ArgumentParsingError for command not found should hint at the command that raised it

Metadata

Project: craft-cli
Number: #78
Type: issue
State: open
Author: sergiusens
Labels: —
Created: 2022-04-23 01:19 AM UTC
Updated: 2025-03-10 06:59 PM UTC
Closed: —

Current evaluation

Feature request: ArgumentParsingError carries no attribute naming the offending command, forcing downstream apps to dig into err.__context__ to distinguish unknown-command errors. Still unimplemented at HEAD.

Suggested action: needs triage

Reason: The class at craft_cli/errors.py is still a bare `class ArgumentParsingError(Exception):` with no fields, and Dispatcher.pre_parse_args still raises it with only a message string (including the unknown-command path `raise ArgumentParsingError(help_text) from None`), so the request remains open-ended and valid. However the issue carries no labels, no assignee and no comments, and the body only sketches a workaround (`err.__context__.args[0]`) rather than specifying an API (attribute name, whether it applies to all five raise sites in dispatcher.py, backward-compat with existing `except ArgumentParsingError` handlers), so it still needs maintainer prioritization.

Evaluated by: mr-cal-bot

Impact: 28 Quick Win: 12 Complexity: 18 Confidence: 72 Actionability: 52

Issue body

If the error class had an attribute with the command that raised it we could do more advanced error handling. Right now I am looking into doing it this way: ```python try: cmd.run(...) except ArgumentParsingError as err: if err.__context__.args[0] not in dispatcher.commands.keys(): do_something() else: raise ```

Evaluation history

Date	Model	Scores	Action	Summary
2026-10-02 05:55 PM UTC	stealth/space-bunny-alpha	Impact: 28 Quick Win: 12 Complexity: 18 Confidence: 72 Actionability: 52	needs triage	Feature request: ArgumentParsingError carries no attribute naming the offending command, forcing downstream apps to dig into err.__context__ to distinguish unknown-command errors. Still unimplemented at HEAD.
2026-10-02 05:55 PM UTC	stealth/space-bunny-alpha	Impact: 38 Quick Win: 20 Complexity: 22 Confidence: 80 Actionability: 68	keep open	Maintainer-filed feature request to add a command attribute to the bare ArgumentParsingError class so callers can detect 'no such command' without parsing __context__.args; class still has no attributes at HEAD.
2026-09-21 05:29 PM UTC	qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b	Impact: 30 Quick Win: 19 Complexity: 20 Confidence: 70 Actionability: 80	needs triage	Feature request to add a command attribute to ArgumentParsingError for better error handling
2026-09-01 04:45 AM UTC	qwen/qwen3.8-27b	Impact: 25 Quick Win: 21 Staleness: 72 Complexity: 15 Confidence: 85 Support Request: 10	needs triage	Feature request to add the offending command name as an attribute on ArgumentParsingError raised for unknown commands, enabling programmatic error handling. Still unimplemented in current code.
2026-07-22 12:17 PM UTC	qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b	Staleness: 95 Complexity: 15 Confidence: 85 Support Request: 5	close stale	Request to add a command attribute to ArgumentParsingError for improved error handling. The issue is unlabelled, has zero maintainer comments, and has been inactive for over a year.
2026-07-09 03:29 AM UTC	qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6	Staleness: 85 Complexity: 15 Confidence: 75 Support Request: 5	needs triage	Feature request to add a command attribute to ArgumentParsingError for improved error handling. Unlabelled, zero comments, and inactive for over a year.

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