issues/completed/10-032-fix-shared-flag-prefix-collision-in-tui-sync.md

10-032: Fix Shared Flag Prefix Collision in TUI Command Sync

Current Behavior

When moving the cursor from the command preview to another menu item (e.g., "Run Selected Stages"), checkboxes with space-separated flag values (like --force-stage 9) get incorrectly deselected.

Reproduction steps:

  1. Open ./run.sh -I (interactive TUI mode)
  2. Enable "9. Generate HTML" stage
  3. Enable "Force regenerate" checkbox for stage 9 (adds --force-stage 9 to command)
  4. Navigate cursor to the command preview
  5. Navigate cursor away from command preview to "Run Selected Stages"
  6. Observe: Stage 9's force regenerate checkbox is now deselected

Root Cause

The build_flag_lookup() function in menu.lua stores both full flags and their prefixes:

  • lookup["--force-stage 9"] = force_generate_html
  • lookup["--force-stage"] = force_generate_html

However, ALL --force-stage N items share the same prefix --force-stage. Since items are processed in order, the prefix key gets overwritten by each subsequent item. The last item (--force-stage 10 → force_generate_index) "wins" the prefix.

When sync_checkboxes_from_command() parses the command text ./run.sh --force-stage 9:

  1. The command is tokenized as separate tokens: --force-stage, 9
  2. Token --force-stage is looked up → finds force_generate_index (wrong item!)
  3. found_flags["force_generate_index"] = true
  4. Token 9 is treated as unrecognized (not consumed as part of the flag)
  5. force_generate_html is never found, so it gets unchecked (line 1413)

Intended Behavior

When parsing a command that contains --force-stage 9, the correct checkbox (force_generate_html) should be marked as found, preserving its checked state.

Suggested Implementation Steps

  1. In sync_checkboxes_from_command(), after finding a prefix match, check if combining with the next token creates a full flag match
  2. If a full flag match exists and has a different item_id, use that instead
  3. Skip the value token since it's now part of the flag

Implementation (Completed)

Added check in sync_checkboxes_from_command() (lines 1308-1321):

-- Issue 10-008b: Check if combining with next token creates a full flag match
-- This handles flags like "--force-stage 9" where the prefix "--force-stage"
-- might match the wrong item due to multiple items sharing the same prefix.
-- We prioritize the full match (e.g., "--force-stage 9") over prefix match.
if flag_info and i < #tokens then
    local next_token = tokens[i + 1]
    local combined_flag = token.text .. " " .. next_token.text
    local full_flag_info = flag_lookup[combined_flag]
    if full_flag_info then
        -- Full flag match found - use it instead of prefix match
        flag_info = full_flag_info
        i = i + 1  -- Skip the value token since it's part of the flag
    end
end

Related Documents

  • menu.lua - TUI library with bidirectional command sync
  • run.sh - Uses TUI for interactive pipeline configuration
  • Issue 10-016 - Introduced per-stage force regeneration options

Status

IMPLEMENTED - Fix applied to /home/ritz/programming/ai-stuff/scripts/libs/menu.lua

Notes

  • This fix affects all checkbox-type items with space-separated flag values
  • Coloring of the value token (e.g., 9) is not addressed - this is a cosmetic issue
  • The prefix lookup is still useful for flag-type items (which consume the next token as their value)