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01Issue
FeatureShippedSwamp CLI
Assigneesstack72

#275 Add 'swamp auth status' as alias for 'swamp auth whoami'

Opened by bixu · 5/7/2026· Shipped 5/7/2026

Problem

When AI coding agents (Claude Code, Cursor, etc.) try to programmatically check whether swamp is authenticated, they reach for swamp auth status by analogy with the dominant convention in the CLI ecosystem:

  • gh auth status
  • aws sts get-caller-identity / aws configure list
  • gcloud auth print-access-token
  • kubectl auth whoami (added in 1.28 alongside the older kubectl config view)
  • docker login / docker info (status-check pattern)
  • op signin --account / op whoami

status is the term agents — and most humans — try first. swamp uses whoami, which works but produces a hard error on first attempt:

$ swamp auth status --json
"status" is not a subcommand of "auth".

The agent then has to re-plan, retry with whoami, and (if it's persistent) save a memory note to remember the swamp-specific spelling next time.

Proposed solution

Add status as an alias for whoami under swamp auth. Both should work; the help text can list whoami as the canonical name and status as an alias, or vice versa — whichever the maintainers prefer for branding. Output shape unchanged.

Alternatives considered

  • Document the difference: doesn't help agents that don't read docs before reaching for a CLI.
  • Rename whoamistatus: backwards-incompatible. Aliasing avoids this.

Why this matters

Small ergonomics issues like this compound across the agentic workflows swamp explicitly targets. Every "wrong subcommand" error costs an LLM round-trip and pollutes its memory. Matching the dominant CLI convention reduces friction for both humans coming from gh/aws/gcloud and for agents driving swamp programmatically.

Environment

  • swamp version: 20260506.233640.0-sha.5729ac50
02Bog Flow
OPENTRIAGEDIN PROGRESSSHIPPED+ 1 MOREASSIGNED+ 2 MOREREVIEW+ 3 MOREPR_MERGEDCOMPLETE

Shipped

5/7/2026, 3:11:54 PM

Click a lifecycle step above to view its details.

03Sludge Pulse
stack72 assigned stack725/7/2026, 2:49:43 PM

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