snapcraft isn't context aware in displaying help text
Metadata
Current evaluation
Feature request for context-aware CLI help based on snapcraft.yaml base. Open for over 4 years with no maintainer interaction or labels.
Suggested action: close stale
Reason: The issue is a feature request for dynamic CLI help that has remained inactive for over 4 years with no maintainer response, labels, or assignee. Given the prolonged inactivity and lack of traction, it is unlikely to be prioritized without a new proposal or PR.
Impact:
30
Quick Win:
22.5
Staleness:
90
Complexity:
25
Confidence:
70
Support Request:
10
Issue body
When using snapcraft 7.x and attempting to build a core20 base snap, the options available from snapcraft --help are in general not available when building the snap. For example, --verbosity is not a valid option when using snapcraft 7 to build a core20 base snap:
dilyn@Ares:~work/test -> snapcraft --verbosity=verbose
Starting Snapcraft 7.1.4.post49+git3a54031c
Logging execution to '/root/.cache/snapcraft/log/snapcraft-20220922-112604.562413.log'
Usage: snapcraft [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...
Try 'snapcraft -h' for help.
Error: No such option: --verbosity Did you mean --version?
I would expect that snapcraft --help would display context-aware options -- based on the base declared in the snapcraft.yaml for the snap I am building, it should display the flags which will govern its behavior in building said snap.
Evaluation history
| Date | Model | Scores | Action | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 |
Impact:
30
Quick Win:
22.5
Staleness:
90
Complexity:
25
Confidence:
70
Support Request:
10
|
close stale | Feature request for context-aware CLI help based on snapcraft.yaml base. Open for over 4 years with no maintainer interaction or labels. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
Staleness:
95
Complexity:
30
Confidence:
85
Support Request:
10
|
close stale | Unresolved request from 2021 for context-aware CLI help in snapcraft 7.x. No maintainer response or labels. The reported version and CLI architecture are obsolete, and the feature is no longer applicable to current releases. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
Staleness:
88
Complexity:
55
Confidence:
80
Support Request:
10
|
close stale | Request for context-aware CLI help in snapcraft based on snapcraft.yaml base. Currently displays generic options, causing errors with base-specific flags. Untriaged, zero maintainer comments. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 |
Staleness:
92
Complexity:
65
Confidence:
90
Support Request:
10
|
needs triage | Reports that snapcraft CLI help text is not context-aware based on the snapcraft.yaml base, showing invalid options like --verbosity for core20 builds. Unlabeled, no maintainer response, inactive for over a year. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 |
Staleness:
92
Complexity:
60
Confidence:
80
Support Request:
10
|
close stale | Unlabelled feature request from 2022 asking for context-aware CLI help based on snapcraft.yaml base. No maintainer response, issue is over 3 years old and references deprecated snapcraft 7.x. |
Update history
No update history recorded yet.
Related issues
| Issue | Project | State | Summary | Similarity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1701 snapcraft help” only command summary | snapcraft | closed | Requesting snapcraft help to only display command summaries was closed without resolution or comments. The feature appears abandoned or superseded, with no implementation applied. | |
| #1698116 snapcraft help claims to have help for topics, but doesn't | snapcraft (launchpad) | closed | Closed. The CLI error message for snapcraft help without arguments was updated to list available topics, resolving the discovery confusion. | |
| #2065230 No help text for the "help" sub-command when in a directory containing snapcraft.yaml | snapcraft (launchpad) | open | snapcraft help help command not found when in directory with snapcraft.yaml. Issue is 848 days old with no maintainer response. | |
| #1501222 Snapcraft should respond to "help", "version", "-v", "--version" | snapcraft (launchpad) | closed | Closed without implementation. The request to add help and version flags was abandoned or superseded by upstream CLI updates. |