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Nested extension failures suggest irrelevant missing flags instead of preserving tracker recovery #505
Description
Problem
When an extension command internally invokes another pm command and that nested command fails with tracker_not_initialized, the outer error recovery can invent an unrelated missing option from the nested invocation.
Observed with pm CLI 2026.7.10 and pm-todos:
pm --pm-path /tmp/work/.agents/pm todos import input.jsonl --format jsonl --upsert --json
The importer internally runs pm --pm-path ... --json list-all --limit 10000. Because the supplied tracker path was not initialized, the nested command correctly returned tracker_not_initialized. The outer command_failed envelope then added:
{
"missing": ["--limit"],
"suggested_retry": "pm ... todos import ... --limit <value>"
}--limit is not an importer flag and cannot fix the failure. The correct recovery is to initialize or correct --pm-path, already present in the nested error.
Expected agent UX
- Preserve the nested typed error code/recovery (
tracker_not_initialized) when wrapping extension command failures. - Do not infer top-level missing flags from a nested command’s normalized/provided fields.
- If wrapping is unavoidable, omit
missing/suggested_retryunless the missing option belongs to the user-invoked command contract. - Include the authoritative tracker root returned by
pm initin the retry example.
Why this matters
Agents are likely to follow structured suggested_retry fields verbatim. The current output wastes tokens and sends them toward an invalid command instead of the actual context/storage fix.
Reproduction context
- pm CLI:
2026.7.10 - Node:
22.19.0 - Extension command path:
todos import - Nested command:
list-all --limit 10000
Activity
coderabbitai commentedon Jul 10, 2026
🔗 Related PRs
#136 - Add package install recovery and collision plans [closed]
#142 - Guard pm tracker path targeting for agents [closed]
#418 - Refactor residual CodeFactor complexity hotspots [merged]
#428 - Harden SDK extension runtime packaging [merged]
#475 - Improve package install and annotation agent UX [merged]
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unbraind commentedon Jul 10, 2026
Additional reproduction of the same recovery-composition bug: an
audit_update_restricted_optionserror correctly said--replace-tests/--testwere forbidden with--allow-audit-update, but the outer recovery addedmissing: ["--unset"]and suggested appending--unset <value>. That retry is unrelated and would not remove the restricted options. This reinforces that inferred missing flags should be suppressed whenever a typed inner error already provides authoritative next steps.unbraind commentedon Jul 11, 2026
Fixed by #511 and merged to main in f1dafef. The implementation passed 5,533 tests at exact 100/100/100/100 coverage plus all required CI, security, static, smoke, and bot-review gates.
unbraind commentedon Jul 11, 2026
pm tracker item:
pm-o71e— Nested extension failures suggest irrelevant missing flags instead of preserving tracker recovery #505: nested extension failures suggest irrelevant missing flags instead of preserving tracker recovery