feast init accepts project names incompatible with the local SQLite template #6808

Expected Behavior

A repository successfully created by feast init should work with its generated configuration, or the CLI should reject a project name that is incompatible with the selected template.

Current Behavior

The default local template accepts a hyphenated repository/project name:

feast init feast-smoke -t local

The command exits successfully and generates a repository whose feature_store.yaml contains:

project: feast-smoke

However, loading that generated repository fails because the local template uses the SQLite online store:

Value error, Project names for SQLite online stores cannot contain hyphens because they are used in table names.
at feature_store.yaml

This means feast init successfully generates a repository that cannot be used without manually editing its configuration.

Steps to Reproduce

feast init feast-smoke -t local
cd feast-smoke/feature_repo
python test_workflow.py

The failure occurs when FeatureStore(repo_path=".") loads the generated configuration.

Using an underscore succeeds through the complete local workflow:

feast init feast_smoke -t local
cd feast_smoke/feature_repo
python test_workflow.py

Existing Test Behavior

sdk/python/tests/unit/test_repo_operations_validate_feast_project_name.py explicitly considers hyphen-name valid, while the generated SQLite-backed local repository rejects it later.

Related History

• Failure when there is a hyphen in project names #1545 previously tracked SQLite failures caused by hyphens in project names.
• Allow - in repo name #5561 and feat: Allow hyphen in repo name #5562 added support for hyphens in repository/project names.
• The current validation allows hyphens, but the generated SQLite-backed local repository remains incompatible.
• This issue supersedes closed feast init accepts project names incompatible with the local SQLite template #6807, which was accidentally submitted through the wrong connected GitHub account.

Possible Solutions

Either:

1. Make SQLite table-name generation safely support hyphenated Feast project names; or
2. Reject hyphenated names early when feast init uses a SQLite-backed template, with a clear error; or
3. Preserve the requested directory name while normalizing the generated Feast project name (for example, feast-smoke → feast_smoke).

I would be happy to contribute the fix once maintainers confirm the preferred behavior.

Environment

• Feast: 0.66.1.dev6+g5ad559239
• Python: 3.10.12
• OS: Ubuntu 22.04.5 LTS