---
summary: "The tea CLI's `comment` and `issues edit --description` subcommands hang indefinitely in non-interactive contexts unless stdin is closed; the Forgejo REST API is a robust bypass."
tags:
  - type/reference
  - tool/tea
  - tool/forgejo
scope: global
source: cc-os
date: 2026-07-14
last_updated: 2026-07-15
---

# tea CLI: `comment` blocks on stdin

`tea comment <N> --repo <owner>/<repo> "<body>"` **hangs indefinitely** — it blocks reading
stdin even though the body was supplied as a positional argument. Observed as a 2-minute
timeout in an agent session; the request never reached the server (no comment was posted).

The fix is to close stdin explicitly:

```bash
tea comment 45 --repo jared/cc-os "$(cat body.md)" < /dev/null
```

The identical command with `< /dev/null` appended completed in seconds and posted correctly.

## Scope of the behavior — do not over-generalize

Only `tea comment` was observed hanging. In the same session, these ran **without**
`< /dev/null` and returned normally:

- `tea issues list --repo ...`
- `tea issues <N> --repo ...` (view)
- `tea issues edit <N> --repo ... --add-assignees <user>`

So this is **not** a blanket property of every `tea` subcommand.

**Update 2026-07-15 (cc-os wayfinder charting):**

- `tea issues edit <N> --description "<body>"` **also hangs** without the guard — observed
  as the same silent 2-minute timeout in a bash script. (Note `edit --add-assignees`
  returned normally on 2026-07-14, so the hang seems tied to body-carrying flags, fitting
  the stdin hypothesis.) Not retried with `< /dev/null`; the API route below was used instead.
- `tea issues create --repo ... --title ... --description "$(cat file)"` completed normally
  **nine times in a row** inside a bash script without the guard — create appears safe.
- `tea issues close` remains untested without the guard.

**Robust bypass — the Forgejo REST API.** When a tea subcommand hangs (or for anything
scripted), PATCH/POST directly with tea's own token, read in-process and never printed:

```python
token = re.search(r'token:\s*(\S+)', open('~/.config/tea/config.yml').read()).group(1)
# PATCH /api/v1/repos/{owner}/{repo}/issues/{n}        {"body": ...} — edit body
# PATCH ... /issues/{n}                                 {"state": "closed"} — close
# POST  ... /issues/{n}/comments                        {"body": ...} — comment
```

All three returned 201 and behaved correctly where `tea issues edit` had hung.

Cheap defensive habit for any agent scripting tea: append `< /dev/null` to tea calls in
non-interactive contexts. It is harmless where it isn't needed, and it converts a silent
2-minute hang into a normal completion.

## Why it matters

An agent scripting Forgejo issue updates will appear to hang with no error and no output.
The cause is non-obvious (the body *was* provided, so there is no apparent reason to read
stdin) and the tea docs do not mention stdin behavior for `comment`. Without knowing this,
the natural next move is to retry the command — which hangs again.

Evidence is one reproduction plus one successful retry differing only in the redirect; the
stdin hypothesis is strong but not proven against tea's source.
