fix(cli): handle mise help without requiring tasks

[jdx]

Summary

Previously, running mise help (without --help) would fail with "no tasks defined" error when no tasks were configured in the current directory. This happened because the help argument was being treated as a task name, triggering config loading and task resolution.

This PR fixes the issue by adding special handling for the "help" argument in two places:

1. In the preprocessor, to prevent "help" from being converted to "run help"
2. In get_command(), to exit early with help output for help-related args

Now mise help, mise --help, and mise -h all work consistently, regardless of whether tasks are configured.

Test plan

• Added new e2e test e2e/cli/test_help_without_tasks that verifies all three help variants work in a directory without tasks
• All existing unit and e2e tests pass
• Manually tested mise help, mise --help, and mise -h in directories with and without tasks

Fixes #6947

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🤖 Generated with Claude Code

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Note

Treat help, --help, and -h as help invocation (not tasks) and add an e2e test validating behavior without tasks.

• CLI:
  • Preprocessor: skip injecting run when first non-flag arg is help, -h, or --help in src/cli/mod.rs.
  • Command resolution: if TASK equals help, -h, or --help, print help and exit with code 0.
• Tests:
  • Add e2e/cli/test_help_without_tasks to verify mise help, mise --help, and mise -h work in a directory without tasks.

^{Written by Cursor Bugbot for commit c817e84. This will update automatically on new commits. Configure here.}

[Copilot]

Pull Request Overview

This PR fixes a bug where running mise help (without the --help flag) would fail with a "no tasks defined" error when no tasks were configured. The issue occurred because "help" was being interpreted as a task name, triggering unnecessary config loading and task resolution.

Key Changes:

• Added special case handling in the argument preprocessor to prevent "help" from being treated as a task name
• Added early exit logic in get_command() to display help output when help-related arguments are detected
• Added comprehensive e2e test coverage for all help command variants

Reviewed Changes

Copilot reviewed 2 out of 2 changed files in this pull request and generated 2 comments.

File	Description
src/cli/mod.rs	Added special case handling for help arguments in preprocessor and get_command() to prevent help from being treated as a task
e2e/cli/test_help_without_tasks	New e2e test verifying mise help, mise --help, and mise -h work without task configuration

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[Copilot]

The condition checks if task equals '-h' or '--help', but these flags would have been parsed by clap as CLI flags, not as task names. Only 'help' can reach this point as a task value. The additional checks for '-h' and '--help' are unreachable and should be removed.

Suggested change

	// Handle special case: "help", "-h", or "--help" as task should print help
	if task == "help" || task == "-h" || task == "--help" {
	// Handle special case: "help" as task should print help
	if task == "help" {

[Copilot]

The cleanup section uses 'cd -' which assumes the previous directory is still in the directory stack. If the script fails before reaching cleanup, the temp directory won't be removed. Consider using a trap to ensure cleanup on exit: trap 'rm -rf \"$TEMP_DIR\"' EXIT

[github-actions]

Hyperfine Performance

mise x -- echo

Command	Mean [ms]	Min [ms]	Max [ms]	Relative
mise-2025.11.3 x -- echo	19.1 ± 0.9	18.2	27.7	1.00 ± 0.05
mise x -- echo	19.1 ± 0.4	18.2	20.6	1.00

mise env

Command	Mean [ms]	Min [ms]	Max [ms]	Relative
mise-2025.11.3 env	18.3 ± 0.3	17.7	19.6	1.00
mise env	18.8 ± 0.7	17.7	23.4	1.03 ± 0.04

mise hook-env

Command	Mean [ms]	Min [ms]	Max [ms]	Relative
mise-2025.11.3 hook-env	18.4 ± 0.3	17.7	19.8	1.00
mise hook-env	18.7 ± 0.5	17.9	21.4	1.02 ± 0.03

mise ls

Command	Mean [ms]	Min [ms]	Max [ms]	Relative
mise-2025.11.3 ls	15.9 ± 0.3	15.4	17.7	1.00
mise ls	16.6 ± 0.6	15.6	18.5	1.05 ± 0.04

xtasks/test/perf

Command	mise-2025.11.3	mise	Variance
install (cached)	105ms	109ms	-3%
ls (cached)	64ms	65ms	-1%
bin-paths (cached)	71ms	71ms	+0%
task-ls (cached)	425ms	434ms	-2%