collect-remote: --out, --workflow or --ref with no value is used as the string "true" #270

What's wrong

parseFlags stores a flag with no value as true. bin/collect-remote.mjs runs checkFlagValues on --max-pages, --depth, --runner, --search-transport and --timeout, but not on --out, --workflow or --ref:

https://github.com/StepenkoAnatoli/Research-Kit/blob/610d353f2c5b81497b34877520c2f0e3bfa61be2/research-kit/bin/collect-remote.mjs#L141-L147

So a bare --out becomes path.resolve(String(true)), which is <cwd>/true. usableOutDir() then creates that folder (fs.mkdirSync(dir, { recursive: true }) in lib/dispatch.mjs), and only after that is the token checked:

https://github.com/StepenkoAnatoli/Research-Kit/blob/610d353f2c5b81497b34877520c2f0e3bfa61be2/research-kit/bin/collect-remote.mjs#L159-L167

Repro, with no GitHub token set:

node research-kit/bin/collect-remote.mjs --repository o/r --topic t --out

This exits 3 with "no GitHub token" and leaves an empty ./true/ folder behind. With a token set, a bare --workflow or --ref would dispatch a run with the literal value "true".

The fix

Add out: 'value', workflow: 'value', ref: 'value' to that checkFlagValues spec. It already turns a valueless flag into --<name> needs a value and exits with EXIT.CANNOT_START, before anything is created or dispatched.

Test

research-kit/test/cli.test.mjs already has several "collect-remote refuses ... before it asks for a token" tests. Add one that runs the command above in a temporary project and asserts:

• exit status 3
• stderr matches /--out needs a value/
• no folder named true exists in the project afterwards

Checking your change

node research-kit/bin/selftest.mjs cli