--- 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 --repo / ""` **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 "$(cat body.md)" < /dev/null ``` The identical command with `< /dev/null` appended completed in seconds and posted correctly. ## Scope of the behavior — do not over-generalize Only `tea comment` was observed hanging. In the same session, these ran **without** `< /dev/null` and returned normally: - `tea issues list --repo ...` - `tea issues --repo ...` (view) - `tea issues edit --repo ... --add-assignees ` So this is **not** a blanket property of every `tea` subcommand. **Update 2026-07-15 (cc-os wayfinder charting):** - `tea issues edit --description ""` **also hangs** without the guard — observed as the same silent 2-minute timeout in a bash script. (Note `edit --add-assignees` returned normally on 2026-07-14, so the hang seems tied to body-carrying flags, fitting the stdin hypothesis.) Not retried with `< /dev/null`; the API route below was used instead. - `tea issues create --repo ... --title ... --description "$(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.