From 437cc1d3792807b84ea0a6a026c091db3c6adbc1 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Claude Code Bot <claude-code@smartwatermelon.github>
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 2026 15:06:05 -0700
Subject: [PATCH] fix(standards): stop passing a stray empty argument when
 scope is unset
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

`"${scope_args[@]-}"` expands an EMPTY array to one empty-string argument
rather than to nothing. run-standards.sh then hits that empty string in its
catch-all `*)` branch, reports `unknown argument: ` and exits 2.

The effect is that standards-check fails on any repo that requests no
`changed-since` narrowing — which is every repo running the check in
whole-repo hygiene mode. The failure surfaced on nightowlstudiollc/reliquarist
#93-96 after a rebase, but it is not specific to those PRs or to Dependabot.

Plain `"${scope_args[@]}"` expands to nothing when the array is empty and is
safe under `set -u` on bash 4.4+; runners are bash 5.x. Both forms behave
identically when the array is non-empty, so narrowing is unaffected.

Note that `--skip ""` is NOT the cause: run-standards.sh accepts an empty
`--skip` value without complaint. Verified by running the real runner with
both expansion forms — the old form produces one `unknown argument` hit, the
new form produces zero.

The regression test asserts on argument assembly rather than lint output, so
it does not depend on linters being installed, and it carries a paired
assertion that the known-bad form still reproduces — without which the first
assertion could silently become vacuous.

Advances #116 context: standards-check is now the sole required check on four
repos, so this failure blocks all merges there until fixed.

Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01ESsw699T54JHARkQXrdL3o
---
 .github/workflows/standards-check.yml |  7 ++++-
 tests/test-run-standards.sh           | 39 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 45 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/.github/workflows/standards-check.yml b/.github/workflows/standards-check.yml
index 534eeaa..b001919 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/standards-check.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/standards-check.yml
@@ -236,6 +236,11 @@ jobs:
           # entirely rather than passed with an empty value — the script
           # treats an unresolvable ref as a hard error, which is correct for a
           # typo'd ref but wrong for "no narrowing requested".
+          # "${scope_args[@]-}" expands an EMPTY array to one empty-string
+          # argument, not to nothing, which run-standards.sh then rejects via
+          # its catch-all `*)` branch as `unknown argument: `. Plain
+          # "${scope_args[@]}" expands to nothing when empty and is safe under
+          # `set -u` on bash 4.4+ (runners are bash 5.x).
           scope_args=()
           [ -n "${CHANGED_SINCE}" ] && scope_args+=(--changed-since "${CHANGED_SINCE}")
           bash standards-src/standards/run-standards.sh \
@@ -243,4 +248,4 @@ jobs:
             --config-dir standards-src/standards \
             --skip "${skip_list}" \
             --node-floor "${NODE_FLOOR}" \
-            "${scope_args[@]-}"
+            "${scope_args[@]}"
diff --git a/tests/test-run-standards.sh b/tests/test-run-standards.sh
index 3ecf969..8678388 100755
--- a/tests/test-run-standards.sh
+++ b/tests/test-run-standards.sh
@@ -159,5 +159,44 @@ else
   _bad "--changed-since bad ref exited ${rc}, expected 2 (see ${tmp}/cs-badref.log)"
 fi
 
+# The workflow builds the optional --changed-since flag in an array and
+# expands it at the call site. "${arr[@]-}" expands an EMPTY array to one
+# empty-string argument rather than to nothing, which lands on the runner's
+# catch-all `*)` branch as `unknown argument: ` and exits 2 — so a repo that
+# skips no linters and requests no narrowing fails the whole check. Assert the
+# expansion form the workflow actually uses passes no stray argument.
+# This asserts on argument assembly only, so it does not depend on the linters
+# being installed — it counts what the call site would pass, without running a
+# real lint. The workflow's own expansion form is reproduced verbatim.
+_argc_for() { # $1 = expansion form, literally as written in the workflow
+  bash -c '
+    set -euo pipefail
+    scope_args=()
+    CHANGED_SINCE=""
+    [ -n "${CHANGED_SINCE}" ] && scope_args+=(--changed-since "${CHANGED_SINCE}")
+    set -- --skip "" --node-floor 22 '"$1"'
+    echo "$#"
+  '
+}
+# Built from a literal dollar rather than written inline, so the expansion
+# forms under test stay unexpanded here without tripping SC2016.
+d='\044'
+fixed_form="$(printf '"%b{scope_args[@]}"' "${d}")"
+broken_form="$(printf '"%b{scope_args[@]-}"' "${d}")"
+fixed_argc="$(_argc_for "${fixed_form}")"
+broken_argc="$(_argc_for "${broken_form}")"
+if [[ "${fixed_argc}" -eq 4 ]]; then
+  _ok "empty scope_args expands to nothing (no stray empty argument)"
+else
+  _bad "empty scope_args expanded to ${fixed_argc} args, expected 4"
+fi
+# Guard the test itself: the form this replaced must still be detectably wrong,
+# so a future refactor cannot make this assertion vacuous.
+if [[ "${broken_argc}" -eq 5 ]]; then
+  _ok "known-bad expansion form is still detected as passing a stray argument"
+else
+  _bad "known-bad expansion form no longer reproduces; this test proves nothing"
+fi
+
 echo "${pass} passed, ${fail} failed"
 [[ "${fail}" -eq 0 ]]