fix: warn when instruction is missing required fields during apm compile

[Alejandro López (alopezsanchez)]

Description

Instructions without applyTo were silently dropped during apm compile in distributed and claude modes because validate_primitives() was only called in the single-file path. This adds validation to all compilation modes and surfaces warnings through the CLI.

• Call validate_primitives() in _compile_distributed() and _compile_claude_md()
• Merge self.warnings into dry-run and normal compilation results
• Remove distributed-mode warning suppression in CLI
• Add unit and CLI integration tests for the warning

Type of change

• Bug fix
• New feature
• Documentation
• Maintenance / refactor

Testing

• Tested locally
• All existing tests pass
• Added tests for new functionality (if applicable)

[Alejandro López (alopezsanchez)]

I'm not sure about this line, but it took me some time to realize that I was missing the applyTo field. The apm compile wasn't adding the instruction to the AGENTS/CLAUDE.md, and I didn't know why.

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Fixes missing validation coverage in apm compile so instructions missing required fields (notably applyTo) are no longer silently dropped in distributed/claude compilation paths, and ensures warnings are surfaced through the CLI.

Changes:

• Run validate_primitives() in distributed and CLAUDE.md compilation paths.
• Merge compiler warnings/errors into compilation results (including dry-run).
• Add unit + CLI integration tests asserting warnings appear when applyTo is missing.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 4 out of 4 changed files in this pull request and generated 5 comments.

File	Description
tests/unit/compilation/test_compile_target_flag.py	Adds CLI-level tests that apm compile emits warnings for missing applyTo in distributed and claude targets.
tests/unit/compilation/test_compilation.py	Adds unit tests ensuring validation warnings propagate through distributed + claude compilation results.
src/apm_cli/compilation/agents_compiler.py	Invokes validation in more compilation modes and merges self.warnings/self.errors into results.
src/apm_cli/commands/compile/cli.py	Always prints warnings regardless of compilation strategy.

[Copilot]

These CLI tests mutate the process working directory, which is easy to get wrong and makes tests harder to compose. Prefer pytest’s monkeypatch.chdir(project_with_bad_instruction) (or CliRunner.isolated_filesystem() plus constructing the project inside it) to keep the cwd change scoped and automatically restored.

[Copilot]

These CLI tests mutate the process working directory, which is easy to get wrong and makes tests harder to compose. Prefer pytest’s monkeypatch.chdir(project_with_bad_instruction) (or CliRunner.isolated_filesystem() plus constructing the project inside it) to keep the cwd change scoped and automatically restored.

Suggested change

	self, runner, project_with_bad_instruction
	):
	"""Test that apm compile --dry-run warns about missing applyTo in distributed mode."""
	original_dir=os.getcwd()
	try:
	os.chdir(project_with_bad_instruction)
	result=runner.invoke(
	cli, ["compile", "--target", "vscode", "--dry-run"]
	)
	assert"applyTo"inresult.output, (
	f"Expected warning about missing 'applyTo' in CLI output, got:\n{result.output}"
	)
	finally:
	os.chdir(original_dir)
	deftest_cli_warns_missing_apply_to_claude(
	self, runner, project_with_bad_instruction
	):
	"""Test that apm compile --target claude --dry-run warns about missing applyTo."""
	original_dir=os.getcwd()
	try:
	os.chdir(project_with_bad_instruction)
	result=runner.invoke(
	cli, ["compile", "--target", "claude", "--dry-run"]
	)
	assert"applyTo"inresult.output, (
	f"Expected warning about missing 'applyTo' in CLI output, got:\n{result.output}"
	)
	finally:
	os.chdir(original_dir)
	self, runner, project_with_bad_instruction, monkeypatch
	):
	"""Test that apm compile --dry-run warns about missing applyTo in distributed mode."""
	monkeypatch.chdir(project_with_bad_instruction)
	result=runner.invoke(cli, ["compile", "--target", "vscode", "--dry-run"])
	assert"applyTo"inresult.output, (
	f"Expected warning about missing 'applyTo' in CLI output, got:\n{result.output}"
	)
	deftest_cli_warns_missing_apply_to_claude(
	self, runner, project_with_bad_instruction, monkeypatch
	):
	"""Test that apm compile --target claude --dry-run warns about missing applyTo."""
	monkeypatch.chdir(project_with_bad_instruction)
	result=runner.invoke(cli, ["compile", "--target", "claude", "--dry-run"])
	assert"applyTo"inresult.output, (
	f"Expected warning about missing 'applyTo' in CLI output, got:\n{result.output}"
	)

[Daniel Meppiel (danielmeppiel)]

Alejandro López (@alopezsanchez) happy to merge after we address the review comments, thank you very much! Will also need to ensure compatibility with claude's "paths" which is equivalent to "applyTo".

[Daniel Meppiel (danielmeppiel)]

Thanks Alejandro López (@alopezsanchez) -- the approach of surfacing validate_primitives() across all compile paths is correct.

I pushed one change to your branch: the warning message for missing applyTo was changed from:

Missing 'applyTo' in frontmatter (required for instructions)

to:

No 'applyTo' pattern specified -- instruction will apply globally

Rationale:applyTo is semantically optional, not required. Instructions without it work correctly across all paths:

• Distributed compile: placed at project root directory
• Claude deploy: becomes an unconditional rule (no paths: key emitted)
• Copilot/Cursor: deployed verbatim, the tool decides scoping

The old message implied applyTo was mandatory, which would confuse users who intentionally write global instructions. The new message is informational -- it tells users what will happen rather than suggesting something is wrong.

Also updated the suggestion helper to offer both options: add applyTo for scoping, or leave as-is for global.