Cli dx improvements

[xav-db]

Greptile Summary

This PR delivers a set of CLI developer-experience improvements: renames helix run to helix start (keeping run as a backward-compatible alias), removes the Dashboard command, adds a new helix skills subcommand for managing agent skills, makes helix chef work without Cloud auth in non-interactive / headless environments, and adds branded help styling and a 24 h skills-update-check alongside the existing binary update check.

• helix run → helix start: All internal call sites updated; #[command(alias = "run")] preserves backward compatibility with scripts and agent muscle memory.
• helix skills command: New install / update / list subcommands wrapping npx skills; helix update and helix init / chef automatically refresh skills after install, with a 24 h GitHub-SHA–based staleness check surfaced on the welcome screen.
• Go SDK conflict handling: ErrConflict sentinel, StatusCode on HelixError, and IsConflict helper added; empty Returning() now serializes as [] instead of null (bug fix in returningVars).
• Rust SDK: Comprehensive rustdoc coverage added to all public types and methods with no logic changes.

Important Files Changed

Filename	Overview
helix-cli/src/main.rs	Major CLI DX overhaul: renames run to start (with backward alias), removes Dashboard, adds Skills command, adds branded help styling, adds hidden removed-command stubs with friendly errors, and parallelizes update checks sequentially (minor latency concern).
helix-cli/src/update.rs	New skills-update-check subsystem: GitHub commits API polling with 24h cache, HELIX_NO_UPDATE_CHECK opt-out, skills_installed() lockfile probe, and record_skills_refreshed() cache reset — all mirroring the existing binary update-check pattern.
helix-cli/src/commands/chef.rs	Cloud auth is now optional in non-interactive / HELIX_SKIP_CLOUD_AUTH environments; snapshot upload is skipped gracefully when credentials are absent, unblocking headless agent runs.
helix-cli/src/commands/skills.rs	New helix skills subcommand (install / update / list) delegating to npx skills; checks for npx presence and returns a helpful error when Node.js is absent.
sdks/go/client.go	Adds ErrConflict sentinel, StatusCode field on HelixError, and IsConflict helper; operator precedence in IsConflict is correct but explicit parentheses would improve readability.
sdks/go/dsl.go	Extracts returningVars helper to ensure empty Returning() calls serialize as [] instead of null — bug fix confirmed by new test.
sdks/go/README.md	Adds conflict-retry guidance and parameter documentation; the ExecWithConflictRetry example has a dead return nil after the loop that is unreachable and potentially misleading.
sdks/rust/src/lib.rs	Comprehensive rustdoc coverage added to all public types and methods; no logic changes.
helix-cli/src/lib.rs	Adds SkillsAction enum and --skills/--no-skills flags to both InitTarget variants, with skills_override() to resolve subcommand-level flags over parent-level flags.
helix-cli/src/setup.rs	Adds list_skills / skills_list_args and updates warning messages to reference helix start; well-tested with new unit tests.

Flowchart

%%{init: {'theme': 'neutral'}}%%
flowchart TD
    A[helix CLI invoked] --> B{top-level help?}
    B -- yes --> C[print_help / exit]
    B -- no --> D[check_for_updates]
    D --> E[check_skills_update]
    E --> F[Cli::parse]
    F --> G{command?}
    G -- none --> H[display_welcome\nupdate + skills notices]
    G -- start / run alias --> I[commands::start::run]
    G -- skills install/update/list --> J[commands::skills::run\nnpx skills ...]
    G -- init local/cloud --> K[commands::init::run\nmaybe_install_tooling]
    G -- chef --> L[commands::chef::run\nskip auth if non-interactive]
    G -- update --> M[commands::update::run\nrefresh_skills_if_installed]
    G -- compile/check/deploy --> N[friendly removed-command error]
    J --> O[crate::setup::install_skills\nor list_skills]
    O --> P[record_skills_refreshed\ndelete skills_cache.toml]

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Comments Outside Diff (1)

1. helix-cli/src/main.rs, line 659-661 (link)

   Sequential network calls add latency to every command

   check_for_updates and check_skills_update are awaited sequentially before Cli::parse(). On a cache-miss day each can block up to 10 s (the reqwest timeout), meaning any command — not just the welcome screen — could stall for up to 20 s once every 24 h. These two independent futures could be parallelized with tokio::join! to cap the overhead at one network round-trip instead of two.

   Note: If this suggestion doesn't match your team's coding style, reply to this and let me know. I'll remember it for next time!

_{Reviews (1): Last reviewed commit: "Enhance Go SDK error handling and query ..." | Re-trigger Greptile}

Greptile also left 1 inline comment on this PR.

[greptile-apps]

Unreachable return nil after the retry loop

On the third iteration (attempt == 2) the condition attempt == 2 is always true, so return err is always hit from inside the loop. The return nil after the loop is dead code and can mislead readers into thinking a third failed conflict can silently succeed — if the last call still errors, that error should be returned.

Suggested change

	func ExecWithConflictRetry(ctx context.Context, client *helix.Client, build func() helix.Request, out any) error {
	for attempt := 0; attempt < 3; attempt++ {
	err := client.Exec(ctx, build(), out)
	if err == nil || !helix.IsConflict(err) || attempt == 2 {
	return err
	}
	time.Sleep(time.Duration(attempt+1) * 50 * time.Millisecond)
	}
	return nil
	}
	func ExecWithConflictRetry(ctx context.Context, client *helix.Client, build func() helix.Request, out any) error {
	const maxAttempts = 3
	var err error
	for attempt := 0; attempt < maxAttempts; attempt++ {
	err = client.Exec(ctx, build(), out)
	if err == nil || !helix.IsConflict(err) {
	return err
	}
	if attempt < maxAttempts-1 {
	time.Sleep(time.Duration(attempt+1) * 50 * time.Millisecond)
	}
	}
	return err
	}