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fix(cli,vscode): quote for cmd.exe, and stop keeping four copies of the rule - #661
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…he rule quoteShellArg wrapped paths in POSIX single quotes. cmd.exe does not strip them: it hands them to the program verbatim, so a single-quoted path fails as soon as it contains a space. Measured on Windows 11 with node 24.14.0: node 'C:\dir with space\e.js' -> MODULE_NOT_FOUND, quotes included in the path node "C:\dir with space\e.js" -> runs Double quotes are understood by cmd.exe, PowerShell and bash alike, so they are the only portable choice there. POSIX keeps single quotes, which suppress every expansion where double quotes do not. Nothing here is executed by us. The quoted string is written into generated agent context and into CLI hints, for a person or an agent to paste into whatever shell they happen to have, which on Windows is often cmd.exe. The same three-line function was defined four times, all byte-identical and all wrong the same way, which is why the blast radius reached update-ai, promote, sync-manager and the extension. The three copies inside packages/cli collapse onto packages/cli/src/utils/shell.ts. The extension keeps its own: a three-line pure function is not worth widening the n8nac public type surface across a package boundary, and the comment there says so and points at the canonical one. The sync-manager tests pinned the single-quoted form. They now build the expectation from the helper instead of restating it, so the quoting style stays the helper's business. Known ceiling, written into the helper rather than pretended away: on Windows a value containing $ or a backtick still expands under PowerShell and bash. Both are legal in Windows filenames and no escaping satisfies all three shells at once. Closes #658
📝 WalkthroughWalkthroughThe CLI now uses shared platform-aware shell quoting and adds a best-effort published-version notice to ChangesCLI behavior updates
Priority: ➖ Normal Estimated code review effort: 3 (Moderate) | ~25 minutes Change: Bug fix · Severity of issue fixed: Medium Merge Risk: 🔵 Low · up to A temporary dist-tag rollback can tell users to install an older CLI version. This is a bounded notification error but should be corrected before release. 🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 3 | ❌ 2❌ Failed checks (2 warnings)
✅ Passed checks (3 passed)
Full details: Out of Scope Changes checkExplanation The pull request adds an update notice in Full details: Docstring CoverageExplanation Docstring coverage is 60.00% which is insufficient. The required threshold is 80.00%. Docstring coverage is scoped to functions touched by this diff. Analyzed 15 functions across 9 files. (1 skipped: 1 unsupported.)
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Documentation Validation✅ Documentation validation passed! The documentation changes look good. Once merged, the documentation will be automatically deployed to GitHub Pages. Workflow: Documentation #34612913503 |
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In `@packages/cli/src/utils/shell.ts`:
- Line 22: Update quoteShellArg to define or support its target shell
explicitly; for cmd.exe, prevent environment-variable expansion of %...% and
delayed !...! tokens, or narrow the helper contract and remove claims that
Windows values require no escaping. Add Windows coverage verifying literal
percent and exclamation-mark values remain unchanged.
In `@packages/vscode-extension/src/extension.ts`:
- Around line 2453-2454: Update the Windows command-quoting logic around the
visible process.platform win32 branch so generated paths remain literal through
cmd.exe parsing, including percent expansion and delayed exclamation-mark
expansion; prefer avoiding shell parsing where feasible, otherwise apply
cmd.exe-specific escaping to localCliPath and siblingManagerCliPath. Add Windows
regression coverage for paths containing literal % and ! characters.
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packages/cli/src/commands/promote.tspackages/cli/src/commands/update-ai.tspackages/cli/src/core/services/sync-manager.tspackages/cli/src/utils/shell.tspackages/cli/tests/unit/shell.test.tspackages/cli/tests/unit/sync-manager.test.tspackages/vscode-extension/src/extension.ts
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Review point, and it is right: double quotes group an argument, they do not stop cmd.exe expanding it. Measured: "C:\dir\%VAR%\b.js" -> %VAR% expands, with or without the quotes "C:\dir\!VAR!\b.js" -> expands too, when delayed expansion is on The old comment claimed Windows values need no escaping. That was about the double quote character, which Windows forbids in a path, but it read as a guarantee about expansion and there is none. No escaping fixes it. %% is batch-file syntax a prompt takes literally, ^ is inert inside quotes, and either would corrupt the same string under PowerShell and bash, where $ and a backtick expand instead. One string cannot be safe in three shells at once, so the contract now says what it covers and tells callers to prefer a relative path in generated text. Worth noting the hazard is not new: the single-quoted form this PR replaces expanded %VAR% in cmd.exe exactly the same way, and failed on spaces as well. Two test cases pin the behaviour: a Windows value carrying % and ! passes through unchanged, and the POSIX branch does suppress $ expansion.
Nothing in this repo ever compared the installed CLI against the registry. That was survivable while generated agent instructions ran `npx --yes n8nac@<tag>`: npx re-resolved the dist tag on every single call, so an agent silently ran the newest publish and nobody had to think about versions. Naming a local install is roughly eight times faster per call but pins the version, so the invisible update is gone and something has to say so out loud. One dim line on stderr at the end of a successful `update-ai`, which is exactly the moment the agent context is regenerated and already the command that knows both the version and the dist tag. It reads about 80 bytes from the registry's dist-tags document, not a packument. Everything about it is best-effort: a three-second abort signal, and a catch that swallows offline, refused, malformed and unexpected alike. `update-ai` is documented as never throwing and that stays true. Respects the opt-outs that already exist rather than inventing one — `CI=true` and `DO_NOT_TRACK=1`, both already read by the telemetry package — plus `NO_UPDATE_NOTIFIER`, the de-facto standard name for this specific check. Silent under `--silent`, and silent in a dev checkout, where a maintainer on a locally bumped version should not be told to update. No semver dependency: a plain inequality against the dist tag is enough for a hint, and skipping dev checkouts removes the only case where it could read backwards. The dev-checkout probe that `inferFastCliCommand` had inline is now a named function, since two callers need it. Closes #660
The check opts out on NO_UPDATE_NOTIFIER, DO_NOT_TRACK and CI, but an opt-out nobody can find is not an opt-out. Put in troubleshooting rather than the CLI Update section, which #657 is currently rewriting.
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Inline comments:
In `@packages/cli/src/utils/version-check.ts`:
- Line 56: Update the version comparison in the version-check logic to parse and
compare published and current versions semantically, returning true only when
the published version is newer; preserve the existing string/type guard. Add a
regression test covering a rollback from current version 2.7.1 to published
version 2.7.0, ensuring no update is reported.
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Closes #658.
quoteShellArgwrapped paths in POSIX single quotes.cmd.exedoes not strip them, so the program receives the quotes as part of the path and fails the moment it contains a space.Measured on Windows 11, node 24.14.0:
cmd.exeNothing here is executed by us. The quoted string is written into generated agent context and into CLI hints, for a person or an agent to paste into whatever shell they have. On Windows that is often
cmd.exe.Four copies, one rule
The same three-line function was defined four times, byte-identical and wrong the same way, which is why it reached
update-ai,promote,sync-managerand the extension at once. The three insidepackages/clinow callpackages/cli/src/utils/shell.ts.The extension keeps its own copy, fixed identically. A three-line pure function is not worth widening the
n8nacpublic type surface across a package boundary, and the comment there says so and points at the canonical one.Tests
Four new cases in
packages/cli/tests/unit/shell.test.ts, covering both branches and the embedded-quote escape.They are written with an explicit
BACKSLASHconstant rather than source escapes. That is deliberate, and it is not stylistic: while writing this change a tool silently ate one backslash from both the implementation and the test at the same time, so the test agreed with a broken implementation and passed. A literal that cannot be reshaped removes that failure mode.The two
sync-managertests that pinned the single-quoted form now build their expectation from the helper instead of restating it, so the quoting style stays the helper's business.Known ceiling
Written into the helper rather than pretended away: on Windows a value containing
$or a backtick still expands under PowerShell and bash. Both are legal in Windows filenames, and no escaping satisfiescmd.exe, PowerShell and bash at once. Emit a relative path where you can.Checks
packages/cli: 450 tests pass, typecheck clean. The extension package does not compile in my worktree for unrelated reasons, a stalen8naclink; error count is identical before and after this change.🤖 Generated with Claude Code
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New Features
Bug Fixes
Documentation
Tests