atuin

Magical shell history

notable Rust atuinsh/atuin
69% pass rate
2/8 principles met

Spec Coverage

How many of the spec's requirements were verified for this tool. See /coverage for the full matrix.

Level Total Verified Unverified
MUST 28 17 11
SHOULD 21 13 8
MAY 10 10 0

human-tui Scored as a TUI: the non-interactive audits (P1) and the SIGPIPE audit (P6) have been suppressed — TUI apps intercept the TTY by design and install their own signal handlers.

This is an informational signal, not an authoritative verdict — see methodology. The per-audit evidence below is the ground truth.

Top Issues

All Audits

P1: Non-Interactive by Default

N/A by human-tui Non-interactive by default suppressed by audit_profile: human-tui
N/A by human-tui Non-interactive gate flag advertised in --help suppressed by audit_profile: human-tui
WARN Flags advertise env-var bindings in --help 2 flag(s) found in --help but no `[env: NAME]` bindings advertised
PASS Secret-bearing flags expose stdin or *-file companion
WARN `--help` advertises default values for flags no default-value annotations found in --help. SHOULD-tier — agents reading help text need to see what value a flag falls back to when omitted (`[default: <value>]` per clap convention).
PASS Rich-TUI affordance for TTY contexts

P2: Structured, Parseable Output

WARN Structured output support --output/--format flag detected but could not validate JSON via safe probes (--help/--version override output flags in most CLIs)
SKIP Structured-output CLI exposes its schema at runtime no structured-output indicator (--output / --format / json / jsonl) in --help
WARN --json / --jsonl short aliases for --output no --json or --jsonl short alias found. Agents and pipelines benefit from short forms alongside the canonical `--output` enum.
WARN `--raw` flag for pipe-safe unformatted output no `--raw` flag advertised. MAY-tier — useful for pipelines that want to strip formatting before piping to other tools.
SKIP `--output` advertises additional formats beyond text/json no `--output` or `--format` flag advertised; vacuous skip for MAY-tier extra formats.
PASS Bad invocation exits with structured usage-error code (2)
SKIP Errors emit JSON envelope with `error`/`kind`/`message` under `--output json` binary does not advertise `--output json` in --help; MUST applies only to CLIs that opt into the JSON contract.
SKIP JSON success and error envelopes share their non-payload key set binary does not advertise `--output json` in --help; envelope-consistency only applies to CLIs that opt into the JSON contract.

P3: Progressive Help Discovery

PASS Help flag produces useful output
PASS Version flag works (`--version` plus short alias)
PASS Version flag works (`--version` plus short alias)
WARN `examples` subcommand or `--examples` flag for curated usage patterns no `examples` subcommand or `--examples` flag found. MAY-tier — a curated usage block keeps agents from hunting through long help text.
WARN Short `-h` summary differs from `--help` long form `-h` and `--help` produce byte-identical output. SHOULD-tier — clap renders the short summary on `-h` and the full description on `--help` when `long_about` is set; collapsing them gives agents no concise list-level grep target.
FAIL Each subcommand's `--help` ships at least one invocation example subcommands missing example invocations in their `--help`: setup, history, import, stats, search, sync, login, logout, register, key, status, account, kv, store, dotfiles, scripts, init, info, doctor, wrapped, daemon, default-config, config, ai, pty-proxy, uuid, contributors, gen-completions. Examples teach agents the call shape faster than option tables; use clap's `after_help` or a dedicated `Examples:` block.
WARN Help text pairs human and `--output json` example invocations no paired text + `--output json` example found within 5 lines in top-level or any subcommand `--help`. Pairing keeps agents from reverse-engineering the JSON invocation from the text one.

P4: Fail-Fast, Actionable Errors

PASS Rejects invalid arguments
PASS Error messages include a hint or remediation phrase
SKIP `--output json` produces JSON-formatted errors binary does not advertise `--output json` in --help; SHOULD applies only to CLIs that opt into the JSON contract.

P5: Safe Retries & Mutation Boundaries

SKIP Destructive subcommands require `--force` or `--yes` no destructive subcommands detected; MUST applies conditionally to CLIs with destructive operations.
WARN Read and write surfaces are both visible in subcommand list read-pattern subcommand(s) present (search) but no write-pattern surface detected. If the CLI is read-only by design the MUST is satisfied vacuously; otherwise the write surface needs an agent-recognizable verb (create/add/update/set/delete/…).

P6: Composable, Predictable Command Structure

N/A by human-tui Handles SIGPIPE gracefully suppressed by audit_profile: human-tui
SKIP Pager-using CLI ships --no-pager escape hatch no pager signal (less/more/$PAGER/--pager) in --help
PASS Respects NO_COLOR
WARN Subcommand verbs follow community-standard names 11/30 subcommand(s) follow standard verb names. Non-standard: setup, hook, import, stats, register, key, account, kv, store, dotfiles, scripts, wrapped, daemon, default-config, ai, pty-proxy, uuid, contributors, gen-completions. MAY-tier — community-standard verbs (get/list/create/update/delete) help agents predict subcommand behavior across CLIs.
WARN `--color` flag for explicit color control no `--color` flag advertised. MAY-tier — `auto|always|never` lets agents and pipelines override the TTY-based default.
SKIP Input-accepting commands read from stdin when no file is given no input-accepting subcommand detected (process/parse/convert/transform/analyze/validate/format/lint/audit); vacuous skip for the conditional SHOULD.
WARN Subcommand naming follows a consistent verb/noun convention subcommand naming is inconsistent: 7 non-verb subcommand(s) (history, account, kv, store, daemon, config, ai) mix verb and non-verb children at the second level, so an agent cannot predict where the action lives. SHOULD-tier: pick a consistent shape (all verb-first, all noun-verb hierarchy, or any combination where each non-verb group's children are uniformly verbs). The verb list is a heuristic; inspect `--help` to confirm.
PASS Operations are subcommands, not verb-shaped flags

P7: Bounded, High-Signal Responses

WARN Quiet mode available no --quiet/-q flag detected in --help output
WARN `--verbose` flag for diagnostic escalation no `--verbose` / `-v` flag advertised. SHOULD-tier — agents debugging failures need a way to escalate diagnostic detail.
WARN `--limit` / `--max-results` flag for list operations list-style subcommand present but no limit flag advertised (looked for --limit, --max-results, --max, --top, -n). SHOULD-tier — callers should be able to bound response size directly rather than scrape-then-truncate.
WARN Cursor-based pagination flags for list traversal list-style subcommand present but no cursor/page flag advertised (looked for --after, --before, --cursor, --page, --offset). MAY-tier — cursor pagination lets agents traverse large result sets without re-scanning earlier pages.
WARN `--timeout` flag for long-running operations long-running subcommand present but no timeout flag advertised (looked for --timeout, --deadline, --max-time). SHOULD-tier — without a bound, agents that hit a hung operation have to enforce timeouts externally.
WARN Help text advertises TTY-aware verbosity behavior no TTY-aware language found in `--help`. MAY-tier — automatic verbosity reduction when stdout is piped or redirected lets agents skip the explicit `--quiet` flag. Behavioral probes cannot simulate a real TTY without a pty crate, so this audit relies on documented intent.

P8: Discoverable Through Agent Skill Bundles

PASS Skill bundle has install path (`tool skill install [<host>]`)
PASS `skill install --all` for multi-runtime install
PASS `skill update` / `skill upgrade` for bundle refresh

Details

Version scored
18.16.1
Audit date
2026-06-01 17:36:45 UTC
Duration
460ms
Platform
linux/x86_64
Mode
command
Anc build
0.5.0
Install
brew install atuin

Embed the badge

The badge floor is 70%; this scorecard is at 69% (1 point below). Once the score clears the floor, the embed snippet will appear here. The top issues above are the place to start.

Reproduce this scorecard for atuin locally and inspect the failing audits:

anc audit --command atuin --audit-profile human-tui --output json

Install anc first if you don't have it. Add --output json to get the same JSON shape committed under scorecards/.