zeroclaw-labs/zeroclaw · error · anyhow::Error

skill '{skill_name}' not found in registry '{registry_name}'

Error message

skill '{skill_name}' not found in registry '{registry_name}' and no skills are available

What it means

Installing a skill from a named extra registry: after that registry is cloned, skills/<skill_name> is not a directory and the registry listing is empty. The named registry's clone contains no skills at all, so nothing can be installed from it.

Source

Thrown at crates/zeroclaw-runtime/src/skills/mod.rs:2636

                    configured.join(", ")
                )
            }
        })?;

    if registry.kind != zeroclaw_config::schema::ExternalRegistryKind::Git {
        anyhow::bail!(
            "registry '{registry_name}' uses unsupported kind '{}'; only 'git' is supported",
            registry.kind
        );
    }

    let registry_dir = ensure_extra_registry(workspace_dir, &registry_name, &registry.url)?;
    let skill_dir = registry_dir.join("skills").join(&skill_name);

    if !skill_dir.is_dir() {
        let available = list_registry_skill_names(&registry_dir);
        if available.is_empty() {
            anyhow::bail!(
                "skill '{skill_name}' not found in registry '{registry_name}' and no skills are available"
            );
        }
        anyhow::bail!(
            "skill '{skill_name}' not found in registry '{registry_name}'.\nAvailable skills: {}",
            available.join(", ")
        );
    }

    if !suppress_tier_banner {
        let (tier, version) = lookup_registry_skill_tier(&registry_dir, &skill_name);
        print_install_tier_banner(&skill_name, version.as_deref(), tier);
    }

    install_local_skill_source(
        skill_dir.to_str().with_context(|| {
            format!(
                "registry path is not valid UTF-8: {}",

View on GitHub (pinned to 88bb9c8533)

Solutions

Verify the registry URL configured for that name is a skills registry with a top-level skills/ directory.
Delete the local clone of that registry under the workspace and retry for a fresh full clone.
If submodules are used in the registry, make sure they resolve over your credentials.
Populate the registry repo with at least one skill directory under skills/ if you own it.

Example fix

# before
zeroclaw skills install registry:extra/my-skill
# error: skill 'my-skill' not found in registry 'extra' and no skills are available

# after: fix the registry URL to a real catalog, then clear cache
# config: [[skills.registries]] name="extra" kind="git" url="https://github.com/org/skills"
rm -rf .zeroclaw/registries/extra && zeroclaw skills install registry:extra/my-skill

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

fn extra_registry_ready(registry_dir: &std::path::Path) -> bool {
    registry_dir
        .join("skills")
        .read_dir()
        .map(|mut it| it.any(|e| e.map(|e| e.path().is_dir()).unwrap_or(false)))
        .unwrap_or(false)
}

Try / catch

match install_from_registry(registry_name, skill) {
    Err(e) if e.to_string().contains("and no skills are available") => {
        clear_registry_cache(registry_name)?; // rm -rf local clone
        install_from_registry(registry_name, skill)?
    }
    rest => rest?,
}

Prevention

Validate each extra registry once at setup: `git ls-remote` works and the repo has skills/ with directories.
Clear the per-registry cache after any interrupted clone or credential failure.
Prefer registry names/URLs pinned in reviewed config, not ad-hoc flags.

When it happens

Trigger: Registry-qualified install (`registry:<name>/<skill>`) where `registry_dir/skills/<skill_name>` is missing and `list_registry_skill_names` returns nothing — the cloned registry repo has no skills/ directory or an empty one.

Common situations: Registry URL points at a non-catalog repo; wrong default branch without skills/; interrupted first clone left an empty dir; private registry not yet populated; submodules not initialized during clone.

Understand the failure class

Background: 'Could not be found', 'does not exist', 'not found in database': the resource-not-found family when an ID, slug, key, or URI lookup comes back empty — this error's family across 20 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of zeroclaw-labs/zeroclaw@88bb9c8533 (2026-08-23). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d1ebd2d281ca00c8. Report an issue: GitHub.