I think you have some really valid points in your answer, Steven. To me, it seems like we have two main options to improve the message for shadowing modules. I copied part of your and Random832’s answer here, since they summarize it quite nicely: 1. If a module attempts to directly import a module with the same name, and that import fails for any reason, we include a message about shadowing in addition to the normal exception traceback. 2. Always print a warning [not an error] when importing a module from the current directory [the first entry in sys.path] that is also available in any other entry in sys.path I think both methods would add significant information. The second option would help a lot in the cases where the program still works, but doesn’t throw an error (possibly because the accessed objects exist in both modules). Either way, giving a hint that a module might be shadowed by the running program would help significantly. -- Gustav