test(headless): run ordinary CLI command semantics in process

[UncertaintyDeterminesYou4ndMe]

Part of #2387 (Headless workspace; the CLI workspace is #2476 per the issue's separate-PR requirement).

Problem

The Headless suites started a Node subprocess per assertion for scenarios that only exercise argument validation, task-run business logic, and report verdicts. cli.test.ts was the sharpest case: 11 tests, 20 subprocess launches, 21.8s — each launch paying the full module-graph load of the headless CLI to test semantics that runMakaEvalCli already exposes as an exported Promise<number> router.

Change

No production changes. Every conversion goes through an already-exported entry:

• cli.test.ts — 10 of 11 tests run through mapLegacyMakaHeadlessArgs + runMakaEvalCli, the same mapping and router the bin runs, with stdout/stderr captured at the process-stream seam and env overrides applied/restored around the call. The non-Headless-root test keeps the real bin route as the representative wiring contract (real exit code, stack-free stderr hygiene).
• contamination-scan-cli.test.ts — 13 of 14 tests call the script's exported main(argv), with the executable footer's contract mirrored exactly (thrown error → stderr + exit 2, verdict codes returned). The no-argument rejection keeps the real subprocess as representative coverage of the footer itself, including its realpath main-module guard. The --markdown test gains an explicit assert.equal(code, 0) that was previously implicit in execFileAsync not rejecting.
• New shared helper withCapturedProcessIo swaps and restores the process-wide stream writers; safe for the sequential node:test execution these files use.

An earlier revision of this branch also converted three pre-launch validation tests in harness-ab-cli.test.ts; #2462 deleted that suite on main, so that part is gone after rebase.

Deliberately not converted

• runtime-policy-ab-cli.test.ts: its single test is the representative subprocess for run-runtime-policy-ab.mjs, whose main() is not exported — adding an export to shave 0.6s is a production touch the saving does not justify.
• pi-cli-json-transport.test.ts already uses an injected fake child; task-agent-controller/harbor-cell subprocesses are the behavior under test.

Retained process contracts

Suite	Real-subprocess coverage kept
cli.test.ts	bin wiring end to end: legacy mapping, exit code, stack-free stderr (1 test / 2 launches)
contamination-scan-cli.test.ts	executable footer: no-args → exit 2, realpath main-module guard (1 test)

Timing

node --test, same machine, warm build:

file	before	after	spawns
cli.test.js	21.79s	13.12s	20 → 2
contamination-scan-cli.test.js	1.05s	0.63s	14 → 1

The residual 13s in cli.test.js is dominated by one heavy-task journey (7.4s) whose cost is task-run business logic, not startup tax — visible now that the tax is gone.

Tests pass across 3 consecutive rounds after the rebase onto #2462/#2473; typecheck, biome, and knip are clean (knip delta against baseline: run-contamination-scan.mjs moves from unused to used).

Supersedes #2479: that branch predated the #2462 merge and conflicted with it, so GitHub could not build the PR merge commit and never created check suites — which also explains the "CI never triggered" mystery there (my platform-failure guess in its closing comment was wrong).

cc @Astro-Han

[Astro-Han]

Thanks — the boundary split here looks good. Ordinary Headless CLI semantics now use the existing exported entry points, while executable/footer behavior retains representative subprocess coverage. The shared IO helper is small enough as-is, and the heavy-task journey still protects a distinct two-invocation trace contract.

One non-blocking P3 suggestion:

The contamination-scan subprocess coverage now keeps only the no-argument exit 2 path. It no longer exercises a successfully parsed scan whose verdict must make the real executable exit 1. If the footer later regressed to always exit 0, the in-process verdict tests would still pass.

Keeping one “retrieval signal detected → real subprocess exit 1 + stdout report” case would preserve that fail-closed executable contract. If spawn count matters, one of the two similar Headless CLI error-process launches could be moved in process to offset it.

This does not need to block the PR. The current implementation and CI look sufficient to merge. Thanks!

[UncertaintyDeterminesYou4ndMe]

Part of #2387 (Headless workspace; the CLI workspace is #2476 per the issue's separate-PR requirement).

Problem

The Headless suites started a Node subprocess per assertion for scenarios that only exercise argument validation, task-run business logic, and report verdicts. cli.test.ts was the sharpest case: 11 tests, 20 subprocess launches, 21.8s — each launch paying the full module-graph load of the headless CLI to test semantics that runMakaEvalCli already exposes as an exported Promise<number> router.

Change

No production changes. Every conversion goes through an already-exported entry:

• cli.test.ts — 10 of 11 tests run through mapLegacyMakaHeadlessArgs + runMakaEvalCli, the same mapping and router the bin runs, with stdout/stderr captured at the process-stream seam and env overrides applied/restored around the call. The non-Headless-root test keeps the real bin route as the representative wiring contract (real exit code, stack-free stderr hygiene).
• contamination-scan-cli.test.ts — 13 of 14 tests call the script's exported main(argv), with the executable footer's contract mirrored exactly (thrown error → stderr + exit 2, verdict codes returned). The no-argument rejection keeps the real subprocess as representative coverage of the footer itself, including its realpath main-module guard. The --markdown test gains an explicit assert.equal(code, 0) that was previously implicit in execFileAsync not rejecting.
• New shared helper withCapturedProcessIo swaps and restores the process-wide stream writers; safe for the sequential node:test execution these files use.

An earlier revision of this branch also converted three pre-launch validation tests in harness-ab-cli.test.ts; #2462 deleted that suite on main, so that part is gone after rebase.

Deliberately not converted

• runtime-policy-ab-cli.test.ts: its single test is the representative subprocess for run-runtime-policy-ab.mjs, whose main() is not exported — adding an export to shave 0.6s is a production touch the saving does not justify.
• pi-cli-json-transport.test.ts already uses an injected fake child; task-agent-controller/harbor-cell subprocesses are the behavior under test.

Retained process contracts

Suite	Real-subprocess coverage kept
cli.test.ts	bin wiring end to end: legacy mapping, exit code, stack-free stderr (1 test / 2 launches)
contamination-scan-cli.test.ts	executable footer: no-args → exit 2, realpath main-module guard (1 test)

Timing

node --test, same machine, warm build:

file	before	after	spawns
cli.test.js	21.79s	13.12s	20 → 2
contamination-scan-cli.test.js	1.05s	0.63s	14 → 1

The residual 13s in cli.test.js is dominated by one heavy-task journey (7.4s) whose cost is task-run business logic, not startup tax — visible now that the tax is gone.

Tests pass across 3 consecutive rounds after the rebase onto #2462/#2473; typecheck, biome, and knip are clean (knip delta against baseline: run-contamination-scan.mjs moves from unused to used).

Supersedes #2479: that branch predated the #2462 merge and conflicted with it, so GitHub could not build the PR merge commit and never created check suites — which also explains the "CI never triggered" mystery there (my platform-failure guess in its closing comment was wrong).

cc @Astro-Han

[Astro-Han]

Thanks — the boundary split here looks good. Ordinary Headless CLI semantics now use the existing exported entry points, while executable/footer behavior retains representative subprocess coverage. The shared IO helper is small enough as-is, and the heavy-task journey still protects a distinct two-invocation trace contract.

One non-blocking P3 suggestion:

The contamination-scan subprocess coverage now keeps only the no-argument exit 2 path. It no longer exercises a successfully parsed scan whose verdict must make the real executable exit 1. If the footer later regressed to always exit 0, the in-process verdict tests would still pass.

Keeping one “retrieval signal detected → real subprocess exit 1 + stdout report” case would preserve that fail-closed executable contract. If spawn count matters, one of the two similar Headless CLI error-process launches could be moved in process to offset it.

This does not need to block the PR. The current implementation and CI look sufficient to merge. Thanks!

[UncertaintyDeterminesYou4ndMe]

Part of #2387 (Headless workspace; the CLI workspace is #2476 per the issue's separate-PR requirement).

Problem

The Headless suites started a Node subprocess per assertion for scenarios that only exercise argument validation, task-run business logic, and report verdicts. cli.test.ts was the sharpest case: 11 tests, 20 subprocess launches, 21.8s — each launch paying the full module-graph load of the headless CLI to test semantics that runMakaEvalCli already exposes as an exported Promise<number> router.

Change

No production changes. Every conversion goes through an already-exported entry:

• cli.test.ts — 10 of 11 tests run through mapLegacyMakaHeadlessArgs + runMakaEvalCli, the same mapping and router the bin runs, with stdout/stderr captured at the process-stream seam and env overrides applied/restored around the call. The non-Headless-root test keeps the real bin route as the representative wiring contract (real exit code, stack-free stderr hygiene).
• contamination-scan-cli.test.ts — 13 of 14 tests call the script's exported main(argv), with the executable footer's contract mirrored exactly (thrown error → stderr + exit 2, verdict codes returned). The no-argument rejection keeps the real subprocess as representative coverage of the footer itself, including its realpath main-module guard. The --markdown test gains an explicit assert.equal(code, 0) that was previously implicit in execFileAsync not rejecting.
• New shared helper withCapturedProcessIo swaps and restores the process-wide stream writers; safe for the sequential node:test execution these files use.

An earlier revision of this branch also converted three pre-launch validation tests in harness-ab-cli.test.ts; #2462 deleted that suite on main, so that part is gone after rebase.

Deliberately not converted

• runtime-policy-ab-cli.test.ts: its single test is the representative subprocess for run-runtime-policy-ab.mjs, whose main() is not exported — adding an export to shave 0.6s is a production touch the saving does not justify.
• pi-cli-json-transport.test.ts already uses an injected fake child; task-agent-controller/harbor-cell subprocesses are the behavior under test.

Retained process contracts

Suite	Real-subprocess coverage kept
cli.test.ts	bin wiring end to end: legacy mapping, exit code, stack-free stderr (1 test / 2 launches)
contamination-scan-cli.test.ts	executable footer: no-args → exit 2, realpath main-module guard (1 test)

Timing

node --test, same machine, warm build:

file	before	after	spawns
cli.test.js	21.79s	13.12s	20 → 2
contamination-scan-cli.test.js	1.05s	0.63s	14 → 1

The residual 13s in cli.test.js is dominated by one heavy-task journey (7.4s) whose cost is task-run business logic, not startup tax — visible now that the tax is gone.

Tests pass across 3 consecutive rounds after the rebase onto #2462/#2473; typecheck, biome, and knip are clean (knip delta against baseline: run-contamination-scan.mjs moves from unused to used).

Supersedes #2479: that branch predated the #2462 merge and conflicted with it, so GitHub could not build the PR merge commit and never created check suites — which also explains the "CI never triggered" mystery there (my platform-failure guess in its closing comment was wrong).

cc @Astro-Han

[Astro-Han]

Thanks — the boundary split here looks good. Ordinary Headless CLI semantics now use the existing exported entry points, while executable/footer behavior retains representative subprocess coverage. The shared IO helper is small enough as-is, and the heavy-task journey still protects a distinct two-invocation trace contract.

One non-blocking P3 suggestion:

The contamination-scan subprocess coverage now keeps only the no-argument exit 2 path. It no longer exercises a successfully parsed scan whose verdict must make the real executable exit 1. If the footer later regressed to always exit 0, the in-process verdict tests would still pass.

Keeping one “retrieval signal detected → real subprocess exit 1 + stdout report” case would preserve that fail-closed executable contract. If spawn count matters, one of the two similar Headless CLI error-process launches could be moved in process to offset it.

This does not need to block the PR. The current implementation and CI look sufficient to merge. Thanks!

[UncertaintyDeterminesYou4ndMe]

Part of #2387 (Headless workspace; the CLI workspace is #2476 per the issue's separate-PR requirement).

Problem

The Headless suites started a Node subprocess per assertion for scenarios that only exercise argument validation, task-run business logic, and report verdicts. cli.test.ts was the sharpest case: 11 tests, 20 subprocess launches, 21.8s — each launch paying the full module-graph load of the headless CLI to test semantics that runMakaEvalCli already exposes as an exported Promise<number> router.

Change

No production changes. Every conversion goes through an already-exported entry:

• cli.test.ts — 10 of 11 tests run through mapLegacyMakaHeadlessArgs + runMakaEvalCli, the same mapping and router the bin runs, with stdout/stderr captured at the process-stream seam and env overrides applied/restored around the call. The non-Headless-root test keeps the real bin route as the representative wiring contract (real exit code, stack-free stderr hygiene).
• contamination-scan-cli.test.ts — 13 of 14 tests call the script's exported main(argv), with the executable footer's contract mirrored exactly (thrown error → stderr + exit 2, verdict codes returned). The no-argument rejection keeps the real subprocess as representative coverage of the footer itself, including its realpath main-module guard. The --markdown test gains an explicit assert.equal(code, 0) that was previously implicit in execFileAsync not rejecting.
• New shared helper withCapturedProcessIo swaps and restores the process-wide stream writers; safe for the sequential node:test execution these files use.

An earlier revision of this branch also converted three pre-launch validation tests in harness-ab-cli.test.ts; #2462 deleted that suite on main, so that part is gone after rebase.

Deliberately not converted

• runtime-policy-ab-cli.test.ts: its single test is the representative subprocess for run-runtime-policy-ab.mjs, whose main() is not exported — adding an export to shave 0.6s is a production touch the saving does not justify.
• pi-cli-json-transport.test.ts already uses an injected fake child; task-agent-controller/harbor-cell subprocesses are the behavior under test.

Retained process contracts

Suite	Real-subprocess coverage kept
cli.test.ts	bin wiring end to end: legacy mapping, exit code, stack-free stderr (1 test / 2 launches)
contamination-scan-cli.test.ts	executable footer: no-args → exit 2, realpath main-module guard (1 test)

Timing

node --test, same machine, warm build:

file	before	after	spawns
cli.test.js	21.79s	13.12s	20 → 2
contamination-scan-cli.test.js	1.05s	0.63s	14 → 1

The residual 13s in cli.test.js is dominated by one heavy-task journey (7.4s) whose cost is task-run business logic, not startup tax — visible now that the tax is gone.

Tests pass across 3 consecutive rounds after the rebase onto #2462/#2473; typecheck, biome, and knip are clean (knip delta against baseline: run-contamination-scan.mjs moves from unused to used).

Supersedes #2479: that branch predated the #2462 merge and conflicted with it, so GitHub could not build the PR merge commit and never created check suites — which also explains the "CI never triggered" mystery there (my platform-failure guess in its closing comment was wrong).

cc @Astro-Han

[Astro-Han]

Thanks — the boundary split here looks good. Ordinary Headless CLI semantics now use the existing exported entry points, while executable/footer behavior retains representative subprocess coverage. The shared IO helper is small enough as-is, and the heavy-task journey still protects a distinct two-invocation trace contract.

One non-blocking P3 suggestion:

The contamination-scan subprocess coverage now keeps only the no-argument exit 2 path. It no longer exercises a successfully parsed scan whose verdict must make the real executable exit 1. If the footer later regressed to always exit 0, the in-process verdict tests would still pass.

Keeping one “retrieval signal detected → real subprocess exit 1 + stdout report” case would preserve that fail-closed executable contract. If spawn count matters, one of the two similar Headless CLI error-process launches could be moved in process to offset it.

This does not need to block the PR. The current implementation and CI look sufficient to merge. Thanks!

[UncertaintyDeterminesYou4ndMe]

Part of #2387 (Headless workspace; the CLI workspace is #2476 per the issue's separate-PR requirement).

Problem

The Headless suites started a Node subprocess per assertion for scenarios that only exercise argument validation, task-run business logic, and report verdicts. cli.test.ts was the sharpest case: 11 tests, 20 subprocess launches, 21.8s — each launch paying the full module-graph load of the headless CLI to test semantics that runMakaEvalCli already exposes as an exported Promise<number> router.

Change

No production changes. Every conversion goes through an already-exported entry:

• cli.test.ts — 10 of 11 tests run through mapLegacyMakaHeadlessArgs + runMakaEvalCli, the same mapping and router the bin runs, with stdout/stderr captured at the process-stream seam and env overrides applied/restored around the call. The non-Headless-root test keeps the real bin route as the representative wiring contract (real exit code, stack-free stderr hygiene).
• contamination-scan-cli.test.ts — 13 of 14 tests call the script's exported main(argv), with the executable footer's contract mirrored exactly (thrown error → stderr + exit 2, verdict codes returned). The no-argument rejection keeps the real subprocess as representative coverage of the footer itself, including its realpath main-module guard. The --markdown test gains an explicit assert.equal(code, 0) that was previously implicit in execFileAsync not rejecting.
• New shared helper withCapturedProcessIo swaps and restores the process-wide stream writers; safe for the sequential node:test execution these files use.

An earlier revision of this branch also converted three pre-launch validation tests in harness-ab-cli.test.ts; #2462 deleted that suite on main, so that part is gone after rebase.

Deliberately not converted

• runtime-policy-ab-cli.test.ts: its single test is the representative subprocess for run-runtime-policy-ab.mjs, whose main() is not exported — adding an export to shave 0.6s is a production touch the saving does not justify.
• pi-cli-json-transport.test.ts already uses an injected fake child; task-agent-controller/harbor-cell subprocesses are the behavior under test.

Retained process contracts

Suite	Real-subprocess coverage kept
cli.test.ts	bin wiring end to end: legacy mapping, exit code, stack-free stderr (1 test / 2 launches)
contamination-scan-cli.test.ts	executable footer: no-args → exit 2, realpath main-module guard (1 test)

Timing

node --test, same machine, warm build:

file	before	after	spawns
cli.test.js	21.79s	13.12s	20 → 2
contamination-scan-cli.test.js	1.05s	0.63s	14 → 1

The residual 13s in cli.test.js is dominated by one heavy-task journey (7.4s) whose cost is task-run business logic, not startup tax — visible now that the tax is gone.

Tests pass across 3 consecutive rounds after the rebase onto #2462/#2473; typecheck, biome, and knip are clean (knip delta against baseline: run-contamination-scan.mjs moves from unused to used).

Supersedes #2479: that branch predated the #2462 merge and conflicted with it, so GitHub could not build the PR merge commit and never created check suites — which also explains the "CI never triggered" mystery there (my platform-failure guess in its closing comment was wrong).

cc @Astro-Han

[Astro-Han]

Thanks — the boundary split here looks good. Ordinary Headless CLI semantics now use the existing exported entry points, while executable/footer behavior retains representative subprocess coverage. The shared IO helper is small enough as-is, and the heavy-task journey still protects a distinct two-invocation trace contract.

One non-blocking P3 suggestion:

The contamination-scan subprocess coverage now keeps only the no-argument exit 2 path. It no longer exercises a successfully parsed scan whose verdict must make the real executable exit 1. If the footer later regressed to always exit 0, the in-process verdict tests would still pass.

Keeping one “retrieval signal detected → real subprocess exit 1 + stdout report” case would preserve that fail-closed executable contract. If spawn count matters, one of the two similar Headless CLI error-process launches could be moved in process to offset it.

This does not need to block the PR. The current implementation and CI look sufficient to merge. Thanks!

[UncertaintyDeterminesYou4ndMe]

Part of #2387 (Headless workspace; the CLI workspace is #2476 per the issue's separate-PR requirement).

Problem

The Headless suites started a Node subprocess per assertion for scenarios that only exercise argument validation, task-run business logic, and report verdicts. cli.test.ts was the sharpest case: 11 tests, 20 subprocess launches, 21.8s — each launch paying the full module-graph load of the headless CLI to test semantics that runMakaEvalCli already exposes as an exported Promise<number> router.

Change

No production changes. Every conversion goes through an already-exported entry:

• cli.test.ts — 10 of 11 tests run through mapLegacyMakaHeadlessArgs + runMakaEvalCli, the same mapping and router the bin runs, with stdout/stderr captured at the process-stream seam and env overrides applied/restored around the call. The non-Headless-root test keeps the real bin route as the representative wiring contract (real exit code, stack-free stderr hygiene).
• contamination-scan-cli.test.ts — 13 of 14 tests call the script's exported main(argv), with the executable footer's contract mirrored exactly (thrown error → stderr + exit 2, verdict codes returned). The no-argument rejection keeps the real subprocess as representative coverage of the footer itself, including its realpath main-module guard. The --markdown test gains an explicit assert.equal(code, 0) that was previously implicit in execFileAsync not rejecting.
• New shared helper withCapturedProcessIo swaps and restores the process-wide stream writers; safe for the sequential node:test execution these files use.

An earlier revision of this branch also converted three pre-launch validation tests in harness-ab-cli.test.ts; #2462 deleted that suite on main, so that part is gone after rebase.

Deliberately not converted

• runtime-policy-ab-cli.test.ts: its single test is the representative subprocess for run-runtime-policy-ab.mjs, whose main() is not exported — adding an export to shave 0.6s is a production touch the saving does not justify.
• pi-cli-json-transport.test.ts already uses an injected fake child; task-agent-controller/harbor-cell subprocesses are the behavior under test.

Retained process contracts

Suite	Real-subprocess coverage kept
cli.test.ts	bin wiring end to end: legacy mapping, exit code, stack-free stderr (1 test / 2 launches)
contamination-scan-cli.test.ts	executable footer: no-args → exit 2, realpath main-module guard (1 test)

Timing

node --test, same machine, warm build:

file	before	after	spawns
cli.test.js	21.79s	13.12s	20 → 2
contamination-scan-cli.test.js	1.05s	0.63s	14 → 1

The residual 13s in cli.test.js is dominated by one heavy-task journey (7.4s) whose cost is task-run business logic, not startup tax — visible now that the tax is gone.

Tests pass across 3 consecutive rounds after the rebase onto #2462/#2473; typecheck, biome, and knip are clean (knip delta against baseline: run-contamination-scan.mjs moves from unused to used).

Supersedes #2479: that branch predated the #2462 merge and conflicted with it, so GitHub could not build the PR merge commit and never created check suites — which also explains the "CI never triggered" mystery there (my platform-failure guess in its closing comment was wrong).

cc @Astro-Han

[Astro-Han]

Thanks — the boundary split here looks good. Ordinary Headless CLI semantics now use the existing exported entry points, while executable/footer behavior retains representative subprocess coverage. The shared IO helper is small enough as-is, and the heavy-task journey still protects a distinct two-invocation trace contract.

One non-blocking P3 suggestion:

The contamination-scan subprocess coverage now keeps only the no-argument exit 2 path. It no longer exercises a successfully parsed scan whose verdict must make the real executable exit 1. If the footer later regressed to always exit 0, the in-process verdict tests would still pass.

Keeping one “retrieval signal detected → real subprocess exit 1 + stdout report” case would preserve that fail-closed executable contract. If spawn count matters, one of the two similar Headless CLI error-process launches could be moved in process to offset it.

This does not need to block the PR. The current implementation and CI look sufficient to merge. Thanks!

[UncertaintyDeterminesYou4ndMe]

Part of #2387 (Headless workspace; the CLI workspace is #2476 per the issue's separate-PR requirement).

Problem

The Headless suites started a Node subprocess per assertion for scenarios that only exercise argument validation, task-run business logic, and report verdicts. cli.test.ts was the sharpest case: 11 tests, 20 subprocess launches, 21.8s — each launch paying the full module-graph load of the headless CLI to test semantics that runMakaEvalCli already exposes as an exported Promise<number> router.

Change

No production changes. Every conversion goes through an already-exported entry:

• cli.test.ts — 10 of 11 tests run through mapLegacyMakaHeadlessArgs + runMakaEvalCli, the same mapping and router the bin runs, with stdout/stderr captured at the process-stream seam and env overrides applied/restored around the call. The non-Headless-root test keeps the real bin route as the representative wiring contract (real exit code, stack-free stderr hygiene).
• contamination-scan-cli.test.ts — 13 of 14 tests call the script's exported main(argv), with the executable footer's contract mirrored exactly (thrown error → stderr + exit 2, verdict codes returned). The no-argument rejection keeps the real subprocess as representative coverage of the footer itself, including its realpath main-module guard. The --markdown test gains an explicit assert.equal(code, 0) that was previously implicit in execFileAsync not rejecting.
• New shared helper withCapturedProcessIo swaps and restores the process-wide stream writers; safe for the sequential node:test execution these files use.

An earlier revision of this branch also converted three pre-launch validation tests in harness-ab-cli.test.ts; #2462 deleted that suite on main, so that part is gone after rebase.

Deliberately not converted

• runtime-policy-ab-cli.test.ts: its single test is the representative subprocess for run-runtime-policy-ab.mjs, whose main() is not exported — adding an export to shave 0.6s is a production touch the saving does not justify.
• pi-cli-json-transport.test.ts already uses an injected fake child; task-agent-controller/harbor-cell subprocesses are the behavior under test.

Retained process contracts

Suite	Real-subprocess coverage kept
cli.test.ts	bin wiring end to end: legacy mapping, exit code, stack-free stderr (1 test / 2 launches)
contamination-scan-cli.test.ts	executable footer: no-args → exit 2, realpath main-module guard (1 test)

Timing

node --test, same machine, warm build:

file	before	after	spawns
cli.test.js	21.79s	13.12s	20 → 2
contamination-scan-cli.test.js	1.05s	0.63s	14 → 1

The residual 13s in cli.test.js is dominated by one heavy-task journey (7.4s) whose cost is task-run business logic, not startup tax — visible now that the tax is gone.

Tests pass across 3 consecutive rounds after the rebase onto #2462/#2473; typecheck, biome, and knip are clean (knip delta against baseline: run-contamination-scan.mjs moves from unused to used).

Supersedes #2479: that branch predated the #2462 merge and conflicted with it, so GitHub could not build the PR merge commit and never created check suites — which also explains the "CI never triggered" mystery there (my platform-failure guess in its closing comment was wrong).

cc @Astro-Han

[Astro-Han]

Thanks — the boundary split here looks good. Ordinary Headless CLI semantics now use the existing exported entry points, while executable/footer behavior retains representative subprocess coverage. The shared IO helper is small enough as-is, and the heavy-task journey still protects a distinct two-invocation trace contract.

One non-blocking P3 suggestion:

The contamination-scan subprocess coverage now keeps only the no-argument exit 2 path. It no longer exercises a successfully parsed scan whose verdict must make the real executable exit 1. If the footer later regressed to always exit 0, the in-process verdict tests would still pass.

Keeping one “retrieval signal detected → real subprocess exit 1 + stdout report” case would preserve that fail-closed executable contract. If spawn count matters, one of the two similar Headless CLI error-process launches could be moved in process to offset it.

This does not need to block the PR. The current implementation and CI look sufficient to merge. Thanks!

[UncertaintyDeterminesYou4ndMe]

Part of #2387 (Headless workspace; the CLI workspace is #2476 per the issue's separate-PR requirement).

Problem

The Headless suites started a Node subprocess per assertion for scenarios that only exercise argument validation, task-run business logic, and report verdicts. cli.test.ts was the sharpest case: 11 tests, 20 subprocess launches, 21.8s — each launch paying the full module-graph load of the headless CLI to test semantics that runMakaEvalCli already exposes as an exported Promise<number> router.

Change

No production changes. Every conversion goes through an already-exported entry:

• cli.test.ts — 10 of 11 tests run through mapLegacyMakaHeadlessArgs + runMakaEvalCli, the same mapping and router the bin runs, with stdout/stderr captured at the process-stream seam and env overrides applied/restored around the call. The non-Headless-root test keeps the real bin route as the representative wiring contract (real exit code, stack-free stderr hygiene).
• contamination-scan-cli.test.ts — 13 of 14 tests call the script's exported main(argv), with the executable footer's contract mirrored exactly (thrown error → stderr + exit 2, verdict codes returned). The no-argument rejection keeps the real subprocess as representative coverage of the footer itself, including its realpath main-module guard. The --markdown test gains an explicit assert.equal(code, 0) that was previously implicit in execFileAsync not rejecting.
• New shared helper withCapturedProcessIo swaps and restores the process-wide stream writers; safe for the sequential node:test execution these files use.

An earlier revision of this branch also converted three pre-launch validation tests in harness-ab-cli.test.ts; #2462 deleted that suite on main, so that part is gone after rebase.

Deliberately not converted

• runtime-policy-ab-cli.test.ts: its single test is the representative subprocess for run-runtime-policy-ab.mjs, whose main() is not exported — adding an export to shave 0.6s is a production touch the saving does not justify.
• pi-cli-json-transport.test.ts already uses an injected fake child; task-agent-controller/harbor-cell subprocesses are the behavior under test.

Retained process contracts

Suite	Real-subprocess coverage kept
cli.test.ts	bin wiring end to end: legacy mapping, exit code, stack-free stderr (1 test / 2 launches)
contamination-scan-cli.test.ts	executable footer: no-args → exit 2, realpath main-module guard (1 test)

Timing

node --test, same machine, warm build:

file	before	after	spawns
cli.test.js	21.79s	13.12s	20 → 2
contamination-scan-cli.test.js	1.05s	0.63s	14 → 1

The residual 13s in cli.test.js is dominated by one heavy-task journey (7.4s) whose cost is task-run business logic, not startup tax — visible now that the tax is gone.

Tests pass across 3 consecutive rounds after the rebase onto #2462/#2473; typecheck, biome, and knip are clean (knip delta against baseline: run-contamination-scan.mjs moves from unused to used).

Supersedes #2479: that branch predated the #2462 merge and conflicted with it, so GitHub could not build the PR merge commit and never created check suites — which also explains the "CI never triggered" mystery there (my platform-failure guess in its closing comment was wrong).

cc @Astro-Han

[Astro-Han]

Thanks — the boundary split here looks good. Ordinary Headless CLI semantics now use the existing exported entry points, while executable/footer behavior retains representative subprocess coverage. The shared IO helper is small enough as-is, and the heavy-task journey still protects a distinct two-invocation trace contract.

One non-blocking P3 suggestion:

The contamination-scan subprocess coverage now keeps only the no-argument exit 2 path. It no longer exercises a successfully parsed scan whose verdict must make the real executable exit 1. If the footer later regressed to always exit 0, the in-process verdict tests would still pass.

Keeping one “retrieval signal detected → real subprocess exit 1 + stdout report” case would preserve that fail-closed executable contract. If spawn count matters, one of the two similar Headless CLI error-process launches could be moved in process to offset it.

This does not need to block the PR. The current implementation and CI look sufficient to merge. Thanks!