CLI automation notes (taler-wallet-cli + monitoring)
Living list of recurring issues seen while driving GOA (hacktivism) and
stage TESTPAYSAN via CLI (taler-wallet-cli, bank/merchant HTTP, monitoring
e2e/ladder). Ordered roughly by how often they hurt automation and how
useful a fix in wallet-cli / wallet-core (or clearer APIs) would be.
Companion: Android GUI → android-test/GUI-AUTOMATION-NOTES.md.
Scripts: check_e2e.sh, check_goa_ladder.sh, taler-monitoring.sh.
Legend:
| Tag |
Meaning |
| cli |
wallet-cli UX / flags / hang behaviour |
| core |
wallet-core protocol / state machine |
| bank |
libeufin-bank / integration API |
| ops |
secrets, paths, multi-host |
| doc |
missing or wrong documentation |
1. run-until-done is unusable for automation
|
|
| Seen |
e2e, ladder, Android notes, macOS comments: hangs / banned in monitoring |
| Area |
cli / core |
| Problem |
taler-wallet-cli run-until-done (or long shepherd runs) often never returns or blocks CI-length timeouts. Monitoring forbids it and polls balance + bank transfer_done instead. |
| Workaround |
advanced serve + socket (WSOCK) or pure poll loops (LADDER_SETTLE_*, e2e settle wait). |
| Wanted for wallet-cli |
Bounded wait: e.g. `run-until-done --timeout=Ns --exit-on=withdrawn |
2. Withdraw completion is not observable from CLI alone
|
|
| Seen |
e2e “coins missing after withdraw”; ladder OK_BANK vs wallet avail |
| Area |
cli / core / bank |
| Problem |
After accept-uri + bank confirm, coins may lag (wirewatch). CLI has no single “withdraw settled” command with clear success/failure; automation reimplements status from bank integration JSON + balance polls. |
| Workaround |
Poll balance + …/withdrawal-operation/{id} (status, transfer_done, selected_reserve_pub). |
| Wanted |
wallet-cli withdrawals wait --id=… --timeout= or JSON event stream: selected → confirmed → coins-available. |
3. reserve_pub / force-select is fragile (5114)
|
|
| Seen |
ladder force-select, e2e confirm path, Android spinner issues |
| Area |
cli / core / bank |
| Problem |
Cumulative wallets re-emit old reserves; binding the wrong reserve_pub yields HTTP 409 / code 5114 (“already bound”). Automation scrapes accept/tx dumps for candidates. |
| Workaround |
Score pubs by WID/amount; try several; treat 5114 as “stale reserve” not “out of money”. |
| Wanted |
CLI returns the reserve_pub for the just-accepted withdraw in structured JSON; force-select / bank-side select API documented with idempotency. |
4. Exchange not auto-known for bank deep links / withdraw URIs
|
|
| Seen |
Android endless spinner; GOA bank.hacktivism.ch withdraw; fixed in app branch fix/bank-withdraw-auto-exchange |
| Area |
core / cli |
| Problem |
Withdraw URI names an exchange the wallet has never added → stuck loading / empty exchange list. CLI requires explicit exchanges add + update + accept-tos every fresh DB. |
| Workaround |
e2e always adds exchange before ATM ladder; Android needs ensureExchange-style fix. |
| Wanted |
CLI/core: on accept-uri withdraw, auto-add exchange from URI/bank details (allowCompletion), then surface ToS if needed in one command. |
5. Default ports in URIs (:443 / :80) break round-trips
|
|
| Seen |
ladder/e2e strip ports; QR checks; mint URIs with :443 |
| Area |
cli / bank / doc |
| Problem |
Some bank/wallet outputs include taler://…host:443/…. QR validators and some clients reject or double-normalize inconsistently. |
| Workaround |
sed 's/:443\//\//g' everywhere in automation. |
| Wanted |
Canonical form without default ports in all wallet-cli and bank integration outputs; document as invariant. |
6. No first-class “demo withdraw” / explorer mint in wallet-cli
|
|
| Seen |
e2e uses bank admin + ATM create; ladder/gui-chain reimplement explorer mint in Python |
| Area |
cli / ops |
| Problem |
Automation always hand-rolls Basic auth → token → POST …/withdrawals → taler_withdraw_uri. Easy to get wrong (auth header, amount currency). |
| Workaround |
Shared Python in goa-chain / ladder / e2e; secrets files. |
| Wanted |
Optional helper: wallet-cli testing mint-withdraw --bank=URL --user=explorer --password-file=… --amount=GOA:10 (or bank-side only tool in libeufin) emitting a clean URI. |
7. Long-lived wallet process required for pay/withdraw progress
|
|
| Seen |
e2e advanced serve / shepherd socket |
| Area |
cli |
| Problem |
One-shot CLI invocations do not keep background work alive; without serve/shepherd, withdraw/pay may stall mid-flight. |
| Workaround |
Start serve once per e2e run; route wcli through the socket. |
| Wanted |
Documented, supported “session mode”: start/stop serve; or each mutating command optionally --background-until=… with timeout. |
8. ToS accept is a separate step that fails silently or blocks
|
|
| Seen |
e2e exchanges accept-tos; ladder after add; Android GUI ToS screens |
| Area |
cli / core |
| Problem |
Fresh exchange → operations need ToS; CLI must call accept-tos explicitly. Failures are easy to miss in multi-step scripts. |
| Workaround |
Always accept-tos after update in e2e/ladder. |
| Wanted |
accept-uri --accept-tos or auto-prompt with non-interactive --yes that covers exchange ToS for that URI’s exchange. |
9. Pay template / public order path is merchant-shaped, not CLI-shaped
|
|
| Seen |
e2e shop templates, stage farmer shops, ladder private orders |
| Area |
cli / doc |
| Problem |
Wallet-cli pays via handle-uri on taler://pay/…; creating the order is always custom curl (template POST or private order + token). No unified “pay this amount to instance” for public templates. |
| Workaround |
Monitoring builds URI externally then handle-uri --yes. |
| Wanted |
Documented recipe only, or wallet-cli testing pay-template --base=… --instance=… --id=… for demos. |
10. Amount / currency parsing edge cases
|
|
| Seen |
ladder min denom 0.01 vs GOA 1e-6; zero withdraw rejected (HTTP 409 / amount too low); max wire ceilings |
| Area |
cli / bank |
| Problem |
CURRENCY:0 and sub-min amounts fail differently per stack; CLI error strings are not machine-stable. |
| Workaround |
Soft-skip zero rung; clamp ladder min to exchange denoms / bank max_wire. |
| Wanted |
Structured errors (AMOUNT_too_small, currency_unknown) in JSON mode; wallet-cli amount validate --exchange=. |
11. Finding the right taler-wallet-cli binary
|
|
| Seen |
find_wallet_cli in lib.sh; hardcoded laptop paths; wrapper vs .mjs |
| Area |
ops / cli |
| Problem |
Debian package is a shell wrapper; some tools need node …/taler-wallet-cli.mjs. Hardcoded /Users/… paths break other hosts. |
| Workaround |
find_wallet_cli search list; WALLET_CLI= override. |
| Wanted |
Single install story: wallet-cli --version JSON with path + libversion; no need to pass .mjs to node by hand. |
12. Secrets and multi-stack confusion
|
|
| Seen |
explorer vs admin password; GOA secrets used on stage; ladder EXP_PW |
| Area |
ops |
| Problem |
CLI does not know “which stack”; wrong password → 401 mid-ladder. Not a wallet-cli bug, but every CLI automation hits it. |
| Workaround |
SECRETS_ROOT, stage SSH, STACK= profiles. |
| Wanted |
Optional ~/.config/taler/stacks.d/goa.env convention documented next to wallet-cli; still no secrets in repo. |
13. No stable machine-readable “step result” for scripts
|
|
| Seen |
e2e greps accept output; ladder scrapes JSON from mixed stdout |
| Area |
cli |
| Problem |
Human logs + occasional JSON blobs; hard to parse reliably. |
| Workaround |
Python scrapers, temp files, tee. |
| Wanted |
Global --json / --ndjson for all commands; one object per completed operation with ok, op, ids, amounts. |
14. Pay settlement wait is symmetric to withdraw pain
|
|
| Seen |
e2e pay settle loops; ladder pay settle rounds |
| Area |
cli / core |
| Problem |
After handle-uri pay, success is “order paid” / balance drop / merchant order status — not one CLI wait. |
| Workaround |
Short poll loops; never run-until-done. |
| Wanted |
Same as §1–2: bounded wait on transaction id / order id. |
Priority shortlist for taler-wallet-cli / core
If only a few changes land, these unlock the most automation:
- Bounded
run-until-done / wait-for-state (§1, §2, §14)
- Structured JSON on every command (§13)
- Auto-add exchange + ToS on accept-uri (§4, §8)
- Canonical URIs without :443 (§5)
- Emit reserve_pub for last withdraw (§3)
How we work around today (monitoring)
| Issue |
Monitoring behaviour |
| run-until-done |
Disabled; balance + bank poll |
| serve |
Optional long-lived socket in e2e |
| exchange |
Explicit add/update/accept-tos |
| ladder explorer |
read_secret / EXP_PW_FILE |
| stage maxima |
bank max_wire + keys min denom |
| force-select |
multi-rpub try; soft-skip confirm |
How to add an issue
### N. short title
| | |
|--|--|
| **Seen** | where / which stack |
| **Area** | cli / core / bank / ops / doc |
| **Problem** | … |
| **Workaround** | … |
| **Wanted** | concrete CLI/core behaviour |
