Error on bare group commands with explicit flags

[jeremy]

Summary

• basecamp cards --in myproject (and similar bare group invocations with explicit flags) silently showed help text and exited 0 — the user expected an action or at least a clear error
• Root cause: Cobra returns nil for non-runnable commands, consuming flags but doing nothing with them
• The help function now detects explicit local flags on bare group commands and suppresses output; Execute() converts to a "subcommand required" usage error with non-zero exit
• Groups stay non-runnable (no RunE set), PersistentPreRunE never fires for them, and explicit --help always renders help regardless of other flags

Test plan

• TestBareGroupWithFlagsSuppressesHelp — cards --in, cards --project, messages --in all suppress help and are detected
• TestBareGroupWithoutFlagsShowsHelp — bare cards still renders help normally
• TestBareGroupWithFlagsAndHelpShowsHelp — cards --in X --help renders help (explicit --help wins)
• All existing help tests pass (JSON help, parent-scoped flags, aliases, etc.)
• 290 e2e tests pass
• check-bare-groups.sh passes — groups remain non-runnable in source

---

Summary by cubic

Fixes bare group commands with explicit flags (e.g., basecamp cards --in myproject) that previously printed help and exited 0. Now they return a clear “subcommand required” usage error and exit non-zero; explicit --help still shows help.

• Bug Fixes
  • Suppress help for bare group commands when local flags are set; Execute() emits a usage error and non-zero exit, and suppression runs before --agent/--json handling to avoid mixed output.
  • Explicit --help always renders help, even with other flags.
  • Groups remain non-runnable; PersistentPreRunE does not run for them.

^{Written for commit d43dafd. Summary will update on new commits.}

[chatgpt-codex-connector]

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[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This PR improves CLI UX by turning “bare group command + explicit flags” invocations (e.g., basecamp cards --in myproject) from a silent help+exit-0 outcome into a proper “subcommand required” usage error with a non-zero exit code.

Changes:

• Suppress help rendering for non-runnable group commands when local flags were explicitly set (so Cobra doesn’t print help and still return nil).
• In cli.Execute(), detect this “bare group with flags” case (when ExecuteC() returns nil) and convert it into an ErrUsageHint error.
• Add help-layer tests for suppression vs. normal help behavior (and explicit --help winning).

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 3 out of 3 changed files in this pull request and generated 1 comment.

File	Description
internal/cli/root.go	Converts Cobra’s nil result for bare non-runnable groups-with-flags into a non-zero usage error.
internal/cli/help.go	Adds detection logic (isBareGroupWithFlags) and suppresses help output for the problematic invocation style.
internal/cli/help_test.go	Adds regression tests for bare group behavior with/without flags and with explicit --help.

---

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[cubic-dev-ai]

1 issue found across 3 files

Prompt for AI agents (unresolved issues)

Check if these issues are valid — if so, understand the root cause of each and fix them. If appropriate, use sub-agents to investigate and fix each issue separately.


<file name="internal/cli/help.go">

<violation number="1" location="internal/cli/help.go:35">
P2: The `isBareGroupWithFlags` check is positioned after the `--agent`/`--json` machine-help branches. For a bare group invocation like `cards --in myproject --json`, the `--json` branch will emit structured help output and return, then `Execute()` will detect `isBareGroupWithFlags` and produce a usage error — resulting in mixed machine output (help payload followed by error). Move the `isBareGroupWithFlags` check before the machine-help emission branches so that suppression takes effect regardless of output format flags.</violation>
</file>

_{Reply with feedback, questions, or to request a fix. Tag @cubic-dev-ai to re-run a review.}

[github-actions]

⚠️ Potential breaking changes detected:

• The change introduces an error condition when a bare group command is used with explicit flags (e.g., 'command-group --flag value'). Previously, this might have resulted in suppressed help output, but now it produces a usage error. This alters behavior for scripts or users relying on the previous handling of such cases, potentially breaking compatibility.

Review carefully before merging. Consider a major version bump.