Three findings, all real.
1. The secret-scan snippet swallowed the CLI's exit code. `out=$(…)`
with no status capture means a non-matching `grep` returns 1, the
`if` is simply not taken, and the step exits 0 even though the tool
call failed — the scan silently becomes the only assertion. Under
`set -e` the opposite happens: the script dies at the assignment and
never scans the error output, which is exactly where a leaked
credential is most likely to appear. Now captures with `|| status=$?`,
scans, then propagates, with a callout explaining both failure modes.
2. `@2` is a major-version range, not a pin, and it was written directly
under a sentence claiming it pinned the version. Both occurrences now
use an exact published release (2.5.0, the current `latest`), and the
prerequisites note says outright that a range is not a pin. `--yes`
added to the prerequisite form so an unattended job cannot hang on
the first-run install prompt.
3. `--stored-auth-only` was described as failing when the store has no
token. It is a no-op against a server that never challenges — the
guide's own verification run passed with an empty store against a
non-auth server. Reworded to say exit 3 happens only when a challenge
cannot be satisfied, and added the way to actually assert that
authentication happened: one run with an isolated empty
MCP_STORAGE_DIR that requires exit 3.
Both corrected shell snippets were executed: secret+failure exits 1,
failure without a secret propagates exit 4.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01KsKC3HniVF9dCZtDVbYp5B
Signed-off-by: cliffhall <cliff@futurescale.com>
Adds `docs/cli-smoke-testing.md` — a copyable connect → list → call →
assert workflow for testing an arbitrary MCP server from a shell or a CI
job, plus index rows in the root README and a pointer from the CLI
README.
The gap this fills is a user-facing one. `clients/cli/README.md` is a
flag reference and `scripts/smoke-cli.mjs` is an internal end-to-end
check of the launcher → CLI path; neither tells someone how to compose
those flags into a check they run on every commit against their own
server.
Covers, in order: connecting over stdio/HTTP/SSE (including the `--`
separator, which splits the opposite way under `--cli`); `--format json`
and its `{result[, appInfo]}` envelope; asserting a tool exists with
`jq -e`; one representative `tools/call` and the `--tool-arg` vs
`--tool-args-json` coercion difference; the exit-code map and how to
branch on it; keeping OAuth non-interactive with `--stored-auth-only`
and an isolated `MCP_STORAGE_DIR`; and negative assertions — refusals,
a secret-shape scan of captured output, and `--strict` schema
portability. Ends with a complete script and a GitHub Actions job.
Every command and output shape in the guide was verified against the
bundled composable test servers over both stdio and HTTP rather than
transcribed from the reference, which corrected three claims that would
otherwise have shipped wrong:
- `--tool-arg zip=012` does not send `12`. `012` is not valid JSON, so
it is sent as the literal string. The real trap is `zip=10001`, which
does coerce to a number and is then rejected by a string schema.
- `if ! cmd; then status=$?` yields `0`, because `!` inverts the
pipeline's status — every failure class would look identical. The
guide uses `|| status=$?` and says why.
- The sample script does not report a failure class on its own; that is
the opt-in `case` block from §5.
The §8 script was run end to end against a live HTTP test server, and
exits 0/3/4/5/6 were each reproduced against a real server.
Closes#1886
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01KsKC3HniVF9dCZtDVbYp5B
Signed-off-by: cliffhall <cliff@futurescale.com>
