feat: passthrough fallback when Clap parse fails + review fixes by guillaumedeslandes · Pull Request #200 · rtk-ai/rtk

guillaumedeslandes · 2026-02-18T14:41:27Z

Summary

Graceful fallback: when Clap can't parse a command (e.g. git -C /path status), RTK executes the raw command instead of erroring out
Guard RTK meta-commands (gain, discover, learn, init, config, proxy, hook-audit, cc-economics) from falling through to raw $PATH execution — bad flags like rtk gain --badtypo show the Clap error directly
Fix timer placement so fallback commands capture actual execution time in rtk gain --history (was showing ~0ms)
Add 90-day retention cleanup to record_parse_failure() (parse_failures table was never cleaned up)
Strip ANSI codes from Clap errors before storing in SQLite
Fix smoke test: cargo test assertion now matches RTK's filtered output, fix undefined skip → skip_test calls

Test plan

425 unit tests pass (cargo test)
90/90 smoke tests pass, 0 failed (bash scripts/test-all.sh)
rtk gain --badtypo shows Clap error (not "command not found")
rtk git -C /path status falls back to raw git -C /path status
rtk --help and rtk --version still work normally

Fixes #204, #228, #229

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

pszymkowiak · 2026-02-20T15:46:41Z

Tested locally — solid approach, needs rebase + 2 fixes before merge.

Testing results:

387/387 unit tests pass
82/83 smoke tests pass (1 fail due to branch being behind master)
Manual testing confirms fallback works correctly for git -C, git --no-pager, grep -E
Normal RTK-filtered commands (git status, git log, --help, --version) unaffected

Must fix:

Rebase on master — branch is 2 commits behind (missing v0.22.0/0.22.1), cargo test count mismatch
Guard RTK meta-commands from fallback — rtk gain --badtypo currently tries to execute a gain binary from $PATH before showing the Clap error. Add a check for known RTK-only subcommands
(gain, discover, learn, init, config, proxy, hook-audit, cc-economics) and show the Clap error directly for those.

Nice to have (non-blocking):

Timer starts after command completes — all fallback commands show ~0ms in rtk gain --history. Move TimedExecution::start() before the .status() call.
parse_failures table never gets cleaned up (only record() calls cleanup_old(), not record_parse_failure())
Strip ANSI codes from Clap error before storing in SQLite (utils::strip_ansi already exists)

This will fix #204, #228, #229 and any future unknown-flag issues globally. Great work!

guillaumedeslandes · 2026-02-23T14:22:45Z

Tested locally — solid approach, needs rebase + 2 fixes before merge.

Testing results:

387/387 unit tests pass

82/83 smoke tests pass (1 fail due to branch being behind master)

Manual testing confirms fallback works correctly for git -C, git --no-pager, grep -E

Normal RTK-filtered commands (git status, git log, --help, --version) unaffected

Must fix:

Rebase on master — branch is 2 commits behind (missing v0.22.0/0.22.1), cargo test count mismatch

Guard RTK meta-commands from fallback — rtk gain --badtypo currently tries to execute a gain binary from $PATH before showing the Clap error. Add a check for known RTK-only subcommands
(gain, discover, learn, init, config, proxy, hook-audit, cc-economics) and show the Clap error directly for those.

Nice to have (non-blocking):

Timer starts after command completes — all fallback commands show ~0ms in rtk gain --history. Move TimedExecution::start() before the .status() call.

parse_failures table never gets cleaned up (only record() calls cleanup_old(), not record_parse_failure())

Strip ANSI codes from Clap error before storing in SQLite (utils::strip_ansi already exists)

This will fix #204, #228, #229 and any future unknown-flag issues globally. Great work!

@pszymkowiak Rebased and implemented requested changes.
Please note that I had to modify scripts/test-all.sh in last commit.

…tk-ai#217, rtk-ai#196, rtk-ai#248, rtk-ai#211, rtk-ai#200, rtk-ai#192, rtk-ai#268) Wave 1 (critical bugs): - fix(registry): fi/done moved to IGNORED_EXACT — find no longer shadowed (rtk-ai#246) - fix(playwright): f64 duration, specs[] structure, --reporter=json after subcmd (rtk-ai#193) - fix(gh): should_passthrough_gh_view for --json/--jq/--template/--web in view_pr/issue/run (rtk-ai#217+196) Wave 2 (reliability): - fix(git): is_blob_show_arg — blob show passthrough without trailing-newline trim (rtk-ai#248) - fix(find): parse_find_args with native -name/-type/-maxdepth/-iname support (rtk-ai#211) - fix(main): graceful Clap fallback + parse_failures SQLite table + rtk gain --failures (rtk-ai#200) Wave 3 (UX): - feat(git): global options -C/-c/--git-dir/--work-tree/--no-pager/--no-optional-locks/--bare/--literal-pathspecs (rtk-ai#192) - feat(proxy): streaming output via spawn()+threads instead of buffered output() (rtk-ai#268) Tests: 1091 → 1117 (+26), 0 regressions Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

pszymkowiak · 2026-02-28T19:24:57Z

Please rebase on master before we can merge — there are conflicts in src/main.rs and src/tracking.rs.

When RTK cannot parse a command (e.g. `rtk git -C /path status`), instead of exiting with error code 2, it now falls back to running the raw command directly. This keeps developer workflows unbroken. - Replace Cli::parse() with try_parse() + run_fallback() - Add parse_failures SQLite table for failure analytics - Add `rtk gain --failures` / `-F` to view failure log - Fallback preserves stdin/stdout/stderr via Stdio::inherit() - --help and --version still work normally Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

When Clap fails to parse a meta-command like `rtk gain --badtypo`, show the Clap error directly instead of trying to execute `gain` as a binary from $PATH. Adds RTK_META_COMMANDS constant listing gain, discover, learn, init, config, proxy, hook-audit, cc-economics. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

TimedExecution::start() was called after the command finished, so all fallback commands showed ~0ms in rtk gain --history. Now the timer captures actual command runtime. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

The parse_failures table was never cleaned up because only record() called cleanup_old(). Now parse failures also trigger 90-day retention cleanup. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

Clap errors may contain terminal color codes. Strip them with utils::strip_ansi() before storing in the parse_failures table to avoid garbled output and wasted space. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

- cargo test check now matches RTK's filtered output format ("passed") in addition to raw "test result:" and "FAILURES" - Fix undefined `skip` calls to use existing `skip_test` function with proper (name, reason) arguments Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

Upstream v0.23.0 release bumped Cargo.toml version and added mypy_cmd module. Update docs to match for CI validation. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

guillaumedeslandes · 2026-03-01T11:56:13Z

Please rebase on master before we can merge — there are conflicts in src/main.rs and src/tracking.rs.

@pszymkowiak Done.

pszymkowiak · 2026-03-02T09:50:31Z

Hi, this PR has conflicts with master in src/main.rs and src/tracking.rs. Could you rebase on current master? Thanks!

pszymkowiak · 2026-03-04T09:38:15Z

Tested locally — all good.

441/441 tests pass
git -C . status → fallback works, runs raw command correctly
gain --badtypo → Clap error shown (meta-command guard works)
--help / --version → normal behavior, no fallback
grep -E "pattern" → falls back to raw grep (fixes find and grep commands fail (unexpected argument '-n' found) #204, grep: unexpecter argument #229)
gain --failures → shows parse failure analytics
Unknown binary → graceful fallback then Clap error

All review items addressed (must-fix and nice-to-have). LGTM, ready to merge.

pszymkowiak added the awaiting-changes label Feb 20, 2026

Shankhara mentioned this pull request Feb 20, 2026

Hook: find/grep rewrite breaks on native flags — workaround with smart translation #236

Open

guillaumedeslandes force-pushed the feat/passthrough-fallback branch from 0c07be2 to 8142173 Compare February 23, 2026 14:10

guillaumedeslandes changed the title ~~feat: passthrough fallback when Clap parse fails~~ feat: passthrough fallback when Clap parse fails + review fixes Feb 23, 2026

guillaumedeslandes and others added 7 commits March 1, 2026 12:45

fix: move timer start before command execution in fallback

24bfd69

TimedExecution::start() was called after the command finished, so all fallback commands showed ~0ms in rtk gain --history. Now the timer captures actual command runtime. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

fix: add cleanup_old() call to record_parse_failure()

7088483

The parse_failures table was never cleaned up because only record() called cleanup_old(). Now parse failures also trigger 90-day retention cleanup. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

fix: strip ANSI codes from Clap error before SQLite storage

d2b38fb

Clap errors may contain terminal color codes. Strip them with utils::strip_ansi() before storing in the parse_failures table to avoid garbled output and wasted space. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

chore: fmt upstream files after rebase

a888f02

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

guillaumedeslandes force-pushed the feat/passthrough-fallback branch from c9816a5 to a888f02 Compare March 1, 2026 11:46

fix: update version refs to 0.23.0 and module count to 51

7eac292

Upstream v0.23.0 release bumped Cargo.toml version and added mypy_cmd module. Update docs to match for CI validation. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

pszymkowiak removed the awaiting-changes label Mar 4, 2026

pszymkowiak added the DONE_REVIEW label Mar 4, 2026

pszymkowiak merged commit 772b501 into rtk-ai:master Mar 4, 2026
3 checks passed

github-actions bot mentioned this pull request Mar 4, 2026

chore(master): release 0.24.0 #302

Merged

BrewTestBot mentioned this pull request Mar 4, 2026

rtk 0.24.0 Homebrew/homebrew-core#270575

Merged

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feat: passthrough fallback when Clap parse fails + review fixes#200

feat: passthrough fallback when Clap parse fails + review fixes#200
pszymkowiak merged 8 commits intortk-ai:masterfrom
guillaumedeslandes:feat/passthrough-fallback

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guillaumedeslandes commented Feb 18, 2026 •

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