fix(onboard): preserve validation failure exit code

[sandl99]

Summary

Non-interactive onboarding now preserves a non-zero process exit signal when endpoint validation rejects the selected provider. This fixes the invalid NVIDIA API key path where validation printed HTTP 403 but the shell could still observe exit code 0.

Related Issue

Fixes #5721

Changes

• Set process.exitCode = 1 before exiting non-interactive endpoint validation failures.
• Throw after process.exit(1) if an embedding or wrapper returns from process.exit, preventing accidental success completion.
• Added a regression test for the NVIDIA Endpoints HTTP 403 validation path and exit-code contract.

Type of Change

• Code change (feature, bug fix, or refactor)
• Code change with doc updates
• Doc only (prose changes, no code sample modifications)
• Doc only (includes code sample changes)

Verification

• PR description includes the DCO sign-off declaration and every commit appears as Verified in GitHub
• Git hooks passed during commit and push, or npx prek run --from-ref main --to-ref HEAD passes
• Targeted tests pass for changed behavior
• Full npm test passes (broad runtime changes only)
• Tests added or updated for new or changed behavior
• No secrets, API keys, or credentials committed
• Docs updated for user-facing behavior changes
• npm run docs builds without warnings (doc changes only)
• Doc pages follow the style guide (doc changes only)
• New doc pages include SPDX header and frontmatter (new pages only)

---

Signed-off-by: San Dang sdang@nvidia.com

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Bug Fixes
  • Non-interactive validation failures now exit consistently with a non-zero status, helping scripts and automation detect the failure correctly.
  • Failure messages still appear in the console, while sensitive credential details remain hidden.
• Tests
  • Added coverage for non-interactive validation failure handling to verify exit behavior and error reporting.

[github-code-quality]

Code Coverage Overview

Languages: TypeScript

TypeScript / code-coverage/plugin

The overall coverage in the fix/onboard-validati... branch is 96%. Coverage data for the main branch is not yet available.

Show a code coverage summary of the most covered files.

File	main	fix/onboard-validati... d391d20	+/-
nemoclaw/src/se...cret-scanner.ts	—	100%	—
nemoclaw/src/commands/slash.ts	—	100%	—
nemoclaw/src/li...bprocess-env.ts	—	100%	—
nemoclaw/src/bl...eprint/state.ts	—	98%	—
nemoclaw/src/onboard/config.ts	—	98%	—
nemoclaw/src/bl...int/snapshot.ts	—	97%	—
nemoclaw/src/bl...print/runner.ts	—	95%	—
nemoclaw/src/co...ration-state.ts	—	94%	—
nemoclaw/src/bl...ate-networks.ts	—	94%	—
nemoclaw/src/index.ts	—	94%	—

TypeScript / code-coverage/cli

The overall coverage in the fix/onboard-validati... branch is 47%. Coverage data for the main branch is not yet available.

Show a code coverage summary of the most covered files.

File	main	fix/onboard-validati... d391d20	+/-
src/lib/state/o...oard-session.ts	—	91%	—
src/lib/inference/local.ts	—	76%	—
src/lib/actions...dbox/rebuild.ts	—	72%	—
src/lib/sandbox/config.ts	—	72%	—
src/lib/onboard/preflight.ts	—	62%	—
src/lib/actions...licy-channel.ts	—	60%	—
src/lib/state/sandbox.ts	—	56%	—
src/lib/policy/index.ts	—	49%	—
src/lib/onboard...er-gpu-patch.ts	—	47%	—
src/lib/onboard.ts	—	19%	—

---

_{Updated June 26, 2026 02:08 UTC
Code Coverage is in Public Preview. Learn more and provide us with your feedback.}

[coderabbitai]

No actionable comments were generated in the recent review. 🎉

ℹ️ Recent review info

⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: Path: .coderabbit.yaml

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Enterprise

Run ID: d8499a24-3e0c-4f12-9990-5f112eabf679

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 6fb9754 and 2bcb792.

📒 Files selected for processing (2)

• src/lib/onboard/inference-selection-validation.test.ts
• src/lib/onboard/inference-selection-validation.ts

---

📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

Adds exitNonInteractiveValidationFailure() to inference-selection-validation.ts, which sets process.exitCode = 1, calls process.exit(1), and throws. Four validation functions replace their direct process.exit(1) calls with this helper. A new subprocess-based Vitest test verifies the exit code, thrown error, and console output.

Changes

Non-interactive validation exit helper and test

Layer / File(s)	Summary
exitNonInteractiveValidationFailure helper and call-site updates src/lib/onboard/inference-selection-validation.ts	Adds exitNonInteractiveValidationFailure() that sets process.exitCode = 1, calls process.exit(1), and throws. Replaces four direct process.exit(1) calls in validateOpenAiLikeSelection, validateAnthropicSelectionWithRetryMessage, validateCustomOpenAiLikeSelection, and validateCustomAnthropicSelection.
Subprocess test for non-interactive failure src/lib/onboard/inference-selection-validation.test.ts	Generates a Node script that stubs require.cache, runs it in a subprocess, and asserts subprocess exit code 1, the thrown error message, process.exit called with 1, zero prompt-recovery invocations, and the expected console.error lines.

Estimated code review effort

🎯 2 (Simple) | ⏱️ ~10 minutes

Poem

🐇 A rabbit once checked if the exit was right,
Four places that whispered, now shout through the night.
exitCode = 1, a throw, and a call —
No silent exit 0 to slip past us all.
The subprocess confirmed it: the key test stood tall! 🎉

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 4 | ❌ 1

❌ Failed checks (1 warning)

Check name	Status	Explanation	Resolution
Docstring Coverage	⚠️ Warning	Docstring coverage is 0.00% which is insufficient. The required threshold is 80.00%.	Write docstrings for the functions missing them to satisfy the coverage threshold.

✅ Passed checks (4 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title clearly summarizes the main change: preserving a non-zero exit code for validation failures during onboard.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	The PR addresses #5721 by making non-interactive endpoint validation failures exit non-zero and adding a regression test.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	The changes stay focused on onboard validation exit handling and its regression coverage, with no obvious unrelated scope.

_{✏️ Tip: You can configure your own custom pre-merge checks in the settings.}

✨ Finishing Touches

📝 Generate docstrings

• Create stacked PR
• Commit on current branch

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create PR with unit tests
• Commit unit tests in branch fix/onboard-validation-exit-code-5721

---

_{Comment @coderabbitai help to get the list of available commands.}

[github-actions]

E2E Advisor Recommendation

Required E2E: onboard-negative-paths-vitest
Optional E2E: inference-routing-vitest, cloud-onboard-vitest

Dispatch hint: onboard-negative-paths-vitest

Workflow run

Full advisor summary

E2E Recommendation Advisor

Base: origin/main
Head: HEAD
Confidence: high

Required E2E

• onboard-negative-paths-vitest (low): Direct E2E coverage for onboarding invalid-key/non-interactive failure contracts. This PR changes the exact runtime path that should exit non-zero without prompting and without exposing credential details.

Optional E2E

• inference-routing-vitest (medium): Adjacent confidence for invalid-key and unreachable-endpoint classification/cleanup around inference routing. Useful because the changed validation helper feeds endpoint probe failure behavior, but the PR is narrowly focused on onboarding validation exit signaling.
• cloud-onboard-vitest (high): Optional full hosted onboarding smoke to ensure successful provider validation remains intact. The diff primarily affects non-interactive failure handling, so this is useful but not merge-blocking unless maintainers want broader hosted-onboarding confidence.

New E2E recommendations

• None.

Dispatch hint

• Workflow: .github/workflows/e2e-vitest-scenarios.yaml
• jobs input: onboard-negative-paths-vitest

[github-actions]

Vitest E2E Scenario Recommendation

Required Vitest E2E scenarios: onboard-negative-paths-vitest
Optional Vitest E2E scenarios: ubuntu-repo-cloud-openclaw

Dispatch required Vitest E2E scenarios:

• gh workflow run e2e-vitest-scenarios.yaml --ref <pr-head-ref> --field jobs=onboard-negative-paths-vitest

Workflow run

Full Vitest E2E advisor summary

Vitest E2E Scenario Advisor

Base: origin/main
Head: HEAD
Confidence: high

Required Vitest E2E scenarios

• onboard-negative-paths-vitest: The PR changes non-interactive onboarding endpoint validation failure handling and exit signaling. The wired free-standing live Vitest job exercises the invalid-key onboarding negative-path CLI contract that this helper affects.
  • Dispatch: gh workflow run e2e-vitest-scenarios.yaml --ref <pr-head-ref> --field jobs=onboard-negative-paths-vitest

Optional Vitest E2E scenarios

• ubuntu-repo-cloud-openclaw: Optional adjacent coverage for the successful cloud OpenClaw onboarding path that also uses inference endpoint validation, though the PR primarily targets the non-interactive failure path.
  • Dispatch: gh workflow run e2e-vitest-scenarios.yaml --ref <pr-head-ref> --field scenarios=ubuntu-repo-cloud-openclaw

Relevant changed files

• src/lib/onboard/inference-selection-validation.test.ts
• src/lib/onboard/inference-selection-validation.ts

[github-actions]

PR Review Advisor — No blocking findings

Merge posture: No blocking advisor findings
Primary next action: No advisor follow-up required beyond maintainer review.
Open items: 0 required · 0 warnings · 0 suggestions · 0 test follow-ups
Since last review: 0 prior items resolved · 0 still apply · 0 new items found

Workflow run details

This is an automated, non-binding review; it still expects maintainers and agents to respond to each required or warning item. Treat suggestions as current-PR improvements when they touch changed code; defer only with maintainer rationale or a linked follow-up. A human maintainer must make the final merge decision.

[sandl99]

Verified

sdang@sdangvm01:~/NVIDIA/NemoClaw$ NVIDIA_API_KEY='nvapi-invalid-key-12345' nemoclaw onboard --yes --non-interactive --name invalid-key-probe --agent openclaw --fresh 
  [non-interactive] Agent: OpenClaw

  NemoClaw Onboarding
  (non-interactive mode)
  ===================

...

  [3/8] Configuring inference provider
  ──────────────────────────────────────────────────
  [non-interactive] Provider: build
  NVIDIA Endpoints endpoint validation failed.
  Validation probe summary: Chat Completions API: HTTP 403.
  Validation details were omitted to avoid exposing credentials.
sdang@sdangvm01:~/NVIDIA/NemoClaw$ echo "EXIT:$?" 
EXIT:1