Disable long option abbreviation (`--destructive` vs `--destructive-mode`)

Metadata

Project: craft-cli
Number: #261
Type: issue
State: open
Author: mattculler
Labels: —
Created: 2024-07-12 07:16 PM UTC
Updated: 2025-03-10 06:59 PM UTC
Closed: —

Current evaluation

Long-option abbreviation remains enabled in _CustomArgumentParser, allowing prefixes such as --destructive to match longer options; the issue is open and awaiting triage.

Suggested action: needs triage

Reason: The body provides an exact remedy, allow_abbrev=False, and a concrete prefix-collision example, while current dispatcher.py still constructs _CustomArgumentParser without that setting and the repository contains no allow_abbrev usage or matching fix commit. The change is small but potentially affects consumers relying on abbreviations or grouped short options, so compatibility tests are advisable; with no labels or maintainer triage discussion beyond an autogenerated Jira notice, the issue still needs triage.

Evaluated by: mr-cal-bot

Impact: 42 Quick Win: 29 Complexity: 24 Confidence: 94 Actionability: 90

Issue body

### What needs to get done By default, `argparse` allows abbreviated commands, such as `--destructive-mode` being specified as `--destructive`. Since Python 3.5, this default behavior can be disabled by setting `allow_abbrev=False` when instantiating `argparse.ArgumentParser`: https://docs.python.org/3/library/argparse.html#allow-abbrev Found by @thp-canonical and @Ardelean-Calin ### Why it needs to get done This avoids wrongly learning command-line arguments that might at some point not be unique anymore.

Evaluation history

Date	Model	Scores	Action	Summary
2026-10-02 05:52 PM UTC	stealth/space-bunny-alpha	Impact: 42 Quick Win: 29 Complexity: 24 Confidence: 94 Actionability: 90	needs triage	Long-option abbreviation remains enabled in _CustomArgumentParser, allowing prefixes such as --destructive to match longer options; the issue is open and awaiting triage.
2026-09-21 03:05 PM UTC	qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b	Impact: 35 Quick Win: 25 Complexity: 15 Confidence: 75 Actionability: 85	needs triage	Request to disable argparse long option abbreviation by setting allow_abbrev=False in ArgumentParser instantiations across craft-cli.
2026-09-01 04:37 AM UTC	qwen/qwen3.8-27b	Impact: 25 Quick Win: 18 Staleness: 75 Complexity: 30 Confidence: 78 Support Request: 10	needs triage	Feature request to set allow_abbrev=False on craft-cli's ArgumentParser to disable argparse long-option abbreviation (e.g. --destructive matching --destructive-mode). Open, unlabelled, unassigned; only a Jira-sync bot comment; code still lacks the flag.
2026-07-22 12:16 PM UTC	qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b	Staleness: 85 Complexity: 15 Confidence: 75 Support Request: 10	needs triage	Request to disable argparse long option abbreviation via allow_abbrev=False to prevent future CLI ambiguity. Currently unlabelled, unassigned, and inactive for over a year with only a Jira sync bot comment.
2026-07-09 02:49 AM UTC	qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6	Staleness: 85 Complexity: 10 Confidence: 80 Support Request: 10	needs triage	Request to disable argparse long option abbreviation by setting allow_abbrev=False to prevent ambiguous CLI parsing. Currently unlabelled and inactive for over a year.

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