fix(cli): report sandbox-first grammar for a bare sandbox action

[gaveezy]

Outcome

A bare sandbox-scoped action such as nemoclaw doctor now reports the required nemoclaw <name> doctor grammar instead of claiming that a sandbox named doctor is missing. The diagnostic renders only registered route tokens, so arbitrary arguments, credentials, control characters, and unbounded input cannot reach terminal or CI logs.

Reason

The previous name-first dispatch interpreted an exact sandbox action as a sandbox name and sent readers toward onboarding rather than explaining the command grammar.

Related issues

Related to #10212. This PR delivers the accepted diagnostic slice only; it does not add a global nemoclaw doctor command and does not close the issue.

Changes

• Share registered sandbox-route matching with the public argument translator, including legacy action aliases.
• Report sandbox-first grammar for exact sandbox actions while preserving global-command and live action-named sandbox precedence.
• Keep bare action diagnostics side-effect free by returning before registry recovery.
• Distinguish published sandboxes from onboarding reservations. Pending setup tells readers to wait or resume interrupted onboarding with nemoclaw onboard --resume.
• Recover a live sandbox named after an action through the normal public dispatch boundary when an explicit sandbox action follows it.
• Add 15 issue-linked regression cases covering single- and multi-token routes, legacy aliases, published and pending registries, name-first recovery, global-command precedence, and omission of flags, credentials, newlines, ESC bytes, and long untrusted arguments.

Verification

• npx vitest run --project integration test/cli/dispatch-basics.test.ts -t '#10212' — 15 passed on dd955420471d555cd0771b1f5817abd59cbf3541.
• npm run validate:pr — passed on dd955420471d555cd0771b1f5817abd59cbf3541; this includes pre-commit, Conventional Commit, and path-scoped pre-push checks.
• npm run typecheck:cli — passed.
• npm --prefix nemoclaw run typecheck — plugin production and test TypeScript checks passed after installing the locked package dependencies.
• Automation / PR Review Advisor — all nine specialists completed successfully on dd955420471d555cd0771b1f5817abd59cbf3541; every review concluded that no change is required.
• GitHub reports every commit in the PR as verified.
• The final diff contains no secrets, API keys, or credentials.

Review notes

The blocking security finding on bdf6649 was valid. The final implementation never renders caller-supplied action arguments; every displayed route token comes from the registered command table. Regression cases cover credential-shaped input, newline injection, ESC bytes, and long input.

The final recovery behavior keeps grammar errors side-effect free while preserving a live sandbox whose name matches an action. The recovered doctor status case proves dispatch reaches sandbox:status. The pending-onboarding message uses the supported nemoclaw onboard --resume recovery path.

---

Signed-off-by: Hai Nguyen haingu@nvidia.com
Signed-off-by: Prekshi Vyas prekshiv@nvidia.com

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📒 Files selected for processing (3)

• src/lib/cli/public-argv-translation.ts
• src/lib/cli/public-dispatch.ts
• test/cli/dispatch-basics.test.ts

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• test/cli/dispatch-basics.test.ts

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---

📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

The CLI now matches registered sandbox routes, separates published and pending sandbox registrations, and generates action-first scope diagnostics. Registry recovery preserves name-first routing when sandbox names match actions. Tests cover hint sanitization, registration states, suggestion suppression, and precedence.

Changes

Sandbox action dispatch behavior

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Registered sandbox route matching src/lib/cli/public-argv-translation.ts	The exported matchSandboxRoute returns the longest registered sandbox route. Argument translation uses the shared matcher.
Action-first dispatch and recovery src/lib/cli/public-dispatch.ts	Dispatch separates published and pending registrations. Recognized action-first inputs receive scoped guidance. Registry recovery preserves name-first routing for matching sandbox names.
Dispatch diagnostic coverage test/cli/dispatch-basics.test.ts	Tests cover bounded hints, registered and pending sandboxes, two-token actions, suggestion suppression, and literal or recovered sandbox names matching actions.

Estimated code review effort: 3 (Moderate) | ~20 minutes

Merge Risk: ⚪ Minimal · up to 9800e

This localized CLI change corrects sandbox-first grammar and dispatch handling while preserving precedence and input-safety behavior; the reported checks pass, and no actionable merge-blocking risk remains.

Sequence Diagram(s)

sequenceDiagram
  participant CLI
  participant PublicDispatch
  participant matchSandboxRoute
  participant SandboxRegistry
  CLI->>PublicDispatch: submit sandbox action input
  PublicDispatch->>matchSandboxRoute: match route tokens
  matchSandboxRoute-->>PublicDispatch: return registered route or null
  PublicDispatch->>SandboxRegistry: recover known sandbox or action
  SandboxRegistry-->>PublicDispatch: return registration state
  PublicDispatch-->>CLI: render scope diagnostic or preserve name-first dispatch

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Suggested reviewers: hunglp6d, sandl99, laitingsheng

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 4 | ❌ 1

❌ Failed checks (1 warning)

Check name	Status	Explanation	Resolution
Docstring Coverage	⚠️ Warning	Docstring coverage is 40.00% which is insufficient. The required threshold is 80.00%. Docstring coverage is scoped to functions touched by this diff. Analyzed 15 functions across 4 files.	Write docstrings for the functions missing them to satisfy the coverage threshold.

✅ Passed checks (4 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title clearly identifies the primary CLI change: reporting sandbox-first grammar for a bare sandbox action. It is concise and consistent with the dispatch and diagnostic updates.

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Code Coverage Overview

Languages: TypeScript

TypeScript / code-coverage/plugin

The overall line coverage in commit dd95542 in the fix/sandbox-first-gr... branch remains at 96%, unchanged from commit aeb6328 in the main branch.

TypeScript / code-coverage/cli

The overall line coverage in commit dd95542 in the fix/sandbox-first-gr... branch remains at 84%, unchanged from commit 2b7ae7f in the main branch.

Show a line coverage summary of the most impacted files.

File	main 2b7ae7f	fix/sandbox-first-gr... dd95542	+/-
src/lib/onboard...press-resume.ts	78%	76%	-2%
src/lib/inference/local.ts	81%	81%	0%
src/lib/inferen...ving/catalog.ts	87%	87%	0%
src/lib/onboard...uild-context.ts	74%	75%	+1%
src/lib/inferen...ing/resolver.ts	94%	95%	+1%
src/lib/inferen.../vllm-models.ts	93%	95%	+2%
src/lib/onboard...tup-nim-flow.ts	64%	67%	+3%
src/lib/cli/pub...-translation.ts	70%	74%	+4%
src/lib/inferen...ed-selection.ts	91%	97%	+6%
src/lib/inferen...verification.ts	0%	97%	+97%

---

_{Updated September 01, 2026 20:51 UTC}

[gaveezy]

@coderabbitai review

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Actionable comments posted: 1

🧹 Nitpick comments (1)

test/cli/dispatch-basics.test.ts (1)

734-746: 🎯 Functional Correctness | 🔵 Trivial | ⚡ Quick win

Verify that recovery reaches the sandbox action.

This test checks that recovery runs and that the scope diagnostic is absent. It does not prove that the recovered doctor sandbox reaches sandbox:status. A regression that returns early or dispatches a different action would still pass. Assert the command boundary exposed by test/support/public-dispatch-test-harness.ts:56-187, as the literal-name test does, or assert another observable result.

As per path instructions, tests under test/ should prefer observable outcomes through the public boundary over source-text, private-shape, or mock-call assertions.

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In `@test/cli/dispatch-basics.test.ts` around lines 734 - 746, Strengthen the test
“recovers a live sandbox named after an action before reporting scope (`#10212`)”
by asserting the observable sandbox:status dispatch result through the public
boundary exposed by the test harness, rather than relying on
recoverRegistryEntries call counts or stderr absence. Preserve the recovered
“doctor” sandbox setup and verify that dispatch reaches the sandbox action as
the literal-name test does.

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Inline comments:
In `@src/lib/cli/public-dispatch.ts`:
- Around line 278-281: Update the argument formatting used by the
sandbox-command hint near CLI_NAME so remainingArgs are shell-escaped
individually before joining, preserving spaces, quotes, metacharacters, and
empty arguments; retain the existing omission when there are no remaining
arguments, and add a regression case covering an argument containing whitespace.

---

Nitpick comments:
In `@test/cli/dispatch-basics.test.ts`:
- Around line 734-746: Strengthen the test “recovers a live sandbox named after
an action before reporting scope (`#10212`)” by asserting the observable
sandbox:status dispatch result through the public boundary exposed by the test
harness, rather than relying on recoverRegistryEntries call counts or stderr
absence. Preserve the recovered “doctor” sandbox setup and verify that dispatch
reaches the sandbox action as the literal-name test does.

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[sandl99]

Blocking security finding at src/lib/cli/public-dispatch.ts:289-292 on commit bdf6649:

printSandboxScopeHint now writes every trailing argument to stderr. shellQuote preserves credential text, control characters, and the complete input length. It protects a copied command from shell interpretation, but it does not redact the diagnostic or make terminal output safe.

A mistaken nemoclaw exec ... invocation can therefore expose a provider credential in captured terminal or CI logs. An argument that contains a newline or ESC byte can also add misleading diagnostic lines or alter terminal output.

Please render only the matched registered route and omit arbitrary action arguments. If the hint must include arguments, fully redact credential-bearing values, escape control characters, and bound the displayed length before console.error. Add negative tests for a credential-shaped argument, newline and ESC characters, and long input.

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[gaveezy]

Thanks — the finding is valid. I reproduced all four cases on bdf6649 before changing anything:

$ nemoclaw exec -- curl -H "Authorization: Bearer nvapi-SECRET12345"
  Run: nemoclaw <name> exec -- curl -H 'Authorization: Bearer nvapi-SECRET12345'

$ nemoclaw exec "$(printf 'x\n  Sandbox alpha was destroyed.')"
  Run: nemoclaw <name> exec 'x
  Sandbox alpha was destroyed.'

$ nemoclaw exec "$(printf '\033[31mRED')"      # shown through cat -v
  Run: nemoclaw <name> exec '^[[31mRED'

$ nemoclaw exec "$(head -c 4000 /dev/zero | tr '\0' A)"
  printed line length: 4029

Your reading of shellQuote is correct. It protects a copied command from shell interpretation and does nothing for log or terminal safety.

Fixed in 0364f982 with your first option. matchSandboxRoute in src/lib/cli/command-registry.ts matches the typed tokens against the registered sandbox routes, and the hint renders the matched route. Every printed token now comes from the command registry, so no action argument reaches the diagnostic:

$ nemoclaw exec -- curl -H "Authorization: Bearer nvapi-SECRET12345"
  Run: nemoclaw <name> exec

$ nemoclaw exec "$(printf 'x\n  Sandbox alpha was destroyed.')"
  Run: nemoclaw <name> exec

A multi-token route stays complete, because the route comes from the registry rather than from the reader's tokens:

policy list        ->  Run: nemoclaw <name> policy list
channels status    ->  Run: nemoclaw <name> channels status
snapshot create    ->  Run: nemoclaw <name> snapshot create
doctor --json      ->  Run: nemoclaw <name> doctor
policy not-a-verb  ->  Run: nemoclaw <name> policy

Negative tests in test/cli/dispatch-basics.test.ts cover the cases you asked for:

• omits a credential-bearing action argument from the hint (#10212)
• omits a newline argument that would forge a diagnostic line (#10212)
• omits an escape byte that would rewrite terminal output (#10212)
• bounds the hint length for a long action argument (#10212)
• renders the registered route for an unregistered trailing token (#10212)
• omits a flag argument from the sandbox-first grammar hint (#10212)

Removing the argument path also removed the shellQuote import, so src/lib/core/shell-quote.ts keeps its previous fan-in and ci/source-architecture-budget.json is now identical to main.

One behavior change to confirm: the hint no longer echoes a flag, so nemoclaw doctor --json reports Run: nemoclaw <name> doctor. I chose the registry-only route over redacting arguments, because redaction would still need control-character escaping and a length bound on untrusted text.

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Approved at exact head dd95542. All current review feedback is addressed, the sole inline thread is resolved, the fresh PR Review Advisor completed all nine specialists cleanly, and all required and relevant non-E2E checks pass.