Align CLI help output (#248)

* Align CLI help output

Co-authored-by: OpenAI Codex <codex@openai.com>

* Address CLI help review feedback

Co-authored-by: OpenAI Codex <codex@openai.com>

---------

Co-authored-by: OpenAI Codex <codex@openai.com>

agent/utils/terminal_display.py

@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ import asyncio
 import re
 
 from rich.console import Console
+from rich.markup import escape
 from rich.markdown import Heading, Markdown
 from rich.panel import Panel
 from rich.theme import Theme
@@ -446,23 +447,72 @@ def print_yolo_approve(count: int) -> None:
 
 # ── Help ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 
-HELP_TEXT = f"""\
-{_I}[bold]Commands[/bold]
-{_I}  [cyan]/help[/cyan]            Show this help
-{_I}  [cyan]/undo[/cyan]            Undo last turn
-{_I}  [cyan]/compact[/cyan]         Compact context window
-{_I}  [cyan]/resume[/cyan] [index|id|path] Pick up from a log in ./session_logs
-{_I}  [cyan]/model[/cyan] [id]      Show available models or switch
-{_I}  [cyan]/effort[/cyan] [level]  Reasoning effort (minimal|low|medium|high|xhigh|max|off)
-{_I}  [cyan]/yolo[/cyan]            Toggle auto-approve mode
-{_I}  [cyan]/status[/cyan]          Current model & turn count
-{_I}  [cyan]/share-traces[/cyan] [public|private]  Show/flip visibility of your HF trace dataset
-{_I}  [cyan]/quit[/cyan]            Exit"""
+HELP_ROWS: tuple[tuple[str, str, str], ...] = (
+    ("/help", "", "Show this help"),
+    ("/undo", "", "Undo last turn"),
+    ("/compact", "", "Compact context window"),
+    ("/resume", "[index|id|path]", "Pick up from ./session_logs"),
+    ("/model", "[id]", "Show available models or switch"),
+    (
+        "/effort",
+        "[level]",
+        "Set reasoning effort preference",
+    ),
+    ("/yolo", "", "Toggle auto-approve mode"),
+    ("/status", "", "Current model & turn count"),
+    (
+        "/share-traces",
+        "[public|private]",
+        "Show or change HF trace visibility",
+    ),
+    ("/quit", "", "Exit"),
+)
+
+
+def _help_column_widths(
+    rows: tuple[tuple[str, str, str], ...],
+) -> tuple[int, int]:
+    return (
+        max(len(command) for command, _, _ in rows),
+        max(len(args) for _, args, _ in rows),
+    )
+
+
+def _format_help_row(
+    command: str,
+    args: str,
+    description: str,
+    command_width: int,
+    args_width: int,
+) -> str:
+    command_gap = " " * (command_width - len(command) + 2)
+    args_gap = " " * (args_width - len(args) + 2)
+    command_markup = f"[cyan]{escape(command)}[/cyan]"
+    args_markup = f"[muted]{escape(args)}[/muted]" if args else ""
+    return f"{_I}  {command_markup}{command_gap}{args_markup}{args_gap}{description}"
+
+
+def format_help_text(rows: tuple[tuple[str, str, str], ...] | None = None) -> str:
+    help_rows = HELP_ROWS if rows is None else rows
+    command_width, args_width = _help_column_widths(help_rows)
+    return "\n".join(
+        [f"{_I}[bold]Commands[/bold]"]
+        + [
+            _format_help_row(
+                command,
+                args,
+                description,
+                command_width,
+                args_width,
+            )
+            for command, args, description in help_rows
+        ]
+    )
 
 
 def print_help() -> None:
     _console.print()
-    _console.print(HELP_TEXT)
+    _console.print(format_help_text())
     _console.print()
 
 

tests/unit/test_cli_rendering.py

@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ from io import StringIO
 from types import SimpleNamespace
 
 import pytest
+from rich.console import Console
 
 import agent.main as main_mod
 from agent.tools.research_tool import _get_research_model
@@ -29,6 +30,50 @@ def test_non_anthropic_research_model_is_unchanged():
     assert _get_research_model("openai/gpt-5.4") == "openai/gpt-5.4"
 
 
+def test_help_output_keeps_descriptions_aligned(monkeypatch):
+    output = StringIO()
+    console = Console(
+        file=output,
+        color_system=None,
+        theme=terminal_display._THEME,
+        width=120,
+    )
+    monkeypatch.setattr(terminal_display, "_console", console)
+
+    terminal_display.print_help()
+
+    lines = [line.rstrip() for line in output.getvalue().splitlines() if line.strip()]
+    description_columns = []
+    for command, args, description in terminal_display.HELP_ROWS:
+        line = next(line for line in lines if command in line)
+        if args:
+            assert args in line
+        description_columns.append(line.index(description))
+
+    assert len(set(description_columns)) == 1
+
+
+def test_help_output_recomputes_widths_from_rows():
+    rows = terminal_display.HELP_ROWS + (
+        ("/longer-command", "[longer-args]", "Synthetic help row"),
+    )
+    output = StringIO()
+    Console(
+        file=output,
+        color_system=None,
+        theme=terminal_display._THEME,
+        width=140,
+    ).print(terminal_display.format_help_text(rows))
+
+    lines = [line.rstrip() for line in output.getvalue().splitlines() if line.strip()]
+    description_columns = [
+        next(line for line in lines if command in line).index(description)
+        for command, _args, description in rows
+    ]
+
+    assert len(set(description_columns)) == 1
+
+
 def test_subagent_display_does_not_spawn_background_redraw(monkeypatch):
     calls: list[object] = []