CLI Go preview audit: 8 findings in v0.7.17-preview

Summary

A clean-room audit of the Go CLI preview found eight issues. Testing was against staging only; no comparison with the older CLI was made.

Environment: appwrite 0.7.17-preview · Go 1.26.5 · macOS arm64 · FRA staging
Coverage: 593/593 leaf-command help contracts passed; 372 verdict-bearing live invocations; disposable resources and project cleaned up.

Findings

1. Create timeout hides a successful mutation

$ appwrite organization create-project \
    --project-id 'unique()' --name 'CLI Go Preview Audit' \
    --region fra --organization-id <ORG_ID> --json
✗ Error: Post "https://cloud.staging.appwrite.io/v1/organization/projects": \
  context deadline exceeded (Client.Timeout exceeded while awaiting headers)

$ appwrite organization list-projects --organization-id <ORG_ID> --json
# The new project is present with a creation timestamp matching the timed-out call.

This is an uncertain mutation outcome: retrying the reported failure can duplicate side effects. The CLI should reconcile the resource after a timeout or clearly flag the outcome as unknown.

2. Function/site directory auto-packaging is broken

Help says a directory passed to --code is automatically packaged, but both commands try to read it as a file:

$ appwrite functions create-deployment \
    --function-id audit-function --code audit-function \
    --entrypoint main.js --activate
✗ Error: read .../audit-function: is a directory

$ appwrite sites create-deployment \
    --site-id audit-site --code audit-site --activate
✗ Error: read .../audit-site: is a directory

Prebuilding the archive works:

$ tar -czf audit-function.tar.gz -C audit-function .
$ appwrite functions create-deployment \
    --function-id audit-function --code audit-function.tar.gz \
    --entrypoint main.js --activate
# Success

3. Activity/log list endpoints return HTTP 500

$ appwrite activities list-events --verbose
$ appwrite users list-logs --user-id audit-user --verbose
$ appwrite account list-logs --verbose

✗ Error: Server Error
status: 500
{"message":"Server Error","code":500,"type":"general_unknown","version":"1.9.6"}

Other list endpoints using the same authenticated context succeed.

4. TablesDB bulk row creation returns HTTP 500

Single-row create/update/upsert and bulk delete pass, but bulk create fails:

$ appwrite tablesdb create-rows \
    --database-id audit-db --table-id audit-table \
    --rows '{"$id":"row-one","title":"first","score":10}' \
           '{"$id":"row-two","title":"second","score":20}' \
    --verbose

✗ Error: Server Error
status: 500
{"message":"Server Error","code":500,"type":"general_unknown","version":"1.9.6"}

The CLI request encoding should match the bulk endpoint schema; malformed input should produce a useful 4xx rather than a generic 500.

5. Specification discovery disagrees with create validation

$ appwrite functions list-specifications --json
# Includes: {"slug":"s-1vcpu-512mb", ..., "enabled":true}

$ appwrite functions create \
    --function-id audit-function --name Audit --runtime node-22 \
    --build-specification s-1vcpu-512mb \
    --runtime-specification s-1vcpu-512mb --enabled

✗ Error: Invalid `buildSpecification` param: Specification must be one of:
  s-2vcpu-2gb, s-2vcpu-4gb, s-4vcpu-4gb

The same mismatch occurs for sites. Switching both specs to s-2vcpu-2gb succeeds.

6. init skill --force is not headless

$ appwrite init skill --force
ℹ Info: Fetching available Appwrite skills ...
✗ Error: "Which skills would you like to install?" needs an answer \
  but there is no interactive terminal

There is no command-specific --all or repeatable --skill flag. --force should have defined non-interactive behavior, or selection flags should be exposed for CI.

7. GraphQL query help/input contract is misleading

$ appwrite graphql query --help
Execute a GraphQL mutation.

$ appwrite graphql query --query 'query { project { _id name } }'
✗ Error: expected JSON ... invalid character 'q' looking for beginning of value

A JSON envelope succeeds:

$ appwrite graphql query \
    --query '{"query":"query { project { _id name } }"}' --json
# Success

The description should say query, and help should document the envelope—or the CLI should wrap raw GraphQL automatically.

8. Preview update notice points to the stable channel

$ appwrite sessions
⚠️  A newer version is available: 0.7.17-preview → 25.1.0
💡 Run 'appwrite update' to update to the latest version.

Following this prompt can replace the preview build currently under test. Update checks should respect an explicit preview/stable channel or clearly state the channel transition.

Expected outcome

• Reconcile or explicitly report unknown outcomes for timed-out mutations.
• Package directory inputs as documented.
• Remove the reproducible 500s and provide useful validation errors.
• Keep advertised specs and accepted specs consistent.
• Document or implement headless, GraphQL, and update-channel behavior.

Start by reproducing the reported failures with the listed CLI entry points, especially functions/sites create-deployment, tablesdb create-rows, graphql query, and init skill --force. Trace each command's request and validation path; done means the eight findings are either fixed or explicitly documented, including safe timeout handling, directory packaging, useful errors, consistent specifications, headless behavior, GraphQL help, and channel-aware updates.