registry_path configuration issues with aea install

Describe the bug When setting up a new agent aea install runs just fine. It creates an aea-config.yaml as expected. However, this config does not include a configuration for the registry_path (aea <= 0.11 did) This leads to issues when trying to add connections later on, because the registry_path is neither specified nor does the default folder packages exist.:

(sensor_demo_aea) oliver@bbpc:~/Arbeit/aea/trade_aea/my_generic_seller$ aea add connection fetchai/p2p_libp2p:0.21.0
Adding connection 'fetchai/p2p_libp2p:0.21.0'...
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/oliver/.virtualenvs/sensor_demo_aea/bin/aea", line 8, in <module>
    sys.exit(cli())
  File "/home/oliver/.virtualenvs/sensor_demo_aea/lib/python3.7/site-packages/click/core.py", line 829, in __call__
    return self.main(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/home/oliver/.virtualenvs/sensor_demo_aea/lib/python3.7/site-packages/click/core.py", line 782, in main
    rv = self.invoke(ctx)
  File "/home/oliver/.virtualenvs/sensor_demo_aea/lib/python3.7/site-packages/click/core.py", line 1259, in invoke
    return _process_result(sub_ctx.command.invoke(sub_ctx))
  File "/home/oliver/.virtualenvs/sensor_demo_aea/lib/python3.7/site-packages/click/core.py", line 1259, in invoke
    return _process_result(sub_ctx.command.invoke(sub_ctx))
  File "/home/oliver/.virtualenvs/sensor_demo_aea/lib/python3.7/site-packages/click/core.py", line 1066, in invoke
    return ctx.invoke(self.callback, **ctx.params)
  File "/home/oliver/.virtualenvs/sensor_demo_aea/lib/python3.7/site-packages/click/core.py", line 610, in invoke
    return callback(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/home/oliver/.virtualenvs/sensor_demo_aea/lib/python3.7/site-packages/click/decorators.py", line 73, in new_func
    return ctx.invoke(f, obj, *args, **kwargs)
  File "/home/oliver/.virtualenvs/sensor_demo_aea/lib/python3.7/site-packages/click/core.py", line 610, in invoke
    return callback(*args, **kwargs)
  File "/home/oliver/.virtualenvs/sensor_demo_aea/lib/python3.7/site-packages/aea/cli/add.py", line 68, in connection
    add_item(ctx, CONNECTION, connection_public_id)
  File "/home/oliver/.virtualenvs/sensor_demo_aea/lib/python3.7/site-packages/aea/cli/utils/decorators.py", line 218, in wrapper
    return func(context, *args, **kwargs)
  File "/home/oliver/.virtualenvs/sensor_demo_aea/lib/python3.7/site-packages/aea/cli/add.py", line 123, in add_item
    package_path = fetch_item_mixed(ctx, item_type, item_public_id, dest_path)
  File "/home/oliver/.virtualenvs/sensor_demo_aea/lib/python3.7/site-packages/aea/cli/add.py", line 221, in fetch_item_mixed
    ctx, item_type, item_public_id, dest_path
  File "/home/oliver/.virtualenvs/sensor_demo_aea/lib/python3.7/site-packages/aea/cli/add.py", line 198, in find_item_locally_or_distributed
    source_path, _ = find_item_locally(ctx, item_type, item_public_id)
  File "/home/oliver/.virtualenvs/sensor_demo_aea/lib/python3.7/site-packages/aea/cli/utils/package_utils.py", line 307, in find_item_locally
    ctx.registry_path, item_public_id.author, item_type_plural, item_name
  File "/home/oliver/.virtualenvs/sensor_demo_aea/lib/python3.7/site-packages/aea/cli/utils/context.py", line 77, in registry_path
    f"Registry path not provided and `{DEFAULT_REGISTRY_NAME}` not found in current ({self.cwd}) and parent directory."
ValueError: Registry path not provided and `packages` not found in current (.) and parent directory.

To Reproduce Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Follow the trade demo: https://docs.fetch.ai/aea/generic-skills-step-by-step/#run-the-aeas

Expected behavior I’d either expect that aea install creates a /packages folder in the workdir or specifies a registry_path in the created default aea-config.yaml

Desktop (please complete the following information):

(sensor_demo_aea) oliver@bbpc:~/Arbeit/aea/trade_aea/test_agent$ uname -a
Linux bbpc 5.8.0-48-generic #54~20.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Sat Mar 20 13:40:25 UTC 2021 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

(sensor_demo_aea) oliver@bbpc:~/Arbeit/aea/trade_aea/test_agent$ aea --version
aea, version 1.0.0

[DavidMinarsch]

Hi @eorituz , we intentionally removed this configuration from aea-config.yaml as it’s not a per-project configuration, rather a per development setup configuration. Unfortunately, in the time left we did not manage to extend aea init to configure this. So at the moment, you need to either create the packages folder manually mkdir packages in the root directory (i.e. where you call aea fetch or aea create) or you need to use the flag --remote when using aea fetch/aea add.

[DavidMinarsch]

Ok, thanks for the clarification. I assumed the registry path is a “per-project” configuration.

The way to think about packages is like a simple registry but local with no support for multiple versions (each package can only be present in one version). But all local agent projects can fetch/add from it and push/publish to it when using flag --local.