perf(es): warn when --json is used with unbounded --max-docs in scroll-search#249
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… warning Adds env injection to ScrollSearchDeps so tests can verify suppression without touching process.env directly.
MattDevy
approved these changes
May 1, 2026
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Closes #211
When
--jsonis active,scroll-searchbuffers all documents in memory. Since--max-docsdefaults to unlimited, this can OOM on large indices. The NDJSON streaming path (default, no--json) is unaffected since it writes each doc to stdout immediately.Options considered
--max-docs--jsonmode--json+ unbounded--max-docs--jsonDecision: option 2 (warn only)
I went with a stderr warning because silent truncation is worse than a loud failure. An OOM is at least obvious, while truncated results look correct but aren't. This is especially important for agents, which parse stdout and would silently act on incomplete data.
This aligns with how other CLIs handle unbounded JSON output:
--max-itemsbut doesn't cap by defaultRecent writing on agent-focused CLI design also recommends NDJSON for streaming (which we already do) and explicit user-set limits over silent caps: