Stop encouraging API key on argv for auth login#3
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Chris flagged that 'quartr auth login --api-key "$KEY"' leaks the key via shell history, ps, scrollback, and CI logs — anywhere argv is visible. This is especially bad for auth login, which is the exact moment we're committing the key to disk. Changes: - Drop the duplicate subcommand-local --api-key flag from auth login. It was always redundant with the global --api-key (which is stripped in extractGlobalFlags before subcommands ever see it), so removing it causes no behavior change for any reasonable invocation. - Add --api-key-stdin to auth login: reads one trimmed line from stdin. Standard pattern (gh, kubectl, op) for piping from a secret store. - Update Makefile install target to pipe via stdin instead of argv. - Update README and SKILL.md to recommend 'export QUARTR_API_KEY=...; quartr auth login' (uses env via the standard config precedence) or '... | quartr auth login --api-key-stdin' for piped input. The global --api-key flag is preserved for one-off commands where the trade-off is knowingly accepted (CI scripts, throwaway containers). Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
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Summary
Chris flagged that
quartr auth login --api-key \"\$QUARTR_API_KEY\"leaks the key via shell history,ps, terminal scrollback, and CI logs — anywhere argv is visible. This is especially bad forauth loginbecause that's the exact moment we're committing the key to disk, so any leakage there compounds.Changes
--api-keyflag fromauth login. It was always redundant with the global--api-key(the global gets stripped inextractGlobalFlagsbefore subcommands see it), so removing it has no behavioral impact for any reasonable invocation.--api-key-stdintoauth login: reads one trimmed line from stdin. Standard pattern (gh auth login --with-token,kubectl --token,op signin) for piping a secret in from a secret store.printf '%s' \"\$QUARTR_API_KEY\" | quartr auth login --api-key-stdin).export QUARTR_API_KEY=...; quartr auth login(uses env via the standard config precedence) or... | quartr auth login --api-key-stdinfor piped input.The global
--api-key VALUEflag is preserved for one-off commands where the user knowingly accepts the argv leak (CI scripts, throwaway containers, ad-hoc queries) — removing it would be needlessly disruptive.What I considered and rejected
Chris's specific suggestion ("
--api-keyshould refer to a variable name to look up") would diverge fromkubectl/gh/aws/dockersemantics where--api-key/--tokenis always the literal value. Reusing one flag for two semantics would surprise people more than it helps. The fix above gets the security win without the UX divergence.Test plan
pre-commit run --all-filescleango test ./...cleanecho \$KEY | quartr auth login --api-key-stdinwrites the piped valueQUARTR_API_KEY=... quartr auth loginwrites the env valuequartr --api-key X auth loginwrites X (global flag still works)make installend-to-end withQUARTR_API_KEYexported persists correctly via the stdin path🤖 Generated with Claude Code