How many of the spec's requirements were verified for this tool. See /coverage for the full matrix.
Level
Total
Verified
Unverified
MUST
28
17
11
SHOULD
21
13
8
MAY
10
10
0
human-tui Scored as a TUI: the non-interactive audits (P1) and the SIGPIPE audit (P6) have been suppressed — TUI apps intercept the TTY by design and install their own signal handlers.
This is an informational signal, not an authoritative verdict — see methodology. The per-audit evidence below is the ground truth.
Top Issues
FAILEach subcommand's `--help` ships at least one invocation exampleProgressive Help Discoverysubcommands missing example invocations in their `--help`: setup, history, import, stats, search, sync, login, logout, register, key, status, account, kv, store, dotfiles, scripts, init, info, doctor, wrapped, daemon, default-config, config, ai, pty-proxy, uuid, contributors, gen-completions. Examples teach agents the call shape faster than option tables; use clap's `after_help` or a dedicated `Examples:` block.
WARNStructured output supportStructured, Parseable Output--output/--format flag detected but could not validate JSON via safe probes (--help/--version override output flags in most CLIs)
2 flag(s) found in --help but no `[env: NAME]` bindings advertised
PASS
Secret-bearing flags expose stdin or *-file companion
WARN
`--help` advertises default values for flags
no default-value annotations found in --help. SHOULD-tier — agents reading help text need to see what value a flag falls back to when omitted (`[default: <value>]` per clap convention).
`examples` subcommand or `--examples` flag for curated usage patterns
no `examples` subcommand or `--examples` flag found. MAY-tier — a curated usage block keeps agents from hunting through long help text.
WARN
Short `-h` summary differs from `--help` long form
`-h` and `--help` produce byte-identical output. SHOULD-tier — clap renders the short summary on `-h` and the full description on `--help` when `long_about` is set; collapsing them gives agents no concise list-level grep target.
FAIL
Each subcommand's `--help` ships at least one invocation example
subcommands missing example invocations in their `--help`: setup, history, import, stats, search, sync, login, logout, register, key, status, account, kv, store, dotfiles, scripts, init, info, doctor, wrapped, daemon, default-config, config, ai, pty-proxy, uuid, contributors, gen-completions. Examples teach agents the call shape faster than option tables; use clap's `after_help` or a dedicated `Examples:` block.
WARN
Help text pairs human and `--output json` example invocations
no paired text + `--output json` example found within 5 lines in top-level or any subcommand `--help`. Pairing keeps agents from reverse-engineering the JSON invocation from the text one.
Destructive subcommands require `--force` or `--yes`
no destructive subcommands detected; MUST applies conditionally to CLIs with destructive operations.
WARN
Read and write surfaces are both visible in subcommand list
read-pattern subcommand(s) present (search) but no write-pattern surface detected. If the CLI is read-only by design the MUST is satisfied vacuously; otherwise the write surface needs an agent-recognizable verb (create/add/update/set/delete/…).
no `--color` flag advertised. MAY-tier — `auto|always|never` lets agents and pipelines override the TTY-based default.
SKIP
Input-accepting commands read from stdin when no file is given
no input-accepting subcommand detected (process/parse/convert/transform/analyze/validate/format/lint/audit); vacuous skip for the conditional SHOULD.
WARN
Subcommand naming follows a consistent verb/noun convention
subcommand naming is inconsistent: 7 non-verb subcommand(s) (history, account, kv, store, daemon, config, ai) mix verb and non-verb children at the second level, so an agent cannot predict where the action lives. SHOULD-tier: pick a consistent shape (all verb-first, all noun-verb hierarchy, or any combination where each non-verb group's children are uniformly verbs). The verb list is a heuristic; inspect `--help` to confirm.
no `--verbose` / `-v` flag advertised. SHOULD-tier — agents debugging failures need a way to escalate diagnostic detail.
WARN
`--limit` / `--max-results` flag for list operations
list-style subcommand present but no limit flag advertised (looked for --limit, --max-results, --max, --top, -n). SHOULD-tier — callers should be able to bound response size directly rather than scrape-then-truncate.
WARN
Cursor-based pagination flags for list traversal
list-style subcommand present but no cursor/page flag advertised (looked for --after, --before, --cursor, --page, --offset). MAY-tier — cursor pagination lets agents traverse large result sets without re-scanning earlier pages.
WARN
`--timeout` flag for long-running operations
long-running subcommand present but no timeout flag advertised (looked for --timeout, --deadline, --max-time). SHOULD-tier — without a bound, agents that hit a hung operation have to enforce timeouts externally.
WARN
Help text advertises TTY-aware verbosity behavior
no TTY-aware language found in `--help`. MAY-tier — automatic verbosity reduction when stdout is piped or redirected lets agents skip the explicit `--quiet` flag. Behavioral probes cannot simulate a real TTY without a pty crate, so this audit relies on documented intent.
Skill bundle has install path (`tool skill install [<host>]`)
PASS
`skill install --all` for multi-runtime install
PASS
`skill update` / `skill upgrade` for bundle refresh
Details
Version scored
18.16.1
Audit date
2026-06-01 17:36:45 UTC
Duration
460ms
Platform
linux/x86_64
Mode
command
Anc build
0.5.0
Install
brew install atuin
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