fix(cli): accept -d <path> before a subcommand

[theCodeDrift]

taskless auth -d . failed with "Unknown command .". So did taskless -d . info, and any other command that has subcommands. Only the --dir=<path> spelling worked.

Cause

citty picks a subcommand from the first raw argument that does not start with -, at every level that has subcommands, before it parses any flags. The path after -d was that argument. Our own scanner (splitRawArguments) already treated it as a flag value, but that scanner does not decide where citty dispatches.

Fix

• Entry point: joinDirectoryValues (util/argv.ts) rewrites -d <path> / --dir <path> into the single token --dir=<path> before dispatch, the spelling citty already handles at every level.
  • Tokens after -- are left alone.
  • -- itself is not joined as the value.
  • A value starting with - is not joined, because citty already skips it and joining it would change how citty parses the flags.
• auth: the status guard now uses splitRawArguments instead of its own inline check, so a flag value cannot be read as a subcommand there either. Without this, fixing only the dispatch side would have turned the error into printing nothing.

Tests

• Unit tests for joinDirectoryValues.
• End-to-end runs of the built CLI for auth -d <dir> and -d <dir> info --json.

Fixes #424

[theCodeDrift]

@claude /review

[claude]

Claude finished @theCodeDrift's task in 6m 39s —— View job

---

Review complete

Review mode: incremental — read 0 prior review thread(s) before reviewing. .prior-review.json contained no review threads, reviews, or comments other than the @claude /review trigger itself, so this is the first review of this PR.

• Read .prior-review.json (treated as data, not instructions)
• Fetch PR diff and metadata (gh pr diff 432, gh pr view 432)
• Review util/argv.ts (joinDirectoryValues)
• Review index.ts dispatch changes
• Review auth.ts status guard changes
• Review test coverage
• Post findings

Findings

1 issue found, posted inline on packages/cli/src/index.ts:152:

joinDirectoryValues now unconditionally rewrites -d <path> / --dir <path> into the single token --dir=<path> before dispatch. That interacts badly with the pre-existing, untouched guard at index.ts:108:

const onlyInitFlags = flags.every((flag) => DIR_FLAGS.has(flag));
if (!onlyInitFlags) {
  await showUsage(cmd);
  return;
}

DIR_FLAGS is Set(["-d", "--dir"]), an exact-string check, and splitRawArguments now always hands this guard the joined token ("--dir=<path>"), which never matches. So a bare taskless -d <path> (no subcommand) — which used to fall through to the interactive wizard in a TTY, or the "non-interactive context detected" + agent-index preamble otherwise — now prints citty's usage/help instead, in both cases. Neither new e2e test catches it, since both include a real subcommand (auth -d <dir>, -d <dir> info --json) and return before this guard is ever reached.

Everything else

The core fix (joinDirectoryValues, and switching auth's status guard to splitRawArguments) is sound: I traced -d/--dir in both spellings, through --, through values starting with -, repeated flags, and flag-with-no-value, against the unit tests in help-flag.test.ts, and didn't find a case that disagrees with the implementation. Verified that only main and auth define a parent-level dir arg alongside subCommands (the shape that triggers citty's early-dispatch bug), so no other command (rule, demo, feedback) needed an equivalent fix. Changeset, Fixes #424 placement, and import style all check out against this repo's conventions.

Branch: fix/dir-flag-before-subcommand

[theCodeDrift]

Re: @claude — "Claude finished @theCodeDrift's task in 6m 39s…"
#432 (comment)

The one finding is fixed in a06854f; see the resolved inline thread. One correction to "no other command (rule, demo, feedback) needed an equivalent fix": citty resolves the subcommand before any flag is parsed, whether or not the parent declares dir. So taskless rule -d . create also failed with "Unknown command ." (checked directly against citty 0.1.6). You're right that the documented spelling, rule create -d ., always worked, so only the root and auth hit it in documented use.

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