fix(cli): harden prompt trimming and improve version detection

[chrisjcthomas]

Summary

• Split the non-docs changes out of docs: add vi shortcuts and clarify MCP sandbox setup #21679 for separate review
• Harden prompt submission by safely coercing submittedValue before trimming in the CLI input flow
• Stringify array settings values in the settings dialog and prefer the repository package version when running from source

Testing

• npx vitest run src/utils/version.test.ts
• npx vitest run src/utils/settingsUtils.test.ts

[gemini-code-assist]

Summary of Changes

Hello, I'm Gemini Code Assist¹! I'm currently reviewing this pull request and will post my feedback shortly. In the meantime, here's a summary to help you and other reviewers quickly get up to speed!

This pull request enhances the CLI's robustness and improves its display and versioning mechanisms. It hardens user input handling by ensuring prompt values are always strings before processing, refines the display of array-based settings by serializing them to JSON, and improves version detection by preferring the main repository's package version when running from a development environment.

Highlights

• CLI Input Hardening: Implemented safer prompt submission by coercing submittedValue to a string before trimming, preventing potential errors with non-string inputs.
• Settings Display Improvement: Ensured array settings values are correctly stringified as JSON when displayed in the settings dialog.
• Version Detection Enhancement: Updated the version detection logic to prioritize the repository's main package version when the CLI is run from source.

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[chrisjcthomas]

@jkcinouye I split the non-docs fixes out of #21679 into this separate PR so they can be reviewed independently. If you have a chance, I’d appreciate a look.

[gemini-code-assist]

Code Review

This pull request refactors the version lookup logic to traverse up the directory tree, prioritizing the main CLI package version, and adds robust handling for null/undefined input values in UI components. It also enhances the settings display utility to correctly format arrays as JSON strings, with a corresponding new test case. A review comment points out that the new version lookup implementation in packages/core/src/utils/version.ts is inefficient due to redundant directory scanning and suggests a more performant and maintainable approach using asynchronous file system operations.

_{Note: Security Review did not run due to the size of the PR.}

[gemini-code-assist]

This implementation is inefficient because it combines a while loop that traverses up the directory tree with a call to getPackageJson, which also searches up the tree using read-package-up. This results in redundant directory scanning in each iteration.

While the result is cached after the first run, this implementation is difficult to maintain and reason about. A more efficient approach would be to perform a single, explicit upward traversal. For example, using Node's fs.promises module to asynchronously read package.json from currentDir directly within the loop would make the logic clearer and more performant, and avoid blocking the event loop.

References

1. Use asynchronous file system operations (e.g., fs.promises.readFile) instead of synchronous ones (e.g., fs.readFileSync) to avoid blocking the event loop.

[chrisjcthomas]

@g-samroberts adding you here as well since you had context on #21679. This is the split code-only follow-up from that PR; if you have a chance, I’d appreciate a look.

[chrisjcthomas]

Addressed the version lookup review note in the latest push. The implementation now performs a single explicit upward traversal with async package.json reads instead of combining an outer traversal with getPackageJson()'s own upward search. Also updated the focused unit test coverage for the source-version preference and cache behavior.