fix(cli): honor argv @path in interactive sessions (quoted + unquoted) (#5952)

Co-authored-by: Allen Hutchison <adh@google.com>

packages/cli/src/config/config.ts

@@ -58,6 +58,7 @@ const logger = {
 };
 
 export interface CliArgs {
+  query: string | undefined;
   model: string | undefined;
   sandbox: boolean | string | undefined;
   sandboxImage: string | undefined;
@@ -85,12 +86,12 @@ export interface CliArgs {
   screenReader: boolean | undefined;
   useSmartEdit: boolean | undefined;
   useWriteTodos: boolean | undefined;
-  promptWords: string[] | undefined;
   outputFormat: string | undefined;
 }
 
 export async function parseArguments(settings: Settings): Promise<CliArgs> {
-  const yargsInstance = yargs(hideBin(process.argv))
+  const rawArgv = hideBin(process.argv);
+  const yargsInstance = yargs(rawArgv)
     .locale('en')
     .scriptName('gemini')
     .usage(
@@ -166,8 +167,12 @@ export async function parseArguments(settings: Settings): Promise<CliArgs> {
       'proxy',
       'Use the "proxy" setting in settings.json instead. This flag will be removed in a future version.',
     )
-    .command('$0 [promptWords...]', 'Launch Gemini CLI', (yargsInstance) =>
+    .command('$0 [query..]', 'Launch Gemini CLI', (yargsInstance) =>
       yargsInstance
+        .positional('query', {
+          description:
+            'Positional prompt. Defaults to one-shot; use -i/--prompt-interactive for interactive.',
+        })
         .option('model', {
           alias: 'm',
           type: 'string',
@@ -301,22 +306,28 @@ export async function parseArguments(settings: Settings): Promise<CliArgs> {
           'prompt',
           'Use the positional prompt instead. This flag will be removed in a future version.',
         )
+        // Ensure validation flows through .fail() for clean UX
+        .fail((msg, err, yargs) => {
+          console.error(msg || err?.message || 'Unknown error');
+          yargs.showHelp();
+          process.exit(1);
+        })
         .check((argv) => {
-          const promptWords = argv['promptWords'] as string[] | undefined;
-          if (argv['prompt'] && promptWords && promptWords.length > 0) {
-            throw new Error(
-              'Cannot use both a positional prompt and the --prompt (-p) flag together',
-            );
+          // The 'query' positional can be a string (for one arg) or string[] (for multiple).
+          // This guard safely checks if any positional argument was provided.
+          const query = argv['query'] as string | string[] | undefined;
+          const hasPositionalQuery = Array.isArray(query)
+            ? query.length > 0
+            : !!query;
+
+          if (argv['prompt'] && hasPositionalQuery) {
+            return 'Cannot use both a positional prompt and the --prompt (-p) flag together';
           }
           if (argv['prompt'] && argv['promptInteractive']) {
-            throw new Error(
-              'Cannot use both --prompt (-p) and --prompt-interactive (-i) together',
-            );
+            return 'Cannot use both --prompt (-p) and --prompt-interactive (-i) together';
           }
           if (argv.yolo && argv['approvalMode']) {
-            throw new Error(
-              'Cannot use both --yolo (-y) and --approval-mode together. Use --approval-mode=yolo instead.',
-            );
+            return 'Cannot use both --yolo (-y) and --approval-mode together. Use --approval-mode=yolo instead.';
           }
           return true;
         }),
@@ -339,6 +350,8 @@ export async function parseArguments(settings: Settings): Promise<CliArgs> {
   yargsInstance.wrap(yargsInstance.terminalWidth());
   const result = await yargsInstance.parse();
 
+  // If yargs handled --help/--version it will have exited; nothing to do here.
+
   // Handle case where MCP subcommands are executed - they should exit the process
   // and not return to main CLI logic
   if (
@@ -349,6 +362,26 @@ export async function parseArguments(settings: Settings): Promise<CliArgs> {
     process.exit(0);
   }
 
+  // Normalize query args: handle both quoted "@path file" and unquoted @path file
+  const queryArg = (result as { query?: string | string[] | undefined }).query;
+  const q: string | undefined = Array.isArray(queryArg)
+    ? queryArg.join(' ')
+    : queryArg;
+
+  // Route positional args: explicit -i flag -> interactive; else -> one-shot (even for @commands)
+  if (q && !result['prompt']) {
+    const hasExplicitInteractive =
+      result['promptInteractive'] === '' || !!result['promptInteractive'];
+    if (hasExplicitInteractive) {
+      result['promptInteractive'] = q;
+    } else {
+      result['prompt'] = q;
+    }
+  }
+
+  // Keep CliArgs.query as a string for downstream typing
+  (result as Record<string, unknown>)['query'] = q || undefined;
+
   // The import format is now only controlled by settings.memoryImportFormat
   // We no longer accept it as a CLI argument
   return result as unknown as CliArgs;
@@ -475,8 +508,7 @@ export async function loadCliConfig(
   );
 
   let mcpServers = mergeMcpServers(settings, activeExtensions);
-  const question =
-    argv.promptInteractive || argv.prompt || (argv.promptWords || []).join(' ');
+  const question = argv.promptInteractive || argv.prompt || '';
 
   // Determine approval mode with backward compatibility
   let approvalMode: ApprovalMode;
@@ -529,11 +561,11 @@ export async function loadCliConfig(
 
   const policyEngineConfig = createPolicyEngineConfig(settings, approvalMode);
 
-  // Fix: If promptWords are provided, always use non-interactive mode
-  const hasPromptWords = argv.promptWords && argv.promptWords.length > 0;
+  // Interactive mode: explicit -i flag or (TTY + no args + no -p flag)
+  const hasQuery = !!argv.query;
   const interactive =
     !!argv.promptInteractive ||
-    (process.stdin.isTTY && !hasPromptWords && !argv.prompt);
+    (process.stdin.isTTY && !hasQuery && !argv.prompt);
   // In non-interactive mode, exclude tools that require a prompt.
   const extraExcludes: string[] = [];
   if (!interactive && !argv.experimentalAcp) {