> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.unitlab.ai/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.unitlab.ai/api-sdk-cli/clis/cli-automation-and-exit-behavior.md).

# CLI automation and exit behavior

{% hint style="info" %}
**Outcome:** Build shell and CI jobs that parse JSON, preserve errors, and verify remote state before retrying.
{% endhint %}

```bash
unitlab project list --json > projects.json
unitlab batch-queue status PROJECT_ID BATCH_QUEUE_ID --json > status.json
```

State-changing commands return a non-zero exit status on validation or API failure. Project upload also exits non-zero when any file failed, even if other files succeeded. Capture standard error for diagnosis and standard output for JSON parsing.

Do not parse decorative human output. Do not retry a create, attach, move, or release command blindly after a timeout; first list or retrieve the target resource to determine whether the server accepted the operation.

### Operating contract

| Concern           | Required behavior                                                           |
| ----------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Execution surface | Pinned `unitlab==3.0.0` command in the intended Python 3.10+ environment.   |
| Machine contract  | Use `--json`; human-readable output is not an automation interface.         |
| Target resolution | Resolve stable IDs with a read command before a state-changing command.     |
| Success evidence  | Exit status, JSON result, returned IDs, and a read-after-write state check. |

### Failure and recovery boundary

| Condition                                       | Response                                                                                                     |
| ----------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| Authentication or authorization fails           | Stop, correct the service identity or access model, rotate exposed credentials, and rerun a read-only check. |
| Validation or entitlement rejects the operation | Correct the input or entitlement; do not retry an unchanged request.                                         |
| A request times out                             | Inspect remote state before repeating a mutation because the server may have accepted it.                    |
| Asynchronous processing exceeds its deadline    | Preserve the Batch Queue or release ID, continue bounded monitoring, and inspect item-level failures.        |
| Only part of a batch succeeds                   | Keep successful identifiers, isolate failed rows, and retry only the corrected subset.                       |

{% hint style="warning" %}
Pin and test the production SDK version. Use stable IDs, keep secrets out of logs and command history, and record the correlation ID, target IDs, counts, final state, and redacted error details for material state changes.
{% endhint %}