rm -r /opt/mycroft/skills/skill-homeassistant*
rm -r /home/mycroft/.config/mycroft/skills/skill-homeassistant*
Then restart the skills service.
rm -r /opt/mycroft/skills/skill-homeassistant*
rm -r /home/mycroft/.config/mycroft/skills/skill-homeassistant*
Then restart the skills service.
Happy to, do I need to worry about that skill being listed in some file somewhere that will confuse msm?
msm is not that smart 
Perfect! So problem is when mycroft initialize and before pulling configuration from mycroft.ai. Last time it returned None, for you it return empty string. I will prepare fix when I get home and send it here for test.
So uh…will it not be helpful for me to also post my skills.log output?
You know what they say about the guy who’s two steps behind…he has…a lot of catching up to do. This is fun though, usually I’m the fastest guy in the room when I do my sort of programming. 
would be fine if msm would have remove option also, I will check that too
It does.
$ msm
usage: msm [-h]
[-p {kde,respeaker,mycroft_mark_2pi,picroft,default,mycroft_mark_1,mycroft_mark_2}]
[-u REPO_URL] [-b REPO_BRANCH] [-d SKILLS_DIR] [-c REPO_CACHE] [-l]
[-r]
{install,remove,search,info,list,update,default} ...
msm: error: the following arguments are required: action
If you managed to install it, post it also. For me its allways better to have more feedback.
Oh, I’m aware of the remove option, but there’s no way to force removal of a given instance if there are identically-named skills, which apparently happened.
[Edit] Obviously, in normal circumstances, it shouldn’t happen at all.
2021-10-29 09:55:59.300 | ERROR | 672 | mycroft.skills.skill_loader:_communicate_load_status:351 | Skill skill-homeassistant.tony763 failed to load
Regenerated skill-homeassistant.tony763:toggle.intent.
Regenerated skill-homeassistant.tony763:cover.open.intent.
Regenerated skill-homeassistant.tony763:tracker.intent.
Regenerated skill-homeassistant.tony763:add.item.shopping.list.intent.
2021-10-29 09:58:57.514 | INFO | 762 | mycroft.skills.skill_loader:load:185 | ATTEMPTING TO LOAD SKILL: skill-homeassistant.tony763
2021-10-29 09:58:58.204 | INFO | 762 | mycroft.skills.settings:get_local_settings:83 | /opt/mycroft/skills/skill-homeassistant.tony763/settings.json
2021-10-29 09:58:58.207 | INFO | 762 | mycroft.skills.settings:get_local_settings:83 | /opt/mycroft/skills/skill-homeassistant.tony763/settings.json
File "/opt/mycroft/skills/skill-homeassistant.tony763/__init__.py", line 96, in initialize
File "/opt/mycroft/skills/skill-homeassistant.tony763/__init__.py", line 37, in _setup
File "/opt/mycroft/skills/skill-homeassistant.tony763/ha_client.py", line 53, in check_url
2021-10-29 09:58:58.477 | ERROR | 762 | mycroft.skills.skill_loader:_communicate_load_status:351 | Skill skill-homeassistant.tony763 failed to load
Is this showing what you were looking for?
It hapened to me, too. But I cannot remember what I did to overcome it.
did you git checkout patch-8 inside ha skill folder?
I did, yes. It didn’t seem to really do anything, just printed a message that it switched to that branch.
(.venv) pi@picroft:/opt/mycroft/skills/skill-homeassistant.tony763 $ git checkout patch-8
Already on 'patch-8'
Your branch is up to date with 'origin/patch-8'.
(.venv) pi@picroft:/opt/mycroft/skills/skill-homeassistant.tony763 $
Do I need to make it update itself after I do this?
After this just restart mycroft. Then it should start up. and print debug messages.
I cleared skills.log so I could find things easier. Here seem to be the relevant bits:
2021-10-29 10:10:49.665 | INFO | 671 | mycroft.skills.skill_loader:load:185 | ATTEMPTING TO LOAD SKILL: skill-homeassistant.tony763
2021-10-29 10:10:50.150 | INFO | 671 | mycroft.skills.settings:get_local_settings:83 | /opt/mycroft/skills/skill-homeassistant.tony763/settings.json
2021-10-29 10:10:50.153 | INFO | 671 | mycroft.skills.settings:get_local_settings:83 | /opt/mycroft/skills/skill-homeassistant.tony763/settings.json
2021-10-29 10:10:50.268 | ERROR | 671 | HomeAssistantSkill | type: <class 'NoneType'>
2021-10-29 10:10:50.269 | ERROR | 671 | HomeAssistantSkill | content: None
2021-10-29 10:10:50.275 | INFO | 671 | HomeAssistantSkill | Removing all handlers...
2021-10-29 10:10:50.279 | WARNING | 671 | mycroft.skills.fallback_skill:remove_fallback:185 | Could not find matching fallback handler
2021-10-29 10:10:50.286 | ERROR | 671 | mycroft.skills.skill_loader:_create_skill_instance:313 | Skill initialization failed with TypeError('expected string or bytes-like object')
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/home/pi/mycroft-core/mycroft/skills/skill_loader.py", line 307, in _create_skill_instance
self.instance.initialize()
File "/opt/mycroft/skills/skill-homeassistant.tony763/__init__.py", line 96, in initialize
self._setup()
File "/opt/mycroft/skills/skill-homeassistant.tony763/__init__.py", line 37, in _setup
ip_address = check_url(ip_debug)
File "/opt/mycroft/skills/skill-homeassistant.tony763/ha_client.py", line 53, in check_url
matches = re.findall(IPV6_REGEX, ip_address)
File "/usr/lib/python3.7/re.py", line 223, in findall
return _compile(pattern, flags).findall(string)
TypeError: expected string or bytes-like object
2021-10-29 10:10:50.294 | ERROR | 671 | mycroft.skills.skill_loader:_communicate_load_status:351 | Skill skill-homeassistant.tony763 failed to load
perfect, you do not have empty sting but nonetype. Two instances with same version of skill and two different errors. Thanks, I will let you know when I make fix.
Done, test this branch: git fetch && git checkout feature/issue86x2
error: pathspec 'issue86x2' did not match any file(s) known to git
Perhaps I’m doing something wrong?
my bad, I edited the post above
Branch 'feature/issue86x2' set up to track remote branch 'feature/issue86x2' from 'origin'.
Switched to a new branch 'feature/issue86x2'
rebooting, let’s see how this goes…