Step one towards stable error messages with details:

pkg/polymer/test/build/unique_message_test.dart

+// Copyright (c) 2014, the Dart project authors.  Please see the AUTHORS file
+// for details. All rights reserved. Use of this source code is governed by a
+// BSD-style license that can be found in the LICENSE file.
+
+/// Tests for some of the utility helper functions used by the compiler.
+library polymer.test.build.messages_test;
+
+import 'dart:mirrors';
+
+import 'package:unittest/unittest.dart';
+import 'package:code_transformers/messages/messages.dart' show Message;
+
+import 'package:code_transformers/src/messages.dart' as p1;
+import 'package:polymer/src/build/messages.dart' as p2;
+
+/// [p1] and [p2] are accessed via mirrors, this comment prevents the analyzer
+/// from complaining about it.
+main() {
+  test('each message id is unique', () {
+    var seen = {};
+    int total = 0;
+    var mirrors = currentMirrorSystem();
+    _check(Symbol libName) {
+      var lib = mirrors.findLibrary(libName);
+      expect(lib, isNotNull);
+      lib.declarations.forEach((symbol, decl) {
+        if (decl is! VariableMirror) return;
+        var field = lib.getField(symbol).reflectee;
+        var name = MirrorSystem.getName(symbol);
+        if (field is! Message) return;
+        var id = field.id;
+        expect(seen.containsKey(id), isFalse, reason: 'Duplicate id `$id`. '
+            'Currently set for both `$name` and `${seen[id]}`.');
+        seen[id] = name;
+        total++;
+      });
+    }
+    _check(#polymer.src.build.messages);
+    _check(#code_transformers.src.messages);
+    expect(seen.length, total);
+  });
+}