fix: clean up spinner on Commander errors

src/commands/view.ts

@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 import { Command } from 'commander'
+import { configureCommandOutput } from '../lib/command-output.js'
 import { CliError } from '../lib/errors.js'
 import { classifyCommsUrl } from '../lib/refs.js'
 
@@ -17,8 +18,7 @@ async function runRoutedCommand(
     loadRegister: () => Promise<(p: Command) => void>,
     argv: string[],
 ): Promise<void> {
-    const proxy = new Command()
-    proxy.exitOverride()
+    const proxy = configureCommandOutput(new Command())
     const register = await loadRegister()
     register(proxy)
     await proxy.parseAsync(['node', 'tdc', ...argv])

src/index.test.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,92 @@
+import type { Command } from 'commander'
+import { afterEach, beforeEach, describe, expect, it, vi } from 'vitest'
+
+describe('CLI entrypoint', () => {
+    const originalArgv = [...process.argv]
+    const originalExitCode = process.exitCode
+
+    async function expectSpinnerStoppedBeforeParseError(argv: string[]): Promise<void> {
+        const startEarlySpinner = vi.fn()
+        const stopEarlySpinner = vi.fn()
+        const exitSpy = vi.spyOn(process, 'exit').mockImplementation(((
+            code?: string | number | null,
+        ) => {
+            throw new Error(`process.exit(${String(code)}) should not be called`)
+        }) as typeof process.exit)
+        const stderrWriteSpy = vi
+            .spyOn(process.stderr, 'write')
+            .mockImplementation((() => true) as typeof process.stderr.write)
+
+        vi.doMock('commander', async (importOriginal) => {
+            const actual = await importOriginal<typeof import('commander')>()
+            return {
+                ...actual,
+                program: new actual.Command(),
+            }
+        })
+        vi.doMock('./lib/spinner.js', () => ({
+            startEarlySpinner,
+            stopEarlySpinner,
+        }))
+        vi.doMock('./lib/markdown.js', () => ({
+            preloadMarkdown: vi.fn().mockResolvedValue(undefined),
+        }))
+        vi.doMock('./commands/conversation/index.js', () => ({
+            registerConversationCommand: (program: Command) => {
+                program
+                    .command('conversation')
+                    .command('view [conversation-ref]', { isDefault: true })
+                    .action(() => undefined)
+            },
+        }))
+
+        process.argv = argv
+
+        await import('./index.js')
+
+        expect(startEarlySpinner).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(1)
+        expect(stopEarlySpinner).toHaveBeenCalled()
+        expect(exitSpy).not.toHaveBeenCalled()
+        expect(process.exitCode).toBe(1)
+        expect(stderrWriteSpy).toHaveBeenCalledWith(expect.stringContaining('--from'))
+        expect(stopEarlySpinner.mock.invocationCallOrder[0]).toBeLessThan(
+            stderrWriteSpy.mock.invocationCallOrder[0],
+        )
+    }
+
+    beforeEach(() => {
+        vi.resetModules()
+        process.argv = [...originalArgv]
+        process.exitCode = undefined
+    })
+
+    afterEach(() => {
+        process.argv = [...originalArgv]
+        process.exitCode = originalExitCode
+        vi.restoreAllMocks()
+        vi.resetModules()
+    })
+
+    it('stops the early spinner before the root parser writes parse errors', async () => {
+        await expectSpinnerStoppedBeforeParseError([
+            'node',
+            'tdc',
+            'conversation',
+            'view',
+            'https://comms.todoist.com/123/msg/ANON_MESSAGE_ID/',
+            '--from',
+            '2026-06-26',
+        ])
+    })
+
+    it('stops the early spinner before the view proxy parser writes parse errors', async () => {
+        await expectSpinnerStoppedBeforeParseError([
+            'node',
+            'tdc',
+            'view',
+            'https://comms.todoist.com/a/123/msg/456',
+            '--from',
+            '2026-06-26',
+        ])
+    })
+})

src/index.ts

@@ -1,8 +1,9 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env node
 
 import { stripUserFlag } from '@doist/cli-core'
-import { type Command, program } from 'commander'
+import { CommanderError, type Command, program } from 'commander'
 import pkg from '../package.json' with { type: 'json' }
+import { configureCommandOutput } from './lib/command-output.js'
 import { BaseCliError } from './lib/errors.js'
 import { getRequestedUserRef, isJsonMode, isNdjsonMode } from './lib/global-args.js'
 import { preloadMarkdown } from './lib/markdown.js'
@@ -107,6 +108,8 @@ Note for AI/LLM agents:
   Default JSON shows essential fields; use --full for all fields.`,
     )
 
+configureCommandOutput(program)
+
 // Register lightweight placeholders so --help lists all commands
 for (const [name, [description]] of Object.entries(commands)) {
     const cmd = program.command(name).description(description)
@@ -215,6 +218,10 @@ await program
     .parseAsync()
     .catch((err: Error) => {
         stopEarlySpinner()
+        if (err instanceof CommanderError) {
+            process.exitCode = err.exitCode
+            return
+        }
         if (err instanceof BaseCliError) {
             console.error(isJsonMode() ? formatErrorJson(err) : formatError(err))
         } else {

src/lib/command-output.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+import type { Command } from 'commander'
+import { stopEarlySpinner } from './spinner.js'
+
+export function configureCommandOutput(command: Command): Command {
+    return command
+        .configureOutput({
+            writeOut: (str) => {
+                stopEarlySpinner()
+                process.stdout.write(str)
+            },
+            writeErr: (str) => {
+                stopEarlySpinner()
+                process.stderr.write(str)
+            },
+        })
+        .exitOverride()
+}