feat(cmd): auto-sync manifest from remote when creating with --app by srtaalej · Pull Request #677 · slackapi/slack-cli

srtaalej · 2026-09-24T16:43:10Z

Changelog

slack create --app now automatically syncs the manifest from app settings to the local project.

Summary

The CLI handoff from app settings to local development currently requires two commands: slack create --app ... --template ... followed by slack manifest sync. This PR consolidates them — when --app is passed to slack create, the remote manifest is fetched from app settings and written to the local project after linking.

Changes:

LinkExistingApp now returns the auth token so callers can use it for follow-up API calls
After linking an app during create, the remote manifest is fetched via GetManifestRemote and written locally via WriteManifestLocal
If the fetch or write fails, a warning is shown with instructions to run slack manifest sync --manifest-source=remote manually

Preview

No UI changes — output is the same as before, minus the need for a separate slack manifest sync step.

Testing

Go to https://api.slack.com/apps and create a new app through the "Create New App" flow
Note the App ID and Team ID from the app settings page
Build the CLI: make build

Run:

./bin/slack create --template slack-samples/bolt-js-starter-template --app <APP_ID> --name "test-create-sync" --team <TEAM_ID> --environment local

cd into the created project and run ./bin/slack run
Verify there is no manifest sync prompt — the project manifest should already match app settings

Notes

The manifest fetch/write error is non-blocking — if it fails, the project is still usable and the user can run slack manifest sync --manifest-source=remote manually
manifest.Sync is unchanged — the create flow inlines only the fetch and write steps since it always uses remote as the source of truth

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 · 2026-09-24T16:46:16Z

Codecov Report

❌ Patch coverage is 60.00000% with 4 lines in your changes missing coverage. Please review.
✅ Project coverage is 78.23%. Comparing base (20dd730) to head (e3eeae4).

Files with missing lines	Patch %	Lines
cmd/project/create.go	60.00%	4 Missing ⚠️

Additional details and impacted files

@@           Coverage Diff           @@
##             main     #677   +/-   ##
=======================================
  Coverage   78.23%   78.23%           
=======================================
  Files         239      239           
  Lines       18149    18159   +10     
=======================================
+ Hits        14198    14206    +8     
- Misses       3951     3953    +2

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…eate

…r auth

mwbrooks

🙇🏻 Thanks @srtaalej, this is a really nice improvement! Folding manifest sync into slack create --app removes a whole step from the app settings to local development handoff, and keeping the fetch/write non-blocking is the right call. 🙌

I left a few inline comments. The two blocking ones are about what ends up in manifest.json: the (local) name suffix for local apps, and silently skipping the write when there's no manifest.json (e.g. Deno projects). The others are smaller suggestions to make the handoff fully seamless and to cover the success path in tests.

📝 One small thing on the PR description: it mentions "LinkExistingApp now returns the auth token", but the diff resolves auth with a separate AuthWithTeamID call instead. Could you update the description to match?

Looking forward to seeing this one land! 🎉

mwbrooks · 2026-09-29T22:15:37Z

+		if auth, err := clients.Auth().AuthWithTeamID(ctx, linkedApp.TeamID); err != nil {
+			clients.IO.PrintWarning(ctx, "Failed to resolve auth for manifest sync: %s", err)
+			clients.IO.PrintInfo(ctx, false, syncRemedy, style.Commandf("manifest sync --manifest-source=remote", false))
+		} else if remoteManifest, err := clients.AppClient().Manifest.GetManifestRemote(ctx, auth.Token, linkedApp.AppID); err != nil {


issue (blocking): For --environment local apps, apps.manifest.export appends (local) to display_information.name and features.bot_user.display_name. Writing remoteManifest.AppManifest as-is stores that suffix into the project's manifest.json, so the app becomes "My App (local)" locally, and a later slack deploy would ship that name to the deployed app.

manifest.Sync avoids this by ignoring the suffix diff (isDevLocalSuffixDiff in internal/manifest/diff.go). Could we strip the (local) suffix from those paths before writing when linkedApp.IsDev is true? A small helper in internal/manifest next to devLocalSuffixPaths would keep both paths consistent.

mwbrooks · 2026-09-29T22:15:38Z

+		} else if remoteManifest, err := clients.AppClient().Manifest.GetManifestRemote(ctx, auth.Token, linkedApp.AppID); err != nil {
+			clients.IO.PrintWarning(ctx, "Failed to fetch manifest from app settings: %s", err)
+			clients.IO.PrintInfo(ctx, false, syncRemedy, style.Commandf("manifest sync --manifest-source=remote", false))
+		} else if _, err := manifest.WriteManifestLocal(clients.Fs, absProjectPath, remoteManifest.AppManifest); err != nil {


issue (blocking): The WriteBackResult is discarded here, but WriteManifestLocal returns Written: false with a Warning (and a nil error) when there's no manifest.json in the project root. That's the case for Deno templates (manifest.ts) and any template that keeps its manifest elsewhere. In that case the user sees no output and assumes the sync worked.

Could we mirror what Sync does at internal/manifest/sync.go:135-139? Print ✓ Updated manifest.json when Written is true, or surface the Warning otherwise.

mwbrooks · 2026-09-29T22:15:40Z

+		if auth, err := clients.Auth().AuthWithTeamID(ctx, linkedApp.TeamID); err != nil {
+			clients.IO.PrintWarning(ctx, "Failed to resolve auth for manifest sync: %s", err)
+			clients.IO.PrintInfo(ctx, false, syncRemedy, style.Commandf("manifest sync --manifest-source=remote", false))
+		} else if remoteManifest, err := clients.AppClient().Manifest.GetManifestRemote(ctx, auth.Token, linkedApp.AppID); err != nil {
+			clients.IO.PrintWarning(ctx, "Failed to fetch manifest from app settings: %s", err)
+			clients.IO.PrintInfo(ctx, false, syncRemedy, style.Commandf("manifest sync --manifest-source=remote", false))
+		} else if _, err := manifest.WriteManifestLocal(clients.Fs, absProjectPath, remoteManifest.AppManifest); err != nil {
+			clients.IO.PrintWarning(ctx, "Failed to write manifest to project: %s", err)
+			clients.IO.PrintInfo(ctx, false, syncRemedy, style.Commandf("manifest sync --manifest-source=remote", false))
+		}


suggestion: Sync also refreshes the cached manifest hash after writing (internal/manifest/sync.go:121-127), which this block skips. Without a saved hash, the first slack run goes through shouldUpdateManifest (internal/pkg/apps/install.go:735-742), exports the manifest again, and runs the full Sync. It won't prompt, since local and remote now match, but it's an extra round trip and prints the "in sync" section on every run.

Setting the hash from the remote manifest after a successful write would make the handoff actually seamless:

hash, err := clients.Config.ProjectConfig.Cache().NewManifestHash(ctx, remoteManifest.AppManifest) // ... err = clients.Config.ProjectConfig.Cache().SetManifestHash(ctx, linkedApp.AppID, hash)

mwbrooks · 2026-09-29T22:15:41Z

 		}))
+
+		// Fetch remote manifest and write it to the local project
+		syncRemedy := "  Run %s to sync manually"


issue: For projects whose manifest source is remote, the suggested manifest sync --manifest-source=remote command errors with "Manifest sync is unavailable for projects with remote source of truth" (internal/manifest/sync.go:43-50).

Should we check ProjectConfig.GetManifestSource first? For remote-source projects the local manifest.json isn't used, so would could skip this suggestion.

mwbrooks · 2026-09-29T22:15:42Z

 				assert.True(t, saved.IsDev)
 			},
 		},
+		"app flag with manifest fetch error shows warning but succeeds": {


suggestion: This case only asserts the command succeeds; it doesn't check that the warning or the remedy was printed. It would be nice to assert on the output (e.g. cm.IO.AssertCalled(t, "PrintWarning", ...) or checking the stdout buffer).

The success path also isn't really covered. absProjectPath is a t.TempDir() path with no manifest.json in the mocked Fs, so every test hits the "no manifest.json" branch of WriteManifestLocal. Could we add a case that seeds a manifest.json into cm.Fs at the project path, returns a non-empty remote manifest from GetManifestRemote, and asserts on the written file? Using a (local)-suffixed name with --environment local there would also cover the suffix stripping.

…684) * ci: keep the release milestone open until open items are moved The issues endpoint can miss items right after the milestone is renamed, which left #677 on the closed v4.9.0 milestone. The open count of the milestone is now checked and the move is retried before closing it. * ci: list open milestone items before the rename instead of retrying Milestone titles are unique, so the next milestone cannot be created before the rename. Listing the open items first avoids the rename entirely and replaces the retry loop.

feat: auto-sync manifest from remote when creating with --app

a9c0963

srtaalej added 2 commits September 24, 2026 12:46

fix: reinitialize SDK config before manifest sync in create

7b981e9

feat: add quiet mode to manifest sync for create flow

90d2c6d

srtaalej self-assigned this Sep 24, 2026

srtaalej added enhancement M-T: A feature request for new functionality semver:minor Use on pull requests to describe the release version increment labels Sep 24, 2026

srtaalej added this to the Next Release milestone Sep 24, 2026

srtaalej marked this pull request as ready for review September 24, 2026 17:45

srtaalej requested a review from a team as a code owner September 24, 2026 17:45

fix: show warning with remediation when manifest sync fails during cr…

5d4217d

…eate

srtaalej changed the title ~~feat: auto-sync manifest from remote when creating with --app~~ feat(cmd): auto-sync manifest from remote when creating with --app Sep 24, 2026

refactor: inline remote manifest fetch in create instead of calling Sync

944e498

srtaalej requested review from mwbrooks and zimeg September 24, 2026 18:49

srtaalej and others added 5 commits September 28, 2026 13:17

test: add coverage for manifest fetch failure during create with --app

6ee329d

refactor: consolidate create link test helpers into parameterized setup

573a108

refactor: simplify setupCreateLinkMocks to use explicit error param

d7c7816

refactor: scope changes to create command only, use AuthWithTeamID fo…

1dd8ed6

…r auth

Merge branch 'main' into ale-consolidate-create-sync

e3eeae4

mwbrooks reviewed Sep 29, 2026

View reviewed changes

mwbrooks modified the milestones: v4.9.0, Next Release Oct 2, 2026

mwbrooks mentioned this pull request Oct 2, 2026

ci: list open milestone items before renaming the release milestone #684

Merged

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feat(cmd): auto-sync manifest from remote when creating with --app - #677

feat(cmd): auto-sync manifest from remote when creating with --app#677
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