CLI completely broken due to Click/Typer version mismatches (`make_metavar`, `_bashcomplete`, `super` bug)

[SpgtySos]

Hey there! Just wanted to report that the CLI is currently completely broken for anyone attempting to install either the original main or the nightly branch via pipx or source.

The problem:
Due to unpinned dependencies (click, typer), the following major issues occur:

Errors encountered:

1. make_metavar() crash from click:

TypeError: Parameter.make_metavar() missing 1 required positional argument: 'ctx'

• Caused by new versions of click (8.1.x+)
• Typer is calling this incorrectly in older versions
• Breaks CLI output (e.g., --help)

2. _expand_args crash when downgrading click:

AttributeError: module 'click.utils' has no attribute '_expand_args'

• Caused when downgrading click to older versions
• Nightly branch expects this newer internal method

3. click._bashcomplete import error:

ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'click._bashcomplete'

• Happens when trying to use typer==0.3.2 with click==8.1.x
• click._bashcomplete was removed in later Click versions

4. Code typo in config.py:

super.__init__(**kwargs)  # ← invalid

Should be:

super().__init__(**kwargs)

• This typo exists in the nightly branch at:
  ducklingscript/cli/utils/config.py:19

Suggested fix:

• Pin click==8.0.4
• Pin typer==0.4.2 or refactor for latest
• Fix the super() typo
• Add version pins to pyproject.toml or requirements.txt to prevent this long-term

Repro steps:

pipx install ducklingscript  # or from nightly branch
duckling --help  #  crashes every time

Tried patching click and typer manually, but one version always breaks the other.

Thanks for the cool little project, and hope this helps others get quacking again!

[DragonOfShuu]

Main having issues is bad, nightly having issues makes sense, since it is an unstable version lol. For nightly I push nightly, even if the code is untested; maybe I should change that just so there isn't confusion 🥴.

For main I haven't had the issues you are mentioning, but I'll test out some things to see what I can find 🤔.

Thanks for this!

[DragonOfShuu]

I am unable to replicate the issue you are mentioning with the conflicting versions. I cleaned out my poetry cache and reinstalled the dependencies and it seems to work fine. Here are the versions it downloads:

  - Installing typer (0.9.4)
  - Installing click (8.1.7)

In fact, on my dependencies list, I actually have 0.9.0 and above selected for typer:

So I guess I should be asking: what Python version are you running, and what OS are you on?

Main should be stable for the most part; I run a bunch of tests across Windows and MacOS, across multiple Python versions before I pull anything into main.

[SpgtySos]

Hey again! Just ran a side-by-side test of the main branch using both Pipx and Poetry,
since I suspected Poetry's lockfile was masking some of the runtime issues.

Test Environment:

• OS: Windows 11
• Python: 3.11.0
• CLI tool: Pipx vs Poetry

Results:

Root Cause:

• The runtime error seems to be due to typer==0.9.4 using an internal API in Click that changed in 8.2.0.
• Poetry resolves a compatible click==8.1.7 from the lockfile, but pip/pipx installs click==8.2.0, which silently breaks it.
• The bug is triggered by running duckling --help — crashes with make_metavar() missing ctx.

Suggested Fix:

• Explicitly pin click < 8.2 in pyproject.toml (or at least in a requirements.txt for pip users.)
• maybe add a note in the README that pip install is currently unstable unless dependencies are pinned.
• Consider publishing to PyPI with a click constraint baked in to help pip users avoid this in the wild!

Thanks again for being so responsive! Happy to help test future builds or PR a fix if that helps!

[DragonOfShuu]

Yep, I'm able to replicate it now. Poetry knows best, seems like pipx does not 💀.

I like your solution to the problem, that's most likely what I'll do, but we'll see. Thanks for this!

[DragonOfShuu]

Fixed this in the latest release. I instead required at least version 0.15.4 of Typer, since they themselves actually saw the issue with Click & Typer.