fix(router-cli): pass process.argv.slice(2) to yargs for proper argument parsing

[ThePott]

Problem

• tsr generate and tsr watch commands exit silently without executing

Cause

• calls yargs() without arguments
• docs of yargs says to pass argument to either of yargs() or parse()
• without argument of yargs, the parsed result is { _: [] }

Fix

• pass process.argv.slice(2) to yargs

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Bug Fixes

  • CLI argument handling corrected so commands process only user-provided arguments, ensuring reliable execution and help output.

• New Features

  • CLI now requires at least one command and enforces strict command parsing to surface invalid usage promptly.

[changeset-bot]

🦋 Changeset detected

Latest commit: 348c469

The changes in this PR will be included in the next version bump.

This PR includes changesets to release 1 package

Name	Type
@tanstack/router-cli	Patch

Not sure what this means? Click here to learn what changesets are.

Click here if you're a maintainer who wants to add another changeset to this PR

[coderabbitai]

No actionable comments were generated in the recent review. 🎉

ℹ️ Recent review info

⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: defaults

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Pro

Run ID: c995964a-ef66-4847-a02d-4973f3716fba

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 9f1bb40 and 348c469.

📒 Files selected for processing (1)

• packages/router-cli/src/index.ts

🚧 Files skipped from review as they are similar to previous changes (1)

• packages/router-cli/src/index.ts

---

📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

The CLI now initializes yargs with process.argv.slice(2), and yargs is configured with .demandCommand(1) and .strictCommands() to require at least one command and enforce strict parsing.

Changes

Cohort / File(s)	Summary
Argument parsing & yargs config packages/router-cli/src/index.ts	Passes process.argv.slice(2) to yargs, adds .demandCommand(1) and .strictCommands() to require a command and enforce strict command parsing.
Release notes / changeset .changeset/six-ends-grin.md	Adds a changeset documenting the CLI fix and preparing a patch release for @tanstack/router-cli.

Estimated code review effort

🎯 2 (Simple) | ⏱️ ~10 minutes

Poem

🐰 I nibble argv with careful paws,

I strip the node crumbs without a pause,
Demand a command, tidy the queue,
Hopping through prompts — clean and true. 🥕

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 2 | ❌ 1

❌ Failed checks (1 warning)

Check name	Status	Explanation	Resolution
Docstring Coverage	⚠️ Warning	Docstring coverage is 0.00% which is insufficient. The required threshold is 80.00%.	Write docstrings for the functions missing them to satisfy the coverage threshold.

✅ Passed checks (2 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title accurately describes the main fix in the changeset: passing process.argv.slice(2) to yargs for proper argument parsing in router-cli, which directly addresses the core issue causing silent command exits.

_{✏️ Tip: You can configure your own custom pre-merge checks in the settings.}

✨ Finishing Touches

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create PR with unit tests

📝 Coding Plan

• Generate coding plan for human review comments

---

Thanks for using CodeRabbit! It's free for OSS, and your support helps us grow. If you like it, consider giving us a shout-out.

❤️ Share

• X
• Mastodon
• Reddit
• LinkedIn

_{Comment @coderabbitai help to get the list of available commands and usage tips.}

[github-actions]

Bundle Size Benchmarks

• Commit: 3bc18d462345
• Measured at: 2026-03-17T13:19:30.611Z
• Baseline source: history:d6371529b5ab
• Dashboard: bundle-size history

Scenario	Current (gzip)	Delta vs baseline	Raw	Brotli	Trend
react-router.minimal	87.61 KiB	0 B (0.00%)	276.07 KiB	76.12 KiB	▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁███
react-router.full	90.65 KiB	0 B (0.00%)	286.28 KiB	78.68 KiB	▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁███
solid-router.minimal	37.14 KiB	0 B (0.00%)	111.38 KiB	33.29 KiB	▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁███
solid-router.full	41.36 KiB	0 B (0.00%)	124.18 KiB	37.12 KiB	▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁███
vue-router.minimal	52.99 KiB	0 B (0.00%)	151.41 KiB	47.65 KiB	▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁███
vue-router.full	57.69 KiB	0 B (0.00%)	166.34 KiB	51.60 KiB	▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁███
react-start.minimal	101.99 KiB	0 B (0.00%)	324.08 KiB	88.20 KiB	▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁███
react-start.full	105.33 KiB	0 B (0.00%)	333.89 KiB	91.02 KiB	▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁███
solid-start.minimal	51.24 KiB	0 B (0.00%)	157.82 KiB	45.28 KiB	▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁███
solid-start.full	56.53 KiB	0 B (0.00%)	173.32 KiB	49.72 KiB	▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁███

Trend sparkline is historical gzip bytes ending with this PR measurement; lower is better.

[jmalmo]

Hit this exact issue in CI yesterday. Our tsr generate was exiting 0 but producing no output, which silently broke our typecheck step (routeTree.gen.ts is gitignored so CI has to generate it fresh). Took a while to figure out because the exit code was 0 and there was no error output at all.

We pinned to @tanstack/router-cli@1.164.0 as a workaround, which confirmed the regression started in the 1.166.9 range.

The process.argv.slice(2) fix looks correct. One suggestion: it might be worth adding demandCommand(1) and strictCommands() to the yargs chain as well. That way if someone runs tsr with no subcommand or a typo, they get a clear error instead of a silent exit. Would have saved us a couple hours of debugging.

 yargs(process.argv.slice(2))
   .scriptName('tsr')
   .usage('$0 <cmd> [args]')
+  .demandCommand(1)
+  .strictCommands()
   .command('generate', ...)
   .command('watch', ...)
   .help().argv

[jmalmo]

Suggested change

	.demandCommand(1)
	.strictCommands()
	.help().argv

[ThePott]

Thank you for the kind guidance! I'll update yargs chain and commit.