Custom commands not listed

[dunkmann00]

When I run the flask command by itself I get help output with all of my custom commands listed. But when I run flask --help I get the help output with only the built-in flask commands (routes, run, shell). I am using the FLASK_APP environment variable to load the app.

I would think I should get the same help output (showing my custom commands) whether or not I add the --help parameter?

Environment:

• Python 3.12.2
• Flask 3.1.0

[davidism]

I don't think there's anything from Flask's side that can be done. The --app option is marked eager, and the eager --help option is added automatically by Click to the end of the param list. The problem is, Click orders param evaluation by command line presence and position first, then by list order. Since --help is the only option present on the command line in this case, it takes precedence. This could be something more general to report to Click, but I don't see how it can be addressed here.

[dunkmann00]

I understand, thanks for that explanation @davidism.

[dunkmann00]

@davidism I looked at the code that handles making a bare flask command correctly find the app and tried this slight change, which works. Not sure if there would be any unintended consequences I'm not thinking of, but I thought I'd share this to see if you think its a good idea/are open to it.

From cli.py L686-L694:

    def parse_args(self, ctx: click.Context, args: list[str]) -> list[str]:
-       if not args and self.no_args_is_help:
+       if (
+           (not args and self.no_args_is_help)
+           or (len(args) == 1 and args[0] in self.get_help_option_names(ctx))
+       ):
            # Attempt to load --env-file and --app early in case they
            # were given as env vars. Otherwise no_args_is_help will not
            # see commands from app.cli.
            _env_file_option.handle_parse_result(ctx, {}, [])
            _app_option.handle_parse_result(ctx, {}, [])


        return super().parse_args(ctx, args)

[davidism]

Hmm, that probably won't work in all cases, but I think it's fine for this where people probably won't be overriding it. Can you create a PR?

[dunkmann00]

@davidism No rush, but just wondering if you have had a chance to look at #5674?

[davidism]

Looks fine, but it will be a while before I have time to merge it and make a release.

[Burka111]

Hey! 👋 I’ve encountered similar issues when working with Flask-SQLAlchemy. Have you tried using app.app_context() explicitly to manage the request context? It might help clarify if the issue is related to how Flask handles request lifecycle. Let me know if you need help testing this! 🚀