mxcli distribution still missing Linux binary (reopening #91)

[TOFBuck]

Summary

The mxcli binary shipped in the latest release is still a Windows .exe only. It cannot run in Linux environments such as the devcontainer setup that mxcli itself recommends.

This was previously reported in #91 and marked as closed, but the latest version of mxcli still does not include a Linux binary.

Environment

• Container OS: Debian Bookworm (linux/amd64) via devcontainer
• mxcli file: mxcli.exe — Windows PE executable, not a Linux ELF binary

Expected behavior

The mxcli distribution should include a Linux binary (e.g. mxcli-linux-amd64) so it works out-of-the-box in the devcontainer workflow. The devcontainer.json postCreateCommand already detects this problem but can't resolve it:

if [ -f ./mxcli ] && ! file ./mxcli | grep -q Linux; then
  echo '⚠ ./mxcli is not a Linux binary. Replace it with the linux-amd64 or linux-arm64 build.'
fi

Actual behavior

Only mxcli.exe is present. Running ./mxcli fails with "No such file or directory" and there is no Linux alternative to fall back on.

Impact

All mxcli commands — exec, check, lint, docker check, report — are completely unavailable in the Linux devcontainer, blocking AI-assisted development workflows entirely.

[github-actions]

Issue Triage

Summary:
The user reports that the released mxcli binary is only a Windows executable, preventing its use in Linux devcontainers.

Checklist of required bug‑report information

Required info	Present?	Notes
mxcli version (output of mxcli --version or commit/build)	❌	Not mentioned
Mendix version of the project being processed	❌	Not mentioned
Scenario – what the user was trying to do (specific CLI command, MDL script, etc.)	⚠️ Partially	Mentions trying to run ./mxcli in a devcontainer, but no specific command (e.g., mxcli exec, mxcli check) is given
Expected output – what should have happened	✅	Described: a Linux binary should be present and usable
Experienced output – what actually happened (error message, crash, etc.)	✅	Described: “No such file or directory” when running ./mxcli
AI bug report – output of mxcli diag --bundle or at least the session log	❌	Not provided

What’s missing / could be added

To help us investigate and fix this issue, could you please add the following details?

1. The exact version of mxcli you are using (run mxcli --version or share the commit/build identifier).
2. The Mendix version of the project you are working with (e.g., 10.6.0, 9.24.0).
3. The specific mxcli command you attempted to run in the devcontainer (e.g., mxcli exec, mxcli check, etc.) and any arguments.
4. If possible, the output of mxcli diag --bundle (or at least the relevant session log) so we can see the environment and any additional context.

Thanks for bringing this to our attention—once we have the extra information we’ll be able to verify the build process and ensure a Linux binary is included in future releases.

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Automated triage via OpenRouter — workflow source

[ako]

Investigation

The release pipeline and auto-download mechanism are working correctly. All releases (v0.3.0 through v0.5.0 and nightly) include Linux binaries (mxcli-linux-amd64 and mxcli-linux-arm64).

The root cause is that your project's .devcontainer/devcontainer.json was generated by an older version of mxcli init (before the fix in #91). The old postCreateCommand only warned about the platform mismatch but didn't auto-download the correct binary. The current version has a 3-step fallback that handles this automatically.

Fix

Option A — Re-run mxcli init to regenerate the devcontainer config with the updated postCreateCommand:

mxcli init /path/to/your/project

This will update .devcontainer/devcontainer.json so future container starts auto-download the Linux binary.

Option B — Manual download (immediate fix inside the devcontainer):

ARCH=$(uname -m); [ "$ARCH" = x86_64 ] && ARCH=amd64; [ "$ARCH" = aarch64 ] && ARCH=arm64
curl -fsSL https://github.com/mendixlabs/mxcli/releases/latest/download/mxcli-linux-${ARCH} -o ./mxcli && chmod +x ./mxcli

Option C — Use mxcli setup mxcli from a working mxcli binary (e.g., on your Windows host):

mxcli setup mxcli --os linux --output ./mxcli

After any of these, the devcontainer will have a working Linux binary.