From 563d4ff64be076031813e735feb5df2557674296 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Trevin Chow <trevin@trevinchow.com>
Date: Wed, 27 May 2026 00:19:43 -0700
Subject: [PATCH] fix(cli): allow flag values that start with -- via
 --flag=value (#2892)

---
 src/cli/args.test.ts | 27 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 src/cli/args.ts      | 12 +++++++++++-
 2 files changed, 38 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/src/cli/args.test.ts b/src/cli/args.test.ts
index 868e66516..a134a8a2a 100644
--- a/src/cli/args.test.ts
+++ b/src/cli/args.test.ts
@@ -10,4 +10,31 @@ describe('parseArgs', () => {
     expect(parsed.flags.get('value')).toBe('')
     expect(parsed.flags.get('json')).toBe(true)
   })
+
+  it('accepts a flag value that starts with -- via the = form', () => {
+    const parsed = parseArgs(['terminal', 'send', '--text=--help'])
+
+    expect(parsed.commandPath).toEqual(['terminal', 'send'])
+    expect(parsed.flags.get('text')).toBe('--help')
+  })
+
+  it('splits --flag=value on the first = so values may contain =', () => {
+    const parsed = parseArgs(['set', 'cookie', '--value=a=b=c'])
+
+    expect(parsed.flags.get('value')).toBe('a=b=c')
+  })
+
+  it('treats --flag= as an empty string value', () => {
+    const parsed = parseArgs(['--value='])
+
+    expect(parsed.flags.get('value')).toBe('')
+  })
+
+  it('still parses boolean flags and space-separated values', () => {
+    const parsed = parseArgs(['tab', 'create', '--json', '--url', 'https://example.com'])
+
+    expect(parsed.commandPath).toEqual(['tab', 'create'])
+    expect(parsed.flags.get('json')).toBe(true)
+    expect(parsed.flags.get('url')).toBe('https://example.com')
+  })
 })
diff --git a/src/cli/args.ts b/src/cli/args.ts
index 19529b535..02992e3b3 100644
--- a/src/cli/args.ts
+++ b/src/cli/args.ts
@@ -29,7 +29,17 @@ export function parseArgs(argv: string[]): ParsedArgs {
       continue
     }
 
-    const flag = token.slice(2)
+    const assignment = token.slice(2)
+    // Why: `--flag=value` is the only unambiguous way to pass a value that
+    // itself starts with `--` (e.g. `--text=--help`); the space-separated form
+    // treats a `--`-leading next token as a new flag, so it can't express one.
+    const equalsIndex = assignment.indexOf('=')
+    if (equalsIndex !== -1) {
+      flags.set(assignment.slice(0, equalsIndex), assignment.slice(equalsIndex + 1))
+      continue
+    }
+
+    const flag = assignment
     const hasNext = i + 1 < argv.length
     const next = argv[i + 1]
     if (!hasNext || next.startsWith('--')) {