.join(dest, 'test'))) sub(path.join(dest, 'test', f));
  return dest;
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 9b17a8ac97)

Solutions

1. Run `node plugins.mjs remove <name>` to delete the existing dir, then scaffold again.
2. Choose a different name if you want to keep the existing one.
3. Manually rm -rf plugins.local/<name> if it is a known leftover.
4. Confirm the name is not already in use via `node plugins.mjs list`.

Example fix

// before: scaffold over existing
cpSync(tpl, dest); // throws: already exists
// after: remove then scaffold
// `node plugins.mjs remove my-plugin`
// `node plugins.mjs scaffold my-plugin`

import { existsSync } from 'fs';
import path from 'path';
function scaffoldDestFree(root, name) {
  return !existsSync(path.join(root, 'plugins.local', name));
}
if (!scaffoldDestFree(root, name)) {
  // remove existing plugin or choose a new name
}

null

try {
  scaffoldNew(root, name);
} catch (e) {
  if (/already exists/.test(e.message)) {
    // `node plugins.mjs remove <name>` then retry
  } else throw e;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Scaffolding a name that was already scaffolded/installed; a prior scaffold left a directory; name collision with an installed community plugin of the same id.

Common situations: Re-running scaffold during iteration; scaffolding a name already taken by an installed plugin; a previous interrupted scaffold left a partial dir.

Related errors

• plugins.local/${id} already exists — `node plugins.mjs remov
• plugin name must match [a-z0-9-] (got "${name}")
• plugins/_template/ not found
• payload.cv requires a non-empty dedupKey (used for dedup/ide
• LOCK_TIMEOUT

AI-assisted analysis of santifer/career-ops@9b17a8ac97 (2026-08-13). Data as JSON: /api/errors/59ee6673b3b26872. Report an issue: GitHub.