feat: add explicit --key/--name/--uuid flags without breaking existing CLI behavior

[iamfj]

Summary

Replace implicit ID auto-detection (UUID vs key/name guessing in resolvers) with explicit, mutually exclusive CLI flags for every entity reference. This is a breaking change that makes the CLI contract unambiguous for both humans and LLM agents.

Before

linearis issues read DAT-123              # resolver guesses: identifier
linearis issues read 550e8400-...         # resolver guesses: UUID
linearis issues create --team ENG         # resolver guesses: key? name?
linearis issues create --team 550e8400-...# resolver guesses: UUID

After

linearis issues read DAT-123                          # positional = --key (default)
linearis issues read --key DAT-123                    # explicit key
linearis issues read --uuid 550e8400-...              # explicit UUID
linearis issues read --team-key DAT --number 123      # decomposed (primary arg only)
linearis issues read --team DAT --number 123           # --team aliases --team-key
linearis issues create --team-key ENG                 # explicit: team key
linearis issues create --team-uuid 550e8400-...       # explicit: team UUID

Motivation

1. Ambiguity — resolveTeamId tries key, then falls back to name. A team name could collide with another team's key.
2. Implicit contracts — callers don't declare what they're passing; resolvers guess at runtime via isUuid().
3. Wasted API calls — UUID inputs still enter the resolver, run isUuid(), and only then short-circuit.
4. Agent ergonomics — LLM agents benefit from explicit flag contracts; auto-detection is a source of subtle bugs.

Design

Naming Convention

Entities with a Linear key field use --X-key; entities resolved by name use --X-name. The short alias always maps to the human-friendly variant.

Entity	Short alias	Human flag	UUID flag	Repeatable?
Team	--team	--team-key	--team-uuid	No
Issue (option)	--issue	--issue-key	--issue-uuid	No
Project	--project	--project-name	--project-uuid	No
Assignee/User	--assignee	--assignee-name	--assignee-uuid	No
Cycle	--cycle	--cycle-name	--cycle-uuid	No
Status	--status	--status-name	--status-uuid	No
Milestone	--milestone	--milestone-name	--milestone-uuid	No
Parent ticket	--parent-ticket	--parent-ticket-key	--parent-ticket-uuid	No
Label	--label	--label-name	--label-uuid	Yes
Blocks	--blocks	--blocks-key	--blocks-uuid	Yes
Blocked-by	--blocked-by	--blocked-by-key	--blocked-by-uuid	Yes
Relates-to	--relates-to	--relates-to-key	--relates-to-uuid	Yes
Duplicate-of	--duplicate-of	--duplicate-of-key	--duplicate-of-uuid	Yes
Remove-relation	--remove-relation	--remove-relation-key	--remove-relation-uuid	Yes

Primary Argument (positional)

Commands with a primary entity argument (issues read <issue>, cycles read <cycle>, etc.) support three forms, all mutually exclusive:

1. Positional — shorthand for --key / --name
2. Explicit --key / --name — same as positional
3. --uuid — direct UUID passthrough

Validation rejects combining positional with --key/--name/--uuid.

Issue Decomposed Form (primary argument only)

Issue commands additionally support decomposed identification:

# These four strategies are mutually exclusive:
linearis issues read DAT-123                        # strategy 1: positional (= --key)
linearis issues read --key DAT-123                  # strategy 2: explicit key
linearis issues read --uuid 550e8400-...            # strategy 3: UUID
linearis issues read --team-key DAT --number 123    # strategy 4a: team key + number
linearis issues read --team-uuid 7a8b... --number 123  # strategy 4b: team UUID + number

Validation:

• --number requires exactly one of --team-key or --team-uuid (and vice versa)
• --team-key and --team-uuid are mutually exclusive
• Decomposed form only applies to primary issue argument, not option flags like --parent-ticket

Multi-Value References

Labels and relation flags use repeatable flags instead of comma-separated strings:

# Before (comma-separated, single relation)
linearis issues create --labels "bug,feat" --blocks DAT-456

# After (repeatable, multiple relations)
linearis issues create \
  --label bug --label feat --label-uuid 550e8400-... \
  --blocks-key DAT-456 --blocks-key DAT-789 \
  --relates-to-uuid 660f9500-...

All three forms (--label, --label-name, --label-uuid) accumulate into one merged set. The single-relation-per-command restriction is removed.

Architecture Changes

Resolver Layer

Resolvers simplify from multi-strategy guesswork to single-purpose lookups:

// Before
export async function resolveTeamId(client, keyOrNameOrId: string): Promise<string> {
  if (isUuid(keyOrNameOrId)) return keyOrNameOrId;
  // try key... try name... throw
}

// After
export async function resolveTeamByKey(client, key: string): Promise<string> {
  // key lookup only → UUID or throw
}

Renames:

• resolveTeamId → resolveTeamByKey
• resolveProjectId → resolveProjectByName
• resolveIssueId → resolveIssueByKey
• resolveCycleId → resolveCycleByName
• resolveLabelId / resolveLabelIds → resolveLabelByName / resolveLabelsByName
• resolveMilestoneId → resolveMilestoneByName
• resolveUserId → resolveUserByName
• resolveStatusId → resolveStatusByName

Command Layer

Commands gain two new responsibilities:

1. Mutual exclusion validation — reject conflicting flags before any API call
2. Routing — --uuid skips resolver; --key/--name calls the appropriate resolver

New Common Utilities

• Discriminated union type: { kind: 'key' | 'name' | 'uuid', value: string } for entity references
• Validation helper: checks mutual exclusion across flag groups, produces clear error messages
• isUuid() remains for input validation on --uuid flags (no longer used for type guessing)

Unchanged

• Service layer — still receives UUIDs only, no changes
• GraphQL layer — no query/mutation changes
• createContext() — shape unchanged

Breaking Changes

Change	Migration
--labels "a,b,c" (comma-separated)	--label a --label b --label c (repeatable, singular)
--project-milestone <val>	--milestone-name <val> / --milestone <val>
UUID auto-detection removed	Passing a UUID to --team now does key lookup, not passthrough. Use --team-uuid
Single-relation restriction removed	--blocks, --relates-to, etc. are repeatable and mixable
Relation flags renamed	--blocks X → --blocks-key X / --blocks X (alias)

Command Migration Map

High impact

• issues create — all option flags get typed variants
• issues update — primary arg + all option flags
• issues read — primary arg with decomposed form

Medium impact

• comments list/create — primary issue arg gets typed variants
• cycles list/read — --team typed variants, read gets primary arg change
• milestones list/read/create/update — --project typed variants, read/update get primary arg change
• documents list/create/update — --project, --team, --issue typed variants
• labels list — --team typed variants

No impact

• teams list, users list, files upload/download — no entity references
• documents read/delete, comments reply/edit/delete — UUID-only, no change
• All usage subcommands — display only (but text content updates)

Testing Impact

• Resolver tests: all rewrite — remove isUuid() passthrough tests, test single-purpose lookup only
• New command validation tests: mutual exclusion, repeatable flag accumulation, positional + flag conflicts
• Integration tests: all update to use new flag syntax
• Estimated scope: ~30-40 files across resolvers, commands, tests, docs

Documentation Impact

• README.md — all usage examples
• AGENTS.md — architecture section, anti-patterns, decision tree, resolver contract
• docs/architecture.md, docs/development.md, docs/testing.md — pattern references
• DomainMeta for every command — argument descriptions
• Help text on every command
• USAGE.md — regenerated via npm run generate:usage

Acceptance Criteria

• All entity references use explicit --X-key/--X-name + --X-uuid mutually exclusive flags
• Short aliases (--team, --project, etc.) work as before (map to human-friendly variant)
• Issue primary arg supports positional, --key, --uuid, and decomposed --team-key+--number / --team-uuid+--number
• Labels and relation flags are repeatable
• Multiple relation types allowed in one command
• Resolvers renamed to single-purpose (resolveTeamByKey, resolveProjectByName, etc.)
• Mutual exclusion validation with clear error messages
• All help texts and documentation updated
• npm run check:ci && npx tsc --noEmit && npm test && npm run build all pass

[iamfj]

Thought: keep dynamic UUID detection for positional arguments

While the strict mutual exclusion is the right design for flags, I'm considering one ergonomic exception: the positional argument could still auto-detect UUIDs.

Rationale

UUID detection via isUuid() is:

• Pure — regex check, zero API calls
• Deterministic — a valid UUID will never collide with a team key (ENG), issue identifier (DAT-123), or entity name
• Free — no ambiguity, no fallback chains, no wasted requests

The ambiguity problem we're solving only exists for non-UUID inputs (key vs name requires API guessing). UUID format is structurally unambiguous.

Proposed behavior

When a positional argument matches UUID format, automatically route it to --uuid internally:

# These would be equivalent — UUID is detected and routed automatically:
linearis issues read 550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000
linearis issues read --uuid 550e8400-e29b-41d4-a716-446655440000

# These remain explicit — non-UUID positional = --key/--name:
linearis issues read DAT-123          # positional → --key
linearis cycles read "Sprint 42"      # positional → --name

What this does NOT change

• Explicit --key/--name/--uuid flags still work and are still mutually exclusive
• Option flags (--team, --project, etc.) remain strict — no auto-detection, must use --team-key or --team-uuid
• Resolvers still become single-purpose (no isUuid() branching in resolver code)
• The UUID detection lives in the command layer only, as a positional-arg convenience

Trade-off

	Strict positional	Dynamic UUID positional
Simplicity	Positional always = key/name	One isUuid() check in command layer
Backward compat	Breaking for UUID users	Non-breaking for UUID positional args
Agent ergonomics	Must always use --uuid flag	Can pass UUID positionally (fewer tokens)
Purity	Fully explicit	99% explicit, 1% convenience

Open question: is the backward compatibility + fewer tokens for agents worth the slight impurity?

[iamfj]

Product decision: no breaking CLI changes here. We want the CLI interface to remain reliably compatible across updates.

If this issue moves forward, it should be reframed as an additive or migration-safe improvement:

• preserve existing flag behavior
• avoid removing or silently repurposing current inputs
• prefer aliases, validation improvements, and explicit alternatives over breaking replacements
• only treat a compatibility change as acceptable if a migration path is explicit and separately approved