Strange sbt bug where I cannot import sbt project due to keys colliding with themselves

Go to

Preference -> Build, Execution, Deployment 
                  -> SBT 
                      -> check "Use SBT shell for build and import" 
                           -> Press OK

You can now refresh SBT projects and it should work . if you want, you could uncheck "Use SBT shell for build and import" and it will also work

I too had the same issue, I 'fixed' it by nuking and reinstalling IntelliJ.

Intellij Version: IntelliJ IDEA 2017.2.5 Build #IU-172.4343.14 Scala Plugin Version: 2017.2.13

Steps that did not work

• Switching git branch
• Invalidate caches / Restart
• Removing .idea directory & reimport
• Changing SBT config to not use the bundled jar

I was just having the same error with latest 2017.3 EAP version of Idea. I couldn't import a project and got the same error. The fix for me was to switch to another branch, import the project (which succeeded), then switch back to the original branch again and reimport the project in Idea (click on sbt refresh button).

There was never a problem running sbt in a terminal, only in Idea. Sounds like an Idea issue...