fix(onboard): downgrade Brave validation failure from fatal to warning in non-interactive mode

src/lib/onboard.ts

@@ -1390,11 +1390,11 @@ async function configureWebSearch(
     note("  [non-interactive] Brave Web Search requested.");
     const validation = validateBraveSearchApiKey(braveApiKey);
     if (!validation.ok) {
-      console.error("  Brave Search API key validation failed.");
+      console.warn("  ⚠ Brave Search API key validation failed — web search will be disabled.");
       if (validation.message) {
-        console.error(`  ${validation.message}`);
+        console.warn(`  ${validation.message}`);
       }
-      process.exit(1);
+      return null;
     }
     saveCredential(webSearch.BRAVE_API_KEY_ENV, braveApiKey);
     process.env[webSearch.BRAVE_API_KEY_ENV] = braveApiKey;

test/brave-validation-skip.test.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,150 @@
+// SPDX-FileCopyrightText: Copyright (c) 2026 NVIDIA CORPORATION & AFFILIATES. All rights reserved.
+// SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+
+import { spawnSync } from "node:child_process";
+import fs from "node:fs";
+import os from "node:os";
+import path from "node:path";
+import { fileURLToPath } from "node:url";
+import { describe, it, expect, afterEach } from "vitest";
+
+const __filename = fileURLToPath(import.meta.url);
+const __dirname = path.dirname(__filename);
+const repoRoot = path.resolve(__dirname, "..");
+
+describe("configureWebSearch non-interactive Brave validation failure", () => {
+  const tmpFiles: string[] = [];
+
+  afterEach(() => {
+    for (const f of tmpFiles) {
+      try {
+        fs.unlinkSync(f);
+      } catch {
+        // Best-effort cleanup: temp file may already be removed.
+      }
+    }
+    tmpFiles.length = 0;
+  });
+
+  it("returns null instead of exiting when Brave API key validation fails", () => {
+    const tmpDir = fs.mkdtempSync(path.join(os.tmpdir(), "brave-skip-"));
+    const scriptPath = path.join(tmpDir, "test-brave-skip.mjs");
+    tmpFiles.push(scriptPath);
+
+    // Script that imports configureWebSearch with mocked runCurlProbe
+    const script = `
+import { createRequire } from "node:module";
+const require = createRequire(import.meta.url);
+const Module = require("module");
+
+// Intercept require to mock runCurlProbe
+const origResolve = Module._resolveFilename;
+Module._resolveFilename = function(request, parent, isMain, options) {
+  return origResolve.call(this, request, parent, isMain, options);
+};
+
+// We need to patch the onboard module after loading.
+// Load the compiled module and call configureWebSearch.
+const onboard = require("${repoRoot.replace(/\\/g, "/")}/dist/lib/onboard.js");
+
+// Mock the validation function by patching the module-level function.
+// configureWebSearch calls validateBraveSearchApiKey internally,
+// which calls runCurlProbe which calls spawnSync(curl, ...).
+// We mock spawnSync at the child_process level.
+const cp = require("node:child_process");
+const origSpawnSync = cp.spawnSync;
+cp.spawnSync = function(cmd, args, opts) {
+  // When curl is called for Brave validation, return a 429 error
+  if (cmd === "curl" && args && args.some(a => typeof a === "string" && a.includes("brave.com"))) {
+    return {
+      status: 0,
+      stdout: '{"type":"ErrorResponse","error":{"status":429,"detail":"Rate limit exceeded"}}',
+      stderr: "",
+    };
+  }
+  return origSpawnSync.call(this, cmd, args, opts);
+};
+
+async function main() {
+  const result = await onboard.configureWebSearch(null);
+  // If we reach here, process.exit was NOT called
+  console.log("RESULT:" + JSON.stringify(result));
+  process.exit(0);
+}
+
+main().catch(err => {
+  console.error("ERROR:" + err.message);
+  process.exit(2);
+});
+`;
+
+    fs.writeFileSync(scriptPath, script);
+
+    const result = spawnSync(process.execPath, [scriptPath], {
+      cwd: repoRoot,
+      encoding: "utf-8",
+      timeout: 15_000,
+      env: {
+        ...process.env,
+        HOME: tmpDir,
+        BRAVE_API_KEY: "test-invalid-key-12345",
+        NEMOCLAW_NON_INTERACTIVE: "1",
+      },
+    });
+
+    // Should exit 0, not 1
+    expect(result.status).toBe(0);
+
+    // Should return null (skip web search)
+    expect(result.stdout).toContain("RESULT:null");
+
+    // Should print a warning about validation failure
+    expect(result.stderr).toContain("Brave Search API key validation failed");
+
+    // Cleanup tmpDir
+    fs.rmSync(tmpDir, { recursive: true, force: true });
+  });
+
+  it("skips Brave web search when no BRAVE_API_KEY is set", () => {
+    const tmpDir = fs.mkdtempSync(path.join(os.tmpdir(), "brave-none-"));
+    const scriptPath = path.join(tmpDir, "test-brave-none.mjs");
+    tmpFiles.push(scriptPath);
+
+    const script = `
+import { createRequire } from "node:module";
+const require = createRequire(import.meta.url);
+const onboard = require("${repoRoot.replace(/\\/g, "/")}/dist/lib/onboard.js");
+
+async function main() {
+  const result = await onboard.configureWebSearch(null);
+  console.log("RESULT:" + JSON.stringify(result));
+  process.exit(0);
+}
+
+main().catch(err => {
+  console.error("ERROR:" + err.message);
+  process.exit(2);
+});
+`;
+
+    fs.writeFileSync(scriptPath, script);
+
+    const result = spawnSync(process.execPath, [scriptPath], {
+      cwd: repoRoot,
+      encoding: "utf-8",
+      timeout: 15_000,
+      env: {
+        ...process.env,
+        HOME: tmpDir,
+        NEMOCLAW_NON_INTERACTIVE: "1",
+        // No BRAVE_API_KEY set
+      },
+    });
+
+    // Should exit 0 and return null (no Brave key → skip)
+    expect(result.status).toBe(0);
+    expect(result.stdout).toContain("RESULT:null");
+
+    fs.rmSync(tmpDir, { recursive: true, force: true });
+  });
+});