The process documented in https://docs.redhat.com/en/documentation/red_hat_satellite/6.16/html/administering_red_hat_satellite/synchronizing-template-repositories#Synchronizing_Templates_with_a_Local_Directory_admin or 16.1 , works great as long as there are no indentation issues present in any of the templates being synced\imported into satellite. 

But if even a minor indentation problem exists, the template import will fail with a rather odd error and without providing any proper hints of what we need to look for and where. 

Steps to reproduce:

1. Install a Sat 6.16
2. Set it up in the following way: 

   # ls -ladZ /var/lib/foreman/My_Templates_Dir /var/lib/foreman/My_Templates_Dir/test.erb  
   drwxr-xr-x. 2 foreman root system_u:object_r:foreman_lib_t:s0  22 Jun 26 14:32 /var/lib/foreman/My_Templates_Dir
   -rw-r--r--. 1 foreman root system_u:object_r:foreman_lib_t:s0 346 Jun 26 14:32 /var/lib/foreman/My_Templates_Dir/test.erb
   # cat /var/lib/foreman/My_Templates_Dir/test.erb
   <%#
   kind: snippet
   name: test_snippet
   model: ProvisioningTemplate
   snippet: true
   description: |
      This shows bad indentation
      which should not allow the template to be imported.
     Correct indentation starts from here.
   -%>
   <%
   proxy_uri = host_param('http-proxy') ? "http://#{host_param('http-proxy')}:#{host_param('http-proxy-port')}" : nil
   -%>
   
   # hammer settings info --name template_sync_repo
   Id:            template_sync_repo
   Name:          template_sync_repo
   Description:   Target path to import/export. Different protocols can be used, for example /tmp/dir, git://example.com, https://example.com, ssh://example.com. When exporting to /tmp, note that production deployments may be configured to use private tmp.
   Category:      Template Sync
   Settings type: string
   Value:         /var/lib/foreman/My_Templates_Dir
   

    

         3. Try to sync it from WebUI --> Hosts --> Templates --> Sync Templates --> Submit 

            Or Import via hammer command i.e. 

            # hammer import-templates --organization-id 1 --verbose true

Actual Behavior:

• The WebUI sync fails and shows the file name test.erb and the error "Failed to parse metadata"
• The hammer import also fails but shows rather less helpful information. 

  # hammer import-templates --organization-id 1 --verbose true
  Name:     
  Type:     
  Imported: false
  Changed:  false
  Errors:   
      Additional: 
        Failed to parse metadata
  Import finished.
  

   

• The following is logged in production.log

• 2025-06-26T14:33:09 [W|app|f31e4f70] invalid metadata
  2025-06-26T14:33:09 [I|app|f31e4f70] Backtrace for 'invalid metadata' error (Psych::SyntaxError): (<unknown>): did not find expected key while parsing a block mapping at line 2 column 1
   f31e4f70 | /usr/share/ruby/psych.rb:456:in `parse'
   f31e4f70 | /usr/share/ruby/psych.rb:456:in `parse_stream'
   f31e4f70 | /usr/share/ruby/psych.rb:390:in `parse'
   f31e4f70 | /usr/share/ruby/psych.rb:349:in `safe_load'
   f31e4f70 | /usr/share/foreman/app/models/template.rb:116:in `parse_metadata'
   f31e4f70 | /usr/share/gems/gems/foreman_templates-9.5.1/app/services/foreman_templates/template_importer.rb:54:in `block in parse_files!'
   f31e4f70 | /usr/share/gems/gems/foreman_templates-9.5.1/app/services/foreman_templates/template_importer.rb:49:in `each'
   f31e4f70 | /usr/share/gems/gems/foreman_templates-9.5.1/app/services/foreman_templates/template_importer.rb:49:in `parse_files!'
   f31e4f70 | /usr/share/gems/gems/foreman_templates-9.5.1/app/services/foreman_templates/template_importer.rb:27:in `import_from_files'
   f31e4f70 | /usr/share/gems/gems/foreman_templates-9.5.1/app/services/foreman_templates/template_importer.rb:20:in `import!'
   f31e4f70 | /usr/share/gems/gems/foreman_templates-9.5.1/app/controllers/api/v2/template_controller.rb:28:in `import'
   f31e4f70 | /usr/share/gems/gems/actionpack-6.1.7.8/lib/action_controller/metal/basic_implicit_render.rb:6:in `send_action'

Where the statement "block mapping at line 2 column 1" is a bit too technical to be able to easily understand the source of the issue. 

Expected Behavior:

A) The error message, whether provided by hammer or webui or logged in foreman logs, should clearly say, "There are some indentation issues or syntax issues present in the test.erb template" . In short, it needs to be user friendly as well as meaningful. 

B) The hammer command specifically should mention the name of the template which is failing to be imported. 

Additional note:

The issue in the template is here:
description: |
   This shows bad indentation
   which should not allow the template to be imported.
  Correct indentation starts from here.
 

If we fix it to be 
description: |
  This shows bad indentation
  which should not allow the template to be imported.
  Correct indentation starts from here.
that would allow importing the template