ep-admin DX: harden --json failure contract and fix swallowed errors

[PaulJPhilp]

Summary

• harden ep-admin machine-mode contract so --json commands do not emit stdout payloads on failures
• fix swallowed failures that previously returned exit code 0 in error paths
• prevent non-JSON progress lines from leaking to stdout in config install skills --json
• extend CLI contract tests for deterministic JSON-failure cases

Changes

• packages/ep-admin/src/search-commands.ts
  • fix catchAll to re-fail correctly (yield* Effect.fail) so DB errors return non-zero exit
• packages/ep-admin/src/lock-commands.ts
  • fix catchAll to re-fail correctly (yield* Effect.fail)
• packages/ep-admin/src/install-commands.ts
  • remove JSON payload writes in failure branches (install add + install skills) so failure mode keeps stdout empty
  • gate category loop progress logs behind non-JSON logging helper to keep stdout parse-clean in JSON mode
• packages/ep-admin/src/__tests__/cli-json-contract.test.ts
  • add assertions for deterministic validation failures:
    • config install add --tool badtool --json
    • config install skills --format invalid --json
  • add failure assertion for pattern search ... --json under forced bad DATABASE_URL

Verification

• cd packages/ep-admin && bunx vitest run src/__tests__/cli-json-contract.test.ts
• cd packages/ep-admin && bunx vitest run src/__tests__/cli-auth-contract.test.ts
• cd packages/ep-admin && bunx vitest run src/__tests__/completions.test.ts
• cd packages/ep-admin && bunx vitest run src/__tests__

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3 Skipped Deployments

Project	Deployment	Actions	Updated (UTC)
effect-patterns	Ignored		Feb 15, 2026 10:43pm
effect-patterns-mcp-server	Ignored		Feb 15, 2026 10:43pm
effect-patterns-mcp-tier-v2	Ignored		Feb 15, 2026 10:43pm

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