Docs: --bare flag incorrectly claims 'Skills still resolve via /skill-name'

Resolved 💬 2 comments Opened Mar 26, 2026 by PaulRBerg Closed Apr 24, 2026

Bug Report

Claude Code version: 2.1.84

Description

The --bare flag help text claims:

Skills still resolve via /skill-name.

However, skills do not resolve in --bare mode. Running a skill like /commit returns "Unknown skill: commit" with zero API usage, indicating the skill registry is never populated.

This contradicts the headless documentation, which correctly states:

User-invoked skills like /commit and built-in commands are only available in interactive mode. In -p mode, describe the task you want to accomplish instead.

Steps to Reproduce

claude --bare --model "sonnet" --no-session-persistence --print --output-format json "/commit"

Expected Behavior

Either:

  1. Skills should resolve as the --bare help text claims, or
  2. The --bare help text should be corrected to state that skills are not available

Actual Behavior

{
  "type": "result",
  "subtype": "success",
  "is_error": false,
  "duration_ms": 1,
  "duration_api_ms": 0,
  "num_turns": 1,
  "result": "Unknown skill: commit",
  "total_cost_usd": 0
}

The response has duration_api_ms: 0 and total_cost_usd: 0, confirming no model call was made — the skill fails at the resolution layer before any API interaction.

Suggestion

Update the --bare help text to remove or correct the "Skills still resolve via /skill-name" claim, aligning it with the headless documentation.

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