fix(vars:set): allow creating action-scoped variables

[jtsternberg]

Problem

It was impossible to create an action-scoped environment variable with buddy vars:set. Two validations contradicted each other:

• buddy vars:set --pipeline=506857 --action=1558732 -- KEY VAL → Failed to set variable: Only one scope is allowed: project, pipeline, action, sandbox
• buddy vars:set --action=1558732 -- KEY VAL → --action requires --pipeline. An action belongs to a specific pipeline.

--action requires --pipeline, but supplying both was rejected as "only one scope" — so no invocation could ever yield an action-scoped variable. (Pipeline scope alone worked fine; only action scope was broken.)

Root cause

SetCommand::execute() built the API payload with three independent if blocks:

if ($hasPipeline) { $data['pipeline'] = ['id' => ...]; }
if ($hasAction)   { $data['action']   = ['id' => ...]; }

So --pipeline --action wrote both scope objects. The Buddy API accepts only one scope object per variable and rejected the payload.

The bug was invisible to the test suite because the existing action-scope test mocked createVariable and never asserted the payload it received.

The fix

Emit exactly one scope object via an if/elseif chain (most-specific wins: action > pipeline > project > workspace):

• Action scope sends only action: {id}. --pipeline is used purely as routing/context for the existing-variable lookup (pipelineId + actionId filters), never as a second scope object.
• --action still requires --pipeline (an action needs its pipeline to route the lookup), but the two no longer collide.
• --project remains mutually exclusive with --pipeline/--action — they are genuinely different scopes.
• Help text now disambiguates scope selectors (--project/--pipeline/--action) from routing context (--workspace, which is never a scope).

Tests

• Strengthened the pipeline- and action-scope tests to assert the actual payload sent to createVariable, and added a project-scope payload test. The action-scope assertion fails against the old code (proper TDD red → green).
• Full suite: 271 passed, 668 assertions.
• Lint: pint --test clean.

Live API verification

Confirmed end-to-end against the real Buddy API (then cleaned up — the caller's existing pipeline-scoped NODE_OPTIONS was left untouched):

$ buddy vars:set --workspace=awesomemotive --pipeline=506857 --action=1558732 -- BUDDY_CLI_ACTIONSCOPE_TEST "ok"
  → created id 2109820, action.id=1558732, no pipeline scope in record
$ buddy vars:show 2109820 → Scope = action:1558732   ✅
$ buddy vars:delete 2109820 --force → deleted

Now-working command

buddy vars:set --pipeline=506857 --action=1558732 -- NODE_OPTIONS "--max-old-space-size=8192"

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Fixes vars:set scope handling so action-scoped variables can be created/updated by ensuring the API payload contains exactly one scope object (action > pipeline > project > workspace), while still requiring --pipeline as routing context when --action is used.

Changes:

• Update SetCommand to emit a single scope object via an if/elseif chain and adjust filters for existing-variable lookup.
• Improve vars:set help text to clarify scope selectors vs --workspace routing context, including an action-scope example.
• Strengthen/add integration tests to assert the exact payload passed to createVariable() for pipeline/action/project scopes.

Notes (blocking to keep bundled docs in sync):

• The bundled Claude plugin contains at least one now-misleading statement about vars:set scope rules (e.g., claude-plugin/agents/cicd-specialist.md “use --project OR --pipeline” omits the valid --pipeline + --action pairing). Since this PR changes CLI behavior, the plugin should be updated in the same PR to avoid stale guidance.
• README.md currently documents vars:set but doesn’t mention action-scoped variables; consider updating it to include the now-working --pipeline --action usage.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 2 out of 2 changed files in this pull request and generated 3 comments.

File	Description
src/Commands/Variables/SetCommand.php	Fixes scope payload construction to allow action-scoped variables and updates help text accordingly.
tests/Integration/Commands/VariablesCommandsTest.php	Adds payload-capture assertions to ensure the correct scope object is sent to the API for each scope.