feat(create): add '--subdir <path>' flag to 'create' command by srtaalej · Pull Request #345 · slackapi/slack-cli

srtaalej · 2026-02-19T21:01:44Z

Changelog

Added --subdir flag to slack create for extracting a subdirectory from a template repository as the project root. This supports monorepo-style templates where multiple apps live in subdirectories (e.g. slack create my-app -t org/monorepo --subdir apps/my-app). 🦋

Summary

This PR adds a --subdir <path> flag to slack create that works alongside --template and --branch. When provided, the full template is cloned into a temporary directory, then only the specified subdirectory is copied to the final project path.

Behavior:

--subdir pydantic-ai/ → extracts the pydantic-ai directory from the template
--subdir . or --subdir / → equivalent to omitting the flag (full repo)
--subdir ../escape → rejected with an error (path traversal)
--subdir nonexistent → error with remediation hint pointing to the template
--list --subdir foo → --list returns early, --subdir is ignored

Requirements

I've read and understood the Contributing Guidelines and have done my best effort to follow them.
I've read and agree to the Code of Conduct.

codecov · 2026-02-19T21:07:11Z

Codecov Report

❌ Patch coverage is 73.58491% with 14 lines in your changes missing coverage. Please review.
✅ Project coverage is 64.77%. Comparing base (62770ba) to head (32ede49).

Files with missing lines	Patch %	Lines
internal/pkg/create/create.go	70.21%	12 Missing and 2 partials ⚠️

Additional details and impacted files

@@            Coverage Diff             @@
##             main     #345      +/-   ##
==========================================
+ Coverage   64.62%   64.77%   +0.14%     
==========================================
  Files         212      212              
  Lines       17820    17869      +49     
==========================================
+ Hits        11517    11575      +58     
+ Misses       5225     5213      -12     
- Partials     1078     1081       +3

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mwbrooks

🙌🏻 Amazing @srtaalej! Holy smokes, I can't believe you shared this PR today 👌🏻

🧪 Testing locally works great!

$ slack create -t https://github.com/slack-samples/bolt-python-examples --subdir block-kit

📝 I've left some feedback. For the afero feedback, think about it.

Generally we've put a huge amount of effort into ensuring the CLI uses afero whenever possible. In unit tests, Afero is a "virtual" memory-based file system - so there's no risk to the developer's machine and the tests run faster because it's not actually reading/writing to disk. However, sometimes it's difficult to use it certain areas. If you use afero you may need to change your tests to not use t.TempDir() and instead use Afero to create the temp directory.

cmd/project/create.go

mwbrooks · 2026-02-20T04:16:38Z

internal/pkg/create/create.go

+// normalizeSubdir cleans the subdir path and returns "" if it resolves to root.
+func normalizeSubdir(subdir string) (string, error) {


praise: very nice! 👌🏻

mwbrooks · 2026-02-20T04:23:34Z

internal/pkg/create/create.go

+	cleaned := filepath.Clean(subdir)
+	if cleaned == "." || cleaned == "/" {
+		return "", nil
+	}


suggestion: After filepath.Clean() maybe we should use filepath.isLocal(cleaned).

This function appears to check if the file path is within the subtree and prevent traversal attacks where the path tries to access files outside of the root directory (template directory).

I haven't used it personally, but it seems like a good security measure.

mwbrooks · 2026-02-20T04:24:07Z

internal/pkg/create/create.go

+	if subdir != "" {
+		if err := createAppFromSubdir(ctx, projectDirPath, createArgs.Template, createArgs.GitBranch, subdir, log, clients.Fs); err != nil {
+			return "", slackerror.Wrap(err, slackerror.ErrAppCreate)
+		}
+	} else {
+		if err := createApp(ctx, projectDirPath, createArgs.Template, createArgs.GitBranch, log, clients.Fs); err != nil {
+			return "", slackerror.Wrap(err, slackerror.ErrAppCreate)
+		}


praise: clean implementation choice!

🪬 question(non-blocking): Would passing subdir to createApp in all instances - either a default "." or the normalized path - reduce this implementation more? I'm concerned that a change to the temporary directory logic might require repeated change if we keep separate setups for this.

mwbrooks · 2026-02-20T04:34:32Z

internal/pkg/create/create.go

+// createAppFromSubdir clones the full template into a temp directory, then copies
+// only the specified subdirectory to the final project path.
+func createAppFromSubdir(ctx context.Context, dirPath string, template Template, gitBranch string, subdir string, log *logger.Logger, fs afero.Fs) error {
+	tmpDir, err := os.MkdirTemp("", "slack-create-*")


suggestion: We should not use os. calls directly whenever possible. These calls are very hard to test because we can't mock it - it will create a temp directory during the unit test.

Instead, we should use our fs afero.Fs filesystem library. This uses os in production and a memory-based file system in tests.

I imagine we can use afero.GetTempDir() and afero.TempDir() to look something like:

tempDirRoot := afero.GetTempDir(fs, "") tempDirPath, err := afero.TempDir(fs, tmpDirRoot, "slack-create-")

ty for sharing - i didnt know we were using a package for temp directories 👍 this is a game changer 💯

mwbrooks · 2026-02-20T04:41:48Z

internal/pkg/create/create.go

+	if err := createApp(ctx, tmpDir, template, gitBranch, log, fs); err != nil {
+		return err
+	}


praise: Clever and clean approach!

mwbrooks · 2026-02-20T04:43:22Z

internal/pkg/create/create.go

+			return slackerror.New(slackerror.ErrSubdirNotFound).
+				WithMessage("subdirectory %q was not found in the template", subdir).
+				WithRemediation("Check that the path exists in the template at %q", template.GetTemplatePath())


TIL: %q vs %s

internal/pkg/create/create.go

cmd/project/create.go

mwbrooks · 2026-02-20T05:02:46Z

internal/pkg/create/create.go

+	// Remove so createApp can create it fresh (go-git requires non-existent target)
+	os.Remove(tmpDir)


question: Why do we make the temp directory on L377 and then immediately delete it?

MkdirTemp generates unique path names which we want for createApp. But we don't want the directory itself which is why its deleted right away. Its a workaround to extract the unique name creation part of the MkdirTemp function so we can use it in createApp.

Co-authored-by: Michael Brooks <mbrooks@slack-corp.com>

zimeg

@srtaalej Super nice changesets here! I'm leaving a few comments but this works well for me - it's a neat unlock! 🎉

Before merging we might want to revisit error messages and codes. Please correct me if sentence casings should be lowercased, but I find that this is confusing in most implementations for me... The error code itself had another note, but these aren't blocking changes!

I also resolved a few comments with recent commits but found this a bit confusing in review. If I can kind request these be marked resolved with matching commits before next review it'd be kind 💌

cmd/project/create.go

zimeg · 2026-02-23T22:32:50Z

cmd/project/create.go

+	// --subdir requires --template
+	if cmd.Flags().Changed("subdir") && !templateFlagProvided {
+		return slackerror.New(slackerror.ErrMismatchedFlags).
+			WithMessage("the --subdir flag requires the --template flag")


Suggested change

WithMessage("the --subdir flag requires the --template flag")

WithMessage("The --subdir flag requires the --template flag")

🏁 polish: To match surrounding error messages. Though I'm not confident in how consistent we are with this... Let's take note to include this in a Style Guide soon!

zimeg · 2026-02-23T22:35:44Z

internal/slackerror/errors.go

 	ErrSocketConnection                              = "socket_connection_error"
 	ErrScopesExceedAppConfig                         = "scopes_exceed_app_config"
 	ErrStreamingActivityLogs                         = "streaming_activity_logs_error"
+	ErrSubdirNotFound                                = "subdir_not_found"


💡 thought(non-blocking): Would it make sense to group this alongside other template errors? To me the referenced subdir wouldn't be clear at a glance. I'd suggest:

template_subdir_not_found

Which is so close to template_path_not_found!

internal/pkg/create/create.go

zimeg · 2026-02-23T22:46:21Z

internal/pkg/create/create.go

+	if subdir != "" {
+		if err := createAppFromSubdir(ctx, projectDirPath, createArgs.Template, createArgs.GitBranch, subdir, log, clients.Fs); err != nil {
+			return "", slackerror.Wrap(err, slackerror.ErrAppCreate)
+		}
+	} else {
+		if err := createApp(ctx, projectDirPath, createArgs.Template, createArgs.GitBranch, log, clients.Fs); err != nil {
+			return "", slackerror.Wrap(err, slackerror.ErrAppCreate)
+		}


🪬 question(non-blocking): Would passing subdir to createApp in all instances - either a default "." or the normalized path - reduce this implementation more? I'm concerned that a change to the temporary directory logic might require repeated change if we keep separate setups for this.

zimeg · 2026-02-23T22:47:09Z

internal/pkg/create/create.go

+	}
+	if !filepath.IsLocal(cleaned) {
+		return "", slackerror.New(slackerror.ErrSubdirNotFound).
+			WithMessage("subdirectory path %q must be relative and within the template", subdir)


Suggested change

WithMessage("subdirectory path %q must be relative and within the template", subdir)

WithMessage("Subdirectory path %q must be relative and within the template", subdir)

🧮 quibble: Casing to errors as a complete sentence!

zimeg · 2026-02-23T22:47:46Z

internal/pkg/create/create.go

+	if err != nil {
+		if os.IsNotExist(err) {
+			return slackerror.New(slackerror.ErrSubdirNotFound).
+				WithMessage("subdirectory %q was not found in the template", subdir).


Suggested change

WithMessage("subdirectory %q was not found in the template", subdir).

WithMessage("Subdirectory %q was not found in the template", subdir).

🚢 quibble: Casings to the sentence structure!

zimeg · 2026-02-23T22:48:18Z

internal/pkg/create/create.go

+	}
+	if !info.IsDir() {
+		return slackerror.New(slackerror.ErrSubdirNotFound).
+			WithMessage("path %q in the template is not a directory", subdir)


Suggested change

WithMessage("path %q in the template is not a directory", subdir)

WithMessage("Path %q in the template is not a directory", subdir)

📠 quibble: Forbid this error be reached, but let's start with a capital path here.

feat(create): add 'subdir' flag to create command

e6cf706

srtaalej self-assigned this Feb 19, 2026

srtaalej requested a review from a team as a code owner February 19, 2026 21:01

srtaalej added enhancement M-T: A feature request for new functionality semver:minor Use on pull requests to describe the release version increment labels Feb 19, 2026

mwbrooks added this to the Next Release milestone Feb 20, 2026

mwbrooks changed the title ~~feat(create): add 'subdir' flag to create command~~ feat(create): add '--subdir <path>' flag to 'create' command Feb 20, 2026

mwbrooks added the changelog Use on updates to be included in the release notes label Feb 20, 2026

mwbrooks reviewed Feb 20, 2026

View reviewed changes

srtaalej and others added 3 commits February 23, 2026 11:28

Update cmd/project/create.go

62d6b43

Co-authored-by: Michael Brooks <mbrooks@slack-corp.com>

fix: compress complicated temp directory code

e477a49

subdir errors without template flag

b1312a7

srtaalej requested a review from zimeg February 23, 2026 18:37

srtaalej and others added 4 commits February 23, 2026 15:48

extract shared copy ignore lists into package-level variables

a62cbcf

use filepath.IsLocal for subdir path validation

78ccb06

use afero filesystem for createAppFromSubdir instead of os calls

03222ca

Merge branch 'main' into ale-feat-subdir-flag

32ede49

zimeg approved these changes Feb 23, 2026

View reviewed changes

		// normalizeSubdir cleans the subdir path and returns "" if it resolves to root.
		func normalizeSubdir(subdir string) (string, error) {

		// Remove so createApp can create it fresh (go-git requires non-existent target)
		os.Remove(tmpDir)

	WithMessage("the --subdir flag requires the --template flag")
	WithMessage("The --subdir flag requires the --template flag")

	WithMessage("subdirectory path %q must be relative and within the template", subdir)
	WithMessage("Subdirectory path %q must be relative and within the template", subdir)

	WithMessage("subdirectory %q was not found in the template", subdir).
	WithMessage("Subdirectory %q was not found in the template", subdir).

	WithMessage("path %q in the template is not a directory", subdir)
	WithMessage("Path %q in the template is not a directory", subdir)

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srtaalej commented Feb 19, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

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srtaalej commented Feb 19, 2026 •

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