fix: improve generated CLI object parsing (#114) (thanks @v2nic)

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@
 ## [Unreleased]
 
 ### CLI
+- Generated CLIs now parse object-valued flags as JSON and render object placeholders/examples with JSON-shaped help text, so tools like Jira `fields` no longer receive raw strings. (PR #114, thanks @v2nic)
+- Deduplicate concurrent keep-alive daemon restarts per server so repeated fatal errors only force-close the cached daemon transport once before retrying. (PR #125, thanks @zm2231)
 - Keep `mcporter call --output json` parseable by emitting valid JSON even when the command falls back to raw output. (PR #128, thanks @armanddp)
 - Ignore static `Authorization` headers once OAuth is active so imported editor configs cannot override fresh OAuth tokens. (PR #123, thanks @ahonn)
 - Preserve full JSON/error payloads when `data` is just one field instead of collapsing the response to `data` alone. (PR #106, thanks @AielloChan)

src/cli/generate/tools.ts

@@ -126,6 +126,8 @@ export function buildPlaceholder(
       return `<${normalized}:true|false>`;
     case 'array':
       return `<${normalized}:value1,value2>`;
+    case 'object':
+      return `<${normalized}:json>`;
     default:
       if (formatSlug) {
         return `<${normalized}:${formatSlug}>`;
@@ -157,6 +159,8 @@ export function buildExampleValue(
       return 'true';
     case 'array':
       return 'value1,value2';
+    case 'object':
+      return '{"key":"value"}';
     default:
       if (property.toLowerCase().includes('path')) {
         return '/path/to/file.md';
@@ -185,7 +189,7 @@ export function pickExampleLiteral(option: GeneratedOption): string | undefined
     }
     return `[${values.map((entry) => JSON.stringify(entry)).join(', ')}]`;
   }
-  if (option.type === 'number' || option.type === 'boolean') {
+  if (option.type === 'number' || option.type === 'boolean' || option.type === 'object') {
     return option.exampleValue;
   }
   try {
@@ -207,6 +211,8 @@ export function buildFallbackLiteral(option: GeneratedOption): string {
       return 'true';
     case 'array':
       return '["value1"]';
+    case 'object':
+      return '{"key":"value"}';
     default: {
       if (option.property.toLowerCase().includes('id')) {
         return JSON.stringify('example-id');

src/cli/list-signature.ts

@@ -192,6 +192,9 @@ function formatTypeAnnotation(option: GeneratedOption, colorize: boolean): strin
       case 'array':
         baseType = 'string[]';
         break;
+      case 'object':
+        baseType = 'Record<string, unknown>';
+        break;
       case 'string':
         baseType = 'string';
         break;

tests/generate-cli-helpers.test.ts

@@ -86,13 +86,16 @@ describe('generate helpers', () => {
 
     expect(buildPlaceholder('myPath', 'string', ['s1', 's2'])).toBe('<my-path:s1|s2>');
     expect(buildPlaceholder('createdAt', 'string', undefined, 'iso-8601')).toBe('<created-at:iso-8601>');
+    expect(buildPlaceholder('fields', 'object')).toBe('<fields:json>');
     expect(buildExampleValue('itemId', 'string', undefined, undefined)).toBe('example-id');
     expect(buildExampleValue('mode', 'string', ['fast'], undefined)).toBe('fast');
+    expect(buildExampleValue('fields', 'object', undefined, undefined)).toBe('{"key":"value"}');
 
     expect(inferType({ type: 'boolean' })).toBe('boolean');
     expect(inferType({ type: 'integer' })).toBe('number');
     expect(inferType({ type: ['null', 'integer'] })).toBe('number');
     expect(inferType({ type: ['null', 'array'] })).toBe('array');
+    expect(inferType({ type: 'object' })).toBe('object');
     expect(inferType({})).toBe('unknown');
 
     expect(inferArrayItemType({ type: 'array', items: { type: 'integer' } })).toBe('number');
@@ -158,5 +161,14 @@ describe('generate helpers', () => {
         placeholder: '<labels>',
       })
     ).toBe('["value1"]');
+    expect(
+      buildFallbackLiteral({
+        type: 'object',
+        property: 'fields',
+        cliName: 'fields',
+        required: false,
+        placeholder: '<fields>',
+      })
+    ).toBe('{"key":"value"}');
   });
 });

tests/generate-cli.test.ts

@@ -96,6 +96,23 @@ if (process.platform !== 'win32') {
         structuredContent: { coords, flags, names, ids },
       })
     );
+    server.registerTool(
+      'object_tool',
+      {
+        title: 'Object Tool',
+        description: 'Tool with object input',
+        inputSchema: {
+          fields: z.record(z.string(), z.unknown()),
+        },
+        outputSchema: {
+          fields: z.record(z.string(), z.unknown()),
+        },
+      },
+      async ({ fields }) => ({
+        content: [{ type: 'text', text: JSON.stringify({ fields }) }],
+        structuredContent: { fields },
+      })
+    );
     server.registerResource(
       'greeting',
       new ResourceTemplate('greeting://{name}', { list: undefined }),
@@ -448,6 +465,60 @@ describeGenerateCli('generateCli', () => {
     expect(parsed.ids).toEqual([1, 2, 3]);
   }, 30_000);
 
+  it('parses object option values as JSON in generated CLIs', async () => {
+    const inline = JSON.stringify({
+      name: 'object-test',
+      description: 'Object parsing test',
+      command: baseUrl.toString(),
+    });
+    const outputPath = path.join(tmpDir, 'object-test.ts');
+    await fs.rm(outputPath, { force: true });
+
+    const { outputPath: renderedPath } = await generateCli({
+      serverRef: inline,
+      outputPath,
+      runtime: 'node',
+      timeoutMs: 5_000,
+    });
+    const content = await fs.readFile(renderedPath, 'utf8');
+
+    expect(content).toContain('--fields <fields:json>');
+    expect(content).toContain('(value) => JSON.parse(value)');
+    expect(content).toContain('"object-tool": "function object_tool(fields: Record<string, unknown>): object;"');
+
+    const { execFile } = await import('node:child_process');
+    const { stdout } = await new Promise<{ stdout: string; stderr: string }>((resolve, reject) => {
+      execFile(
+        'pnpm',
+        [
+          'exec',
+          'tsx',
+          renderedPath,
+          'object-tool',
+          '--fields',
+          '{"summary":"Ship it","done":true}',
+          '--output',
+          'json',
+        ],
+        execOptions(),
+        (error: import('node:child_process').ExecFileException | null, out: string, err: string) => {
+          if (error) {
+            reject(error);
+            return;
+          }
+          resolve({ stdout: out, stderr: err });
+        }
+      );
+    });
+
+    expect(JSON.parse(stdout)).toEqual({
+      fields: {
+        done: true,
+        summary: 'Ship it',
+      },
+    });
+  }, 30_000);
+
   it('accepts both kebab-case and underscore tool names for generated CLIs', async () => {
     const deepwikiRef = JSON.stringify({
       name: 'deepwiki',