Problem Statement

The cubemastercli template commands are the primary interface for users to create, monitor, and manage CubeSandbox templates. While the server-side logic is mature and feature-complete, the CLI's user-facing experience for template creation is still in a very primitive state. This creates a steep learning curve for new users and a frustrating experience for operators managing long-running template builds.

The core issue is that backend API responses are directly piped to the terminal without any user-experience layer. There is no visualization of progress, no interactive guidance, no friendly error handling, and no structured summary upon completion.

Current Behavior

1. No Interactive Wizard

template create-from-image exposes 20+ flags. New users must read documentation and memorize all parameters upfront. There is no --interactive or wizard mode.

$ cubemastercli template create-from-image
Error: image is required

2. Primitive Progress Display

Backend async jobs have a rich 6-phase pipeline (PULLING -> UNPACKING -> BUILDING_EXT4 -> DISTRIBUTING -> CREATING_TEMPLATE -> READY), but the CLI only prints a plain number:

job_id: job-abc-123
status: RUNNING
phase: DISTRIBUTING
progress: 70%

No progress bar, no stage indicator, no node-level distribution status.

3. Cluttered Watch Output

template watch polls every 2 seconds and prints the entire job object on every state change, flooding the terminal with repetitive text:

job_id: job-abc-123
status: RUNNING
phase: DISTRIBUTING
progress: 70%
distribution: 1/3 ready, 0 failed

job_id: job-abc-123
status: RUNNING
phase: CREATING_TEMPLATE
progress: 85%
distribution: 3/3 ready, 0 failed

4. No Intermediate Feedback for Sync Commands

template create is a synchronous HTTP call. During the potentially multi-second (or longer) server-side snapshot execution, the terminal is completely blank.

5. Unfriendly Error Messages

Parameter validation returns bare strings:

return errors.New("image is required")

Server-side errors are passed through unmodified:

return errors.New(rsp.Ret.RetMsg)

There is no error classification, no remediation hints, no links to documentation.

6. No Completion Summary

When a job succeeds, the output is still a flat key-value dump. There is no structured success panel showing build time, ready nodes, or suggested next commands.

7. No Color or Visual Hierarchy

The entire CLI uses raw fmt.Printf. Success/failure/warning states are indistinguishable. The myPrint utility prefixes errors with nanosecond timestamps, which is noise for end users:

2024-01-15T10:30:45.123456789Z,template create request err. connection refused. RequestId: abc-123

8. Confusing Parameter Syntax

CubeVS flags support both --flag=value and trailing positional boolean arguments, but the error message on misuse is unhelpful:

unexpected positional or trailing argument %q

Expected Behavior / Proposed Improvements

High Priority

1. Visual Progress Tracking

   • Replace plain progress: 70% with a real-time progress bar.
   • Show the current phase as a step indicator (e.g., [3/6] Building ext4 rootfs...).
   • In watch mode, use ANSI cursor control to refresh a single terminal region instead of re-printing the full job object.

2. Friendly Error Handling

   • Classify errors (validation, network, server, permission, resource).
   • Print remediation suggestions and related CLI commands.
   • Surface the RequestID prominently for log correlation.

Medium Priority

3. Interactive Wizard Mode (--interactive)

   • For create-from-image, create, and commit commands.
   • Step-by-step prompts with defaults, input validation, and a final confirmation preview.
   • Gracefully degrade to non-interactive mode in CI pipelines.

4. Completion Summary Panel

   • On success: highlight template_id, build time, ready node count, and suggest next commands (sandbox create, template info, template render).
   • On failure: show the failing phase, error message, and retry command.

5. Terminal Beautification

   • Introduce a consistent color scheme (green for success, red for error, yellow for warning, blue for info).
   • Remove or demote nanosecond timestamps from user-facing output (keep them in a --debug or log mode).
   • Use bold text and box-drawing characters for structured panels.

Low Priority / Future

6. Real-time Push Instead of Polling
   • Long-term: consider WebSocket or SSE from the server so watch can receive true real-time updates instead of 2-second polling.

Relevant Code Locations

Environment

• CLI Framework: github.com/urfave/cli v1.22.14
• Current UI Libraries: None (no color, no progress bar, no prompt library, no TUI framework)
• Affected Commands: template create, template create-from-image, template commit, template redo, template watch, template build-watch

Additional Context

This issue is opened to gather community feedback before implementation begins. The work can be broken into independent phases (beautification -> progress visualization -> interactive wizard -> completion summaries), making it suitable for incremental contributions.

If you are interested in contributing, please comment below with the phase or sub-feature you'd like to work on, and we can coordinate.