bird

Rust CLI for the X (Twitter) API

notable Rust brettdavies/bird
71% pass rate
1/8 principles met

Spec Coverage

How many of the spec's requirements were verified for this tool. See /coverage for the full matrix.

LevelTotalVerifiedUnverified
MUST28199
SHOULD21138
MAY10100

Top Issues

All Audits

P1: Non-Interactive by Default

PASSNon-interactive by default
SKIPNon-interactive gate flag advertised in --helptarget satisfies P1 via alternative gate (help-on-bare or stdin-primary)
PASSFlags advertise env-var bindings in --help
PASSSecret-bearing flags expose stdin or *-file companion
PASS`--help` advertises default values for flags
WARNRich-TUI affordance for TTY contextsno rich-TUI affordance detected (no `--tui`/`--interactive`/`--ui` flag, no spinner/progress/tui mention in --help). MAY-tier — rich TUI in TTY contexts is a nice-to-have, not required.

P2: Structured, Parseable Output

WARNStructured output support--output/--format flag detected but could not validate JSON via safe probes (--help/--version override output flags in most CLIs)
FAILStructured-output CLI exposes its schema at runtimeCLI emits structured output but exposes no `schema` subcommand or `--schema` flag at top level or nested one level deep. Agents need a runtime-discoverable schema to pin against shape changes.
WARN--json / --jsonl short aliases for --outputno --json or --jsonl short alias found. Agents and pipelines benefit from short forms alongside the canonical `--output` enum.
WARN`--raw` flag for pipe-safe unformatted outputno `--raw` flag advertised. MAY-tier — useful for pipelines that want to strip formatting before piping to other tools.
WARN`--output` advertises additional formats beyond text/json`--output` / `--format` flag found but no extra format tokens detected (looked for csv, tsv, yaml, yml, toml, xml, ndjson). MAY-tier — additional formats let downstream agents pick the shape that matches their pipeline.
PASSBad invocation exits with structured usage-error code (2)
FAILErrors emit JSON envelope with `error`/`kind`/`message` under `--output json`bad invocation under `--output json` produced no parseable JSON on stderr or stdout. JSON mode must emit a JSON error envelope, not plain text.
SKIPJSON success and error envelopes share their non-payload key setsuccess-mode probe (`--help --output json`) produced no parseable JSON; cannot compare envelope shapes.

P3: Progressive Help Discovery

PASSHelp flag produces useful output
PASSVersion flag works (`--version` plus short alias)
PASSVersion flag works (`--version` plus short alias)
WARN`examples` subcommand or `--examples` flag for curated usage patternsno `examples` subcommand or `--examples` flag found. MAY-tier — a curated usage block keeps agents from hunting through long help text.
PASSShort `-h` summary differs from `--help` long form
FAILEach subcommand's `--help` ships at least one invocation examplesubcommands missing example invocations in their `--help`: login, me, get, post, put, bookmarks, profile, search, thread, delete, watchlist, usage, tweet, reply, like, unlike, repost, unrepost, follow, unfollow, dm, block, unblock, mute, unmute, doctor, cache. Examples teach agents the call shape faster than option tables; use clap's `after_help` or a dedicated `Examples:` block.
WARNHelp text pairs human and `--output json` example invocationsno 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.

P4: Fail-Fast, Actionable Errors

PASSRejects invalid arguments
PASSError messages include a hint or remediation phrase
WARN`--output json` produces JSON-formatted errorserrors under `--output json` are not JSON-formatted. Consumers parsing stdout-as-JSON cannot recover the failure without a separate text-parsing path; switch the error writer to honor the active output mode.

P5: Safe Retries & Mutation Boundaries

FAILDestructive subcommands require `--force` or `--yes`destructive subcommand(s) without `--force` or `--yes`: delete. Irreversible operations must require explicit confirmation so they can't be invoked accidentally.
PASSRead and write surfaces are both visible in subcommand list

P6: Composable, Predictable Command Structure

PASSHandles SIGPIPE gracefully
SKIPPager-using CLI ships --no-pager escape hatchno pager signal (less/more/$PAGER/--pager) in --help
PASSRespects NO_COLOR
WARNSubcommand verbs follow community-standard names7/29 subcommand(s) follow standard verb names. Non-standard: me, post, put, bookmarks, profile, thread, watchlist, usage, tweet, reply, like, unlike, repost, unrepost, follow, unfollow, dm, block, unblock, mute, unmute, cache. MAY-tier — community-standard verbs (get/list/create/update/delete) help agents predict subcommand behavior across CLIs.
WARN`--color` flag for explicit color controlno `--color` flag advertised. MAY-tier — `auto|always|never` lets agents and pipelines override the TTY-based default.
SKIPInput-accepting commands read from stdin when no file is givenno input-accepting subcommand detected (process/parse/convert/transform/analyze/validate/format/lint/audit); vacuous skip for the conditional SHOULD.
WARNSubcommand naming follows a consistent verb/noun conventionsubcommand naming is inconsistent: 1 non-verb subcommand(s) (watchlist) 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.
PASSOperations are subcommands, not verb-shaped flags

P7: Bounded, High-Signal Responses

PASSQuiet mode available
WARN`--verbose` flag for diagnostic escalationno `--verbose` / `-v` flag advertised. SHOULD-tier — agents debugging failures need a way to escalate diagnostic detail.
WARN`--limit` / `--max-results` flag for list operationslist-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.
WARNCursor-based pagination flags for list traversallist-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 operationslong-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.
PASSHelp text advertises TTY-aware verbosity behavior

P8: Discoverable Through Agent Skill Bundles

PASSSkill 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
0.1.3
Audit date
2026-06-01 17:36:41 UTC
Duration
411ms
Platform
linux/x86_64
Mode
command
Anc build
0.5.0
Install
brew install brettdavies/tap/bird

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