fix: keep mcporter JSON stdout parseable

Move keep-alive daemon retry diagnostics to stderr so mcporter call --output json keeps stdout parseable after daemon recovery. Current main already covers the structuredContent and raw-envelope JSON fallbacks from the same issue; this PR adds explicit regression coverage for MCP isError envelopes and daemon retry logging.\n\nVerified locally with:\n- pnpm exec vitest run tests/cli-output-utils.test.ts tests/keep-alive-runtime.test.ts tests/result-utils.test.ts\n- pnpm check\n- PNPM_CONFIG_LOGLEVEL=error npm_config_loglevel=error pnpm test\n- pnpm build\n- git diff --check\n\nFixes #160.\n\nCo-authored-by: clawSean <260045960+clawSean@users.noreply.github.com>

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
 
 ### CLI
 
+- Keep keep-alive daemon retry diagnostics on stderr so `mcporter call --output json` stdout stays parseable after a daemon recovery. (PR #163 / issue #160, thanks @clawSean)
 - Increase the default OAuth browser wait from 60 seconds to 5 minutes so hosted MCP sign-ins have enough time for account and permission review.
 - Skip the redundant daemon `status` preflight for warm keep-alive access, cutting one socket round-trip from each routed list/call/resource request while preserving stale-config and dead-daemon recovery.
 - Route explicit default keep-alive calls like `chrome-devtools.list_pages` through a daemon-only fast path, avoiding full runtime startup on warm calls.

src/daemon/runtime-wrapper.ts

@@ -160,5 +160,5 @@ function shouldRestartDaemonServer(error: unknown): boolean {
 
 function logDaemonRetry(server: string, operation: string, error: unknown): void {
   const reason = error instanceof Error ? error.message : String(error);
-  console.log(`[mcporter] Restarting '${server}' before retrying ${operation}: ${reason}`);
+  console.error(`[mcporter] Restarting '${server}' before retrying ${operation}: ${reason}`);
 }

tests/cli-output-utils.test.ts

@@ -87,6 +87,17 @@ describe('printCallOutput format selection', () => {
         expect(JSON.parse(String(logged))).toEqual({ content: [{ type: 'text', text: 'no json here' }] });
       },
     ],
+    [
+      'json emits valid JSON for MCP error envelopes instead of inspect output',
+      'json',
+      { content: [{ type: 'text', text: 'MCP error -32602: Tool search not found' }], isError: true },
+      (logged: unknown) => {
+        expect(JSON.parse(String(logged))).toEqual({
+          content: [{ type: 'text', text: 'MCP error -32602: Tool search not found' }],
+          isError: true,
+        });
+      },
+    ],
     [
       'json emits null for undefined raw fallback',
       'json',

tests/keep-alive-runtime.test.ts

@@ -139,12 +139,15 @@ describe('createKeepAliveRuntime', () => {
       keepAliveServers: new Set(['alpha']),
     });
     const logSpy = vi.spyOn(console, 'log').mockImplementation(() => {});
+    const errorSpy = vi.spyOn(console, 'error').mockImplementation(() => {});
 
     await expect(keepAliveRuntime.callTool('alpha', 'ping', {})).resolves.toBe('daemon-call');
     expect(daemon.callTool).toHaveBeenCalledTimes(2);
     expect(daemon.closeServer).toHaveBeenCalledWith({ server: 'alpha' });
-    expect(logSpy).toHaveBeenCalledWith(expect.stringContaining("Restarting 'alpha'"));
+    expect(logSpy).not.toHaveBeenCalled();
+    expect(errorSpy).toHaveBeenCalledWith(expect.stringContaining("Restarting 'alpha'"));
     logSpy.mockRestore();
+    errorSpy.mockRestore();
   });
 
   it('deduplicates concurrent restarts for the same server', async () => {