---
title: "MGS1041: a remote spell import is not declared"
description: Fires when a magusfile imports a registry path that magus.yaml does not declare. The declaration names the tag magus.lock pins, so without it there is no digest to verify and nothing loads.
tags: [MGS1041, magusfile, spells, imports, remote, oci, magus.yaml, declaration]
---

# MGS1041: a remote spell import is not declared

A magusfile imports a spell by registry path, and `magus.yaml` has no entry for it:

```text
[error] [MGS1041] import "ghcr.io/team/spells/lint" names a remote spell magus.yaml does
not declare; add `spells: {ghcr.io/team/spells/lint: {tag: <tag>}}` to magus.yaml, then
run the target that writes magus.lock with the update charm (`magus run spell-lock:update`)
```

## Why

A remote spell runs code magus did not ship, so the workspace has to say exactly which
bytes. The import names only the repository; `magus.yaml` names the tag it tracks, and
`magus.lock` pins the manifest digest that tag resolved to. An import with no declaration
has no pin, and resolving the path at load would let the bytes change with no diff to
review. The import is also never handed to the file search, where a directory in the
workspace could answer for it.

## What to do

Declare the spell in `magus.yaml` with the tag you want:

```yaml
spells:
  ghcr.io/team/spells/lint:
    tag: "1.4"
```

Then pin it: run the target that declares `magus.lock` as its output with the update
charm (`magus run spell-lock:update` in this repository), or `magus spell lock --update`
when that target's own magusfile imports the spell. Commit `magus.yaml` and `magus.lock`
together. To use a local copy instead, declare `path: <dir>` rather than a tag. See
[Remote spells](../../remote-spells.md).