fix(cli): stop dropping nested fields, and emit exports as documents

`sim workflows export <id>` printed `version` and `exportedAt` and nothing
else. The record builder kept only scalar fields, so `workflow` and `state` —
the entire export — were discarded with nothing to say they had been. Same for
`workflows get`, which silently dropped `variables` and `inputs`.

Record views now render every field. Nested values serialize to one line and
are cut at 160 chars: visibly partial beats silently absent, and json/yaml
output still prints them whole.

Export is a document, not a record — it exists to be redirected to a file and
fed back to `import`, and table/text flatten and truncate, so neither can
round-trip it. `document: true` in the contract makes those formats fall back
to JSON; yaml is honoured because it round-trips.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_0148a65fkPhP4N8tgGPYtRTU

Author: TheodoreSpeaks

packages/sim-cli/src/contract/commands.ts

@@ -200,6 +200,14 @@ export const CLI_CONTRACT: CliContract = {
     ],
   },
 
+  // ─── Documents, not records ───────────────────────────────────────────────
+  // The payload is the artifact: `sim workflows export <id> > wf.json` has to
+  // produce something `sim workflows import` accepts back.
+  exportWorkflow: {
+    describe: 'Print a workflow as a portable JSON document',
+    document: true,
+  },
+
   // ─── Execution ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
   // The derived names land badly here: `/execute` and `/cancel` are verbs in
   // the path, but neither is in the action list, so POST would derive

packages/sim-cli/src/contract/types.ts

@@ -84,6 +84,15 @@ export interface CommandSpec {
    * the point is that the caller can tell whether they meant it.
    */
   confirm?: string
+  /**
+   * The response IS a document, not a record to look at.
+   *
+   * `workflows export` exists to be redirected into a file and fed back to
+   * `import`, so a key/value view of it is wrong at any fidelity — the useful
+   * artifact is the payload itself. Document commands emit raw JSON (or YAML
+   * when the profile says so) whatever the profile's display format is.
+   */
+  document?: boolean
   /** Keep the operation out of the CLI surface entirely. */
   hidden?: boolean
 }

packages/sim-cli/src/output/render.ts

@@ -201,6 +201,21 @@ export function printList<T>(format: OutputFormat, rows: T[], columns: Column<T>
   console.log(renderTable(rows, columns))
 }
 
+/**
+ * Prints a payload whose value IS the deliverable — `workflows export`, which
+ * is meant to be redirected to a file and fed back to `import`.
+ *
+ * `table` and `text` are display formats: they flatten, truncate and colour, so
+ * neither can round-trip a document. Rather than emit something that looks like
+ * an export but cannot be re-imported, those two fall back to JSON. Only `yaml`
+ * is honoured, because it round-trips.
+ */
+export function printDocument(format: OutputFormat, raw: unknown): void {
+  console.log(
+    format === 'yaml' ? (renderMachine('yaml', raw) as string) : JSON.stringify(raw, null, 2)
+  )
+}
+
 /** Prints a single record: machine formats from the raw value, otherwise aligned lines. */
 export function printRecord(format: OutputFormat, fields: Array<[string, string]>, raw: unknown) {
   const machine = renderMachine(format, raw)

packages/sim-cli/src/runtime/build.test.ts

@@ -153,6 +153,49 @@ describe('single-resource rendering', () => {
     expect(printed.join('\n')).toMatch(/Deepwiki/)
   })
 
+  it('renders nested fields instead of dropping them', async () => {
+    // `workflows export` printed `version` and `exportedAt` and nothing else:
+    // the record builder kept only scalars, so `workflow` and `state` — the
+    // entire export — vanished with no indication anything was missing.
+    const printed = await lines(
+      ['workflows', 'get', 'wf_1'],
+      { id: 'wf_1', name: 'Onboarding', inputs: [{ name: 'email', type: 'string' }] },
+      'text'
+    )
+
+    expect(printed.join('\n')).toMatch(/inputs/)
+    expect(printed.join('\n')).toMatch(/email/)
+  })
+
+  it('truncates a nested value rather than flooding the terminal', async () => {
+    const printed = await lines(
+      ['workflows', 'get', 'wf_1'],
+      { id: 'wf_1', state: { blocks: 'x'.repeat(5000) } },
+      'text'
+    )
+
+    const stateLine = printed.find((line) => line.startsWith('state')) ?? ''
+    expect(stateLine.length).toBeLessThan(300)
+    expect(stateLine).toMatch(/…$/)
+  })
+
+  it('emits a document command as JSON whatever the display format is', async () => {
+    // Redirecting this to a file has to yield something `import` accepts, so
+    // `table`/`text` — which flatten and truncate — must not be honoured here.
+    const printed = await lines(
+      ['workflows', 'export', 'wf_1'],
+      { version: '1.0', exportedAt: 'now', workflow: { id: 'wf_1' }, state: { blocks: {} } },
+      'text'
+    )
+
+    expect(JSON.parse(printed.join('\n'))).toEqual({
+      version: '1.0',
+      exportedAt: 'now',
+      workflow: { id: 'wf_1' },
+      state: { blocks: {} },
+    })
+  })
+
   it('leaves a payload with sibling keys intact', async () => {
     // `upsertTableRow` returns `{ row, operation }` — two real fields, not an
     // envelope. Unwrapping there would drop whether it inserted or updated.

packages/sim-cli/src/runtime/build.ts

@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ import {
   bytes,
   type Column,
   duration,
+  printDocument,
   printList,
   printRecord,
   sanitize,
@@ -56,6 +57,25 @@ function renderCell(value: unknown, format: ColumnSpec['format']): string {
   }
 }
 
+/**
+ * How wide a nested value may get before a record line stops being readable.
+ * A workflow's `state` serializes to tens of kilobytes on one line.
+ */
+const NESTED_CELL_WIDTH = 160
+
+/**
+ * A field in a record view.
+ *
+ * Nested values are rendered, not skipped: a record that quietly omits half of
+ * what the server sent is worse than a long line, because nothing tells the
+ * caller anything is missing. Long ones are cut with an ellipsis — visibly
+ * partial, and `sim configure --set-output json` prints them whole.
+ */
+function recordCell(value: unknown): string {
+  const rendered = renderCell(value, 'auto')
+  return rendered.length > NESTED_CELL_WIDTH ? `${rendered.slice(0, NESTED_CELL_WIDTH)}…` : rendered
+}
+
 function columnsFrom(specs: ColumnSpec[]): Column<unknown>[] {
   return specs.map((spec) => ({
     header: spec.header,
@@ -282,7 +302,14 @@ function buildLeaf(operation: V2OperationName, spec: CommandSpec, leafName: stri
       query: request.query,
       body: request.body,
     })
-    const data = unwrapResource(result?.data ?? result)
+    const raw = result?.data ?? result
+
+    if (spec.document) {
+      printDocument(profile.output, raw)
+      return
+    }
+
+    const data = unwrapResource(raw)
 
     if (Array.isArray(data)) {
       // Reached when a non-paginated operation answers with a collection.
@@ -291,11 +318,11 @@ function buildLeaf(operation: V2OperationName, spec: CommandSpec, leafName: stri
       return
     }
 
+    // Every field, nested ones included. Filtering to scalars here is what made
+    // `workflows export` print its two timestamps and drop the actual workflow.
     const fields: Array<[string, string]> =
-      data && typeof data === 'object' && !Array.isArray(data)
-        ? Object.entries(data)
-            .filter(([, value]) => value === null || typeof value !== 'object')
-            .map(([key, value]) => [key, renderCell(value, 'auto')])
+      data && typeof data === 'object'
+        ? Object.entries(data).map(([key, value]) => [key, recordCell(value)])
         : []
 
     printRecord(profile.output, fields, data)