Improve help screens: show disabled commands with reason and add --full recursive help by Copilot · Pull Request #6287 · wp-cli/wp-cli

Copilot · 2026-03-22T00:14:51Z

Disabled commands were silently hidden from help listings, making it hard to understand why a command seemed to be missing. There was also no way to get a comprehensive view of all subcommands and their documentation in one place.

Changes

Show disabled commands with reason in help listings

CompositeCommand::show_usage() — disabled subcommands now appear with the reason appended rather than being omitted (affects wp core, wp db, etc.)
Help_Command::render_subcommands() — the SUBCOMMANDS section in wp help <cmd> now lists disabled commands with the reason included
Runner::get_command_disabled_reason() — new method returning the reason why a command is disabled (e.g. "from the config file") or false if it isn't; is_command_disabled() now delegates to it

Example:

Trying to run or get detailed help on a disabled command still errors as before. Example:

$ wp core
Error: The 'core' command has been disabled from the config file.

`wp help --full` for recursive help output

Adds a --full flag to wp help that recursively outputs help for the specified command and all its non-disabled subcommands, separated by --- dividers — a man-page-style overview of the entire command tree.

wp help core --full      # shows wp core + all core subcommands in one output
wp help --full           # full help for everything (piped through pager)

Internal refactor

show_help() is now a thin wrapper around the extracted get_help_as_string() helper, which get_help_full() uses to accumulate output before a single pager pass.

Test updates

features/config.feature: updated assertions to verify (disabled: from the config file) appears in listings
features/help.feature: new scenarios for disabled-command visibility with reason and --full behavior

Original prompt

This section details on the original issue you should resolve

<issue_title>Improve user experience of the help screens</issue_title>
<issue_description>This is a placeholder issue for potential improvements to the help screens:

Show disabled commands with the reason why they were disabled

Extended help view, or a man page

Web links in console output

Show disabled commands with the reason why they were disabled

From #4035

Extended help view, or a man page

I find that the single-page layout of a man page aids with the discoverability of features of a command. While I'm looking for details of the option I need help with, I often see something that I wasn't previously aware of or had forgotten.

This sort of discoverability doesn't exist in the wp help command as it only lists the top level subcommands. Some form of extended help view which lists the description and complete synopsis for every available command could help with discoverability. A trimmed example is below.
$ man wp
NAME

  wp

DESCRIPTION

  Manage WordPress through the command-line.

SYNOPSIS

  wp <command>

SUBCOMMANDS

  wp cache add <key> <value> [<group>] [<expiration>]
          Add a value to the object cache.

  wp cache decr <key> [<offset>] [<group>]
          Decrement a value in the object cache.
From #4565

Web links in console output

If we want to bridge the gap between the console (where the "product" is being used) and the web (where the "product" is being documented and worked on), we need to define in what form hyperlinks can or should be used in console output.

See #4158</issue_description>

<agent_instructions>I like the "Show disabled commands with the reason why they were disabled" part. Can we just build that?

For the "Extended help view", perhaps if someone does wp help --full we do that? Would be convenient, everything in one place.</agent_instructions>

Comments on the Issue (you are @copilot in this section)

Fixes Improve user experience of the help screens #6244

📱 Kick off Copilot coding agent tasks wherever you are with GitHub Mobile, available on iOS and Android.

- Show disabled commands in help listings with a '(disabled)' indicator instead of silently hiding them. This applies to both `wp help <cmd>` subcommand listings and `wp <cmd>` usage listings. - Add `--full` flag to `wp help` that recursively shows help for the command and all its non-disabled subcommands, separated by '---' dividers. Useful for a 'man page'-style view of all commands. - Refactor show_help() to extract get_help_as_string() helper for reuse. - Update Behat tests to reflect new disabled command behavior, and add new scenarios for both features. Co-authored-by: swissspidy <841956+swissspidy@users.noreply.github.com> Agent-Logs-Url: https://github.com/wp-cli/wp-cli/sessions/7f17cb62-25d6-4243-902b-b91c72b3a439

Add get_command_disabled_reason() to Runner that returns the reason why a command is disabled (e.g. "from the config file") or false if it isn't. Refactor is_command_disabled() to delegate to this new method. Update render_subcommands() in Help_Command and show_usage() in CompositeCommand to display the reason: "(disabled: from the config file)" instead of just "(disabled)". Co-authored-by: swissspidy <841956+swissspidy@users.noreply.github.com> Agent-Logs-Url: https://github.com/wp-cli/wp-cli/sessions/390953ed-6fff-4d07-8ddd-cba8679902e6

codecov · 2026-03-22T07:32:54Z

Codecov Report

❌ Patch coverage is 94.31818% with 5 lines in your changes missing coverage. Please review.

Files with missing lines	Patch %	Lines
php/WP_CLI/Dispatcher/DisabledCommand.php	55.55%	4 Missing ⚠️
php/commands/src/Help_Command.php	98.48%	1 Missing ⚠️

📢 Thoughts on this report? Let us know!

Copilot

Pull request overview

Improves WP‑CLI help UX by making disabled commands visible (with an explanation) and adding a wp help --full mode to recursively print help for a command tree in a single, pager-friendly output.

Changes:

Show disabled commands in help/usage output, including a reason instead of omitting them.
Add --full to wp help to recursively include help for subcommands.
Refactor help rendering to support accumulating output as a string before paging.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 8 out of 8 changed files in this pull request and generated 6 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
php/commands/src/Help_Command.php	Adds `--full`, refactors help rendering into string helpers, and updates subcommand listing to include disabled entries with reasons.
php/class-wp-cli.php	Wraps aborted command additions in a `DisabledCommand` so they can appear in listings while remaining non-invokable.
php/WP_CLI/Runner.php	Introduces `get_command_disabled_reason()` and refactors `is_command_disabled()` to delegate to it.
php/WP_CLI/Dispatcher/DisabledCommand.php	New dispatcher command type representing a disabled command and preventing execution with a dedicated error.
php/WP_CLI/Dispatcher/CompositeCommand.php	Updates composite usage output to show disabled subcommands with a suffix.
features/help.feature	Adds coverage for disabled-command visibility and `--full` recursive output.
features/config.feature	Updates expectations so config-disabled commands appear in listings with the reason.
features/command.feature	Updates expectations so hook-aborted commands appear in command listings with their docs/reason.

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swissspidy · 2026-04-15T08:05:38Z

/gemini review

gemini-code-assist

Code Review

This pull request enhances WP-CLI's handling of disabled commands by ensuring they are visible in help listings along with the reason for their disablement. It introduces a new DisabledCommand class, updates the add_command logic to retain aborted commands as disabled instances, and adds a --full flag to the wp help command for recursive subcommand documentation. I have no feedback to provide.

Initial plan

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Copilot AI assigned Copilot and swissspidy Mar 22, 2026

Copilot started work on behalf of swissspidy March 22, 2026 00:14 View session

github-actions bot added the command:cli-help label Mar 22, 2026

Copilot AI changed the title ~~[WIP] Improve user experience of the help screens~~ Improve help screens: show disabled commands and add --full recursive help Mar 22, 2026

Copilot AI requested a review from swissspidy March 22, 2026 00:22

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Copilot AI changed the title ~~Improve help screens: show disabled commands and add --full recursive help~~ Improve help screens: show disabled commands with reason and add --full recursive help Mar 22, 2026

Copilot finished work on behalf of swissspidy March 22, 2026 06:57

swissspidy added 3 commits April 14, 2026 20:34

Merge branch 'main' into copilot/improve-help-screens-user-experience

a7a72fd

Improve implementation

771cfa4

Update tests

583cc19

swissspidy added this to the 3.0.0 milestone Apr 14, 2026

swissspidy requested a review from Copilot April 14, 2026 20:38

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of swissspidy April 14, 2026 20:39 View session

Copilot AI reviewed Apr 14, 2026

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Comment thread php/commands/src/Help_Command.php

Comment thread php/commands/src/Help_Command.php

Comment thread php/WP_CLI/Runner.php

Comment thread php/WP_CLI/Dispatcher/CompositeCommand.php

Comment thread php/commands/src/Help_Command.php

Comment thread php/WP_CLI/Runner.php

Address code review feedback

81a255c

swissspidy marked this pull request as ready for review April 15, 2026 08:02

swissspidy requested a review from a team as a code owner April 15, 2026 08:02

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swissspidy merged commit 53134e3 into main Apr 15, 2026
72 of 73 checks passed

swissspidy deleted the copilot/improve-help-screens-user-experience branch April 15, 2026 08:17

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Improve help screens: show disabled commands with reason and add --full recursive help#6287

Improve help screens: show disabled commands with reason and add --full recursive help#6287
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edited by swissspidy

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Copilot AI commented Mar 22, 2026 • edited by swissspidy Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

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Changes

Show disabled commands with reason in help listings

wp help --full for recursive help output

Internal refactor

Test updates

Show disabled commands with the reason why they were disabled

Extended help view, or a man page

Web links in console output

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swissspidy commented Apr 15, 2026

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Copilot AI commented Mar 22, 2026 •

edited by swissspidy

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`wp help --full` for recursive help output

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