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 70.21277% with 14 lines in your changes missing coverage. Please review.
✅ Project coverage is 64.79%. Comparing base (113aa42) to head (e6cf706).

Files with missing lines	Patch %	Lines
internal/pkg/create/create.go	68.18%	12 Missing and 2 partials ⚠️

Additional details and impacted files

@@            Coverage Diff             @@
##             main     #345      +/-   ##
==========================================
+ Coverage   64.73%   64.79%   +0.06%     
==========================================
  Files         212      212              
  Lines       17809    17854      +45     
==========================================
+ Hits        11528    11569      +41     
+ Misses       5207     5202       -5     
- Partials     1074     1083       +9

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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.

mwbrooks · 2026-02-20T04:13:42Z

cmd/project/create.go

 	cmd.Flags().StringVarP(&createGitBranchFlag, "branch", "b", "", "name of git branch to checkout")
 	cmd.Flags().StringVarP(&createAppNameFlag, "name", "n", "", "name for your app (overrides the name argument)")
 	cmd.Flags().BoolVar(&createListFlag, "list", false, "list available app templates")
+	cmd.Flags().StringVar(&createSubdirFlag, "subdir", "", "subdirectory within the template to use as project root")


suggestion: An attempt to shorten the description so that it doesn't wrap on 80 character terminals

Suggested change

cmd.Flags().StringVar(&createSubdirFlag, "subdir", "", "subdirectory within the template to use as project root")

cmd.Flags().StringVar(&createSubdirFlag, "subdir", "", "subdirectory in the template to use as project")

Before:

After:

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!

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-")

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

mwbrooks · 2026-02-20T04:45:57Z

internal/pkg/create/create.go

+	return goutils.CopyDirectory(goutils.CopyDirectoryOpts{
+		Src:               subdirPath,
+		Dst:               dirPath,
+		IgnoreDirectories: []string{".git", ".venv", "node_modules"},
+		IgnoreFiles:       []string{".DS_Store"},
+	})


suggestion: I noticed that we have the same IgnoreDirectories and IgnoreFiles on L337. Thoughts on pulling those two slices out to use in both places (less error prone if we need to ignore more files/directories). Alternatively, this could become a function used in both places.

mwbrooks · 2026-02-20T04:58:39Z

cmd/project/create.go

 		AppName:   appNameArg,
 		Template:  template,
 		GitBranch: createGitBranchFlag,
+		Subdir:    createSubdirFlag,


question: Right now --subdir without --template is silently accepted. For example, slack create --subdir src will use the src/ of whatever template is selected in the prompts.

Personally, I'd learn toward erroring if --subdir is used without --template because it avoids unexpected behaviour or exploits and we can "loosen" that contraint later if we decided we want that experience.

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?

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

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feat(create): add '--subdir <path>' flag to 'create' command#345

feat(create): add '--subdir <path>' flag to 'create' command#345
srtaalej wants to merge 1 commit intomainfrom
ale-feat-subdir-flag

srtaalej commented Feb 19, 2026 •

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	cmd.Flags().StringVar(&createSubdirFlag, "subdir", "", "subdirectory within the template to use as project root")
	cmd.Flags().StringVar(&createSubdirFlag, "subdir", "", "subdirectory in the template to use as project")

		// 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)

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srtaalej commented Feb 19, 2026 •

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