Skill tool error messages don't suggest alternatives on unknown skill
Resolved 💬 3 comments Opened Jan 16, 2026 by astronolanX Closed Jan 19, 2026
Problem
When the Skill tool fails to find a skill, the error message provides no diagnostic information:
Unknown skill: commit
This gives zero signal about why it failed or how to fix it.
Expected Behavior
The error should include:
- Fuzzy match suggestions - "Did you mean
commit-commands:commit?" - Partial matches - Show skills containing the search term
- Namespace hint - If the skill exists in a namespace, suggest the full path
Example
Current:
<error>Unknown skill: commit</error>
Expected:
<error>
Unknown skill: commit
Did you mean one of these?
- commit-commands:commit
- commit-commands:commit-push-pr
- commit-commands:clean_gone
Tip: Plugin skills use format "plugin-name:skill-name"
</error>
Context
- Plugin
commit-commandsis installed with skills:commit,commit-push-pr,clean_gone - Invoking
Skillwithskill: "commit"fails silently - The correct invocation is
skill: "commit-commands:commit" - User has no way to discover this without manually inspecting
~/.claude/plugins/
Impact
This creates a poor developer experience - users may assume a skill doesn't exist when it's just namespaced differently. Debugging requires manual filesystem inspection.
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