Description

In create_crew() (cli/create_crew.py), the for-loop on line 214 uses provider as its loop variable:

for provider, env_keys in ENV_VARS.items():

This shadows the provider parameter that's passed in from the CLI (crewai create crew <name> --provider <value>). After the loop finishes, provider no longer holds the user's original selection — it holds whatever the last key from ENV_VARS was (or the key where break was hit).

Currently the parameter isn't read again after the loop (the function uses selected_provider from interactive selection instead), so this doesn't cause a visible behavioral issue today. But it's a latent bug — anyone adding code after the loop that references provider would silently get the wrong value. It also trips static analysis warnings and makes debugging confusing.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Read create_crew() in lib/crewai/src/crewai/cli/create_crew.py
2. Notice that line 214 uses provider as the loop variable in for provider, env_keys in ENV_VARS.items()
3. Add a print(provider) after the loop (line 221) and call create_crew("test", provider="openai")
4. Observe that provider is no longer "openai"

Expected behavior

The provider parameter should retain its original value throughout the function. Loop variables should not shadow function parameters.

Screenshots/Code snippets

def create_crew(
    name: str,
    provider: str | None = None,    # <-- parameter
    skip_provider: bool = False,
    parent_folder: str | None = None,
) -> None:
    ...
    existing_provider = None
    for provider, env_keys in ENV_VARS.items():   # <-- shadows parameter!
        if any(
            "key_name" in details and details["key_name"] in env_vars
            for details in env_keys
        ):
            existing_provider = provider
            break
    # At this point, `provider` is no longer the caller's value

Operating System

Ubuntu 22.04

Python Version

3.12

crewAI Version

1.13.0

crewAI Tools Version

1.13.0

Virtual Environment

Venv

Evidence

Standard Python scoping behavior — a for loop variable persists after the loop and overwrites any variable with the same name in the enclosing scope. Any linter (pylint W0621, ruff) would flag this as redefined-from-outer-scope.

Possible Solution

Rename the loop variable to env_provider (or similar) so the parameter isn't clobbered. I have a one-line fix ready and will open a PR.

Additional context

Side note: the --provider CLI flag doesn't seem to actually bypass the interactive provider selection — the function always calls select_provider() regardless. That's a separate issue though.