fix(cli): install venv in non-interactive terminals instead of crashing (#11)

* fix(cli): install venv in non-interactive terminals instead of crashing

When stdin is not a TTY (piped input, CI, coding agents) and neither
--yes nor --no-sync is passed, the venv/uv confirmation prompts called
beaupy.select, which raises `termios.error: (25, 'Inappropriate ioctl
for device')`. That error fell through to the generic handler and the
run failed with "Unexpected error" and exit code 1, leaving no venv.

confirm() now detects a non-interactive stdin and returns the prompt's
default (Yes) instead of invoking beaupy, so a non-TTY run installs uv
if missing and runs `uv sync` unattended. --yes and --no-sync behavior
is unchanged.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* feat(cli): point non-interactive next steps at bundled skills

In a non-TTY run the final "Next steps" line now tells the agent to use
the bundled skills in .agents/skills/ instead of "open your coding agent
and tell it what to build", which assumes a human at an interactive
terminal. Interactive runs are unchanged.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>

---------

Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>

Author: bjoaquinc

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -7,6 +7,12 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 
 ## [Unreleased]
 
+### Fixed
+- Non-interactive runs (piped stdin, CI, coding agents) no longer crash at the venv prompt. Without a TTY, `dlthub-init` used to fail with `Unexpected error: (25, 'Inappropriate ioctl for device')` and create no venv; it now proceeds with the prompt defaults and installs the venv unattended.
+
+### Changed
+- In non-interactive runs the final "Next steps" line now points at the bundled skills in `.agents/skills/` instead of telling you to open a coding agent.
+
 ## [0.2.2] - 2026-07-07
 
 ### Changed

src/dlthub_init/cli.py

@@ -20,9 +20,9 @@
     substep_detail,
 )
 from .errors import CollisionError, UvError, WorkspaceError
-from .prompts import confirm
+from .prompts import confirm, stdin_is_interactive
 from .scaffold import apply_scaffold, resolve_target
-from .skills import install_skills
+from .skills import install_skills, skills_source
 from .uv import execute_uv_install, find_uv, run_uv_sync
 
 
@@ -151,7 +151,13 @@ def run(args: argparse.Namespace) -> None:
         substep_detail(strings.MSG_SKILLS_INSTALLED.format(count=len(installed_skills)))
 
     synced = _maybe_sync(project_dir, args, verbose=verbose)
-    print_next_steps(project_dir, synced=synced, uv_installed=find_uv() is not None)
+    print_next_steps(
+        project_dir,
+        synced=synced,
+        uv_installed=find_uv() is not None,
+        interactive=stdin_is_interactive(),
+        skills_available=skills_source() is not None,
+    )
 
 
 def _maybe_sync(project_dir: Path, args: argparse.Namespace, *, verbose: bool) -> bool:

src/dlthub_init/display.py

@@ -69,7 +69,14 @@ def print_summary(plan: list[PlannedPath]) -> None:
         console.print(strings.MSG_NOTHING_WRITTEN)
 
 
-def print_next_steps(project_dir: Path, *, synced: bool, uv_installed: bool) -> None:
+def print_next_steps(
+    project_dir: Path,
+    *,
+    synced: bool,
+    uv_installed: bool,
+    interactive: bool = True,
+    skills_available: bool = False,
+) -> None:
     steps: list[tuple[str, str | None]] = []
     cd = _display_path(project_dir)
     if cd != ".":
@@ -78,7 +85,10 @@ def print_next_steps(project_dir: Path, *, synced: bool, uv_installed: bool) ->
         if not uv_installed:
             steps.append((strings.STEPS_LABEL_INSTALL_UV, strings.CMD_INSTALL_UV_UNIX))
         steps.append((strings.STEPS_LABEL_INSTALL_DEPS, strings.CMD_UV_SYNC))
-    steps.append((strings.STEPS_LABEL_OPEN_AGENT, None))
+    if not interactive and skills_available:
+        steps.append((strings.STEPS_LABEL_USE_SKILLS, None))
+    else:
+        steps.append((strings.STEPS_LABEL_OPEN_AGENT, None))
 
     single = len(steps) == 1
     header = strings.LABEL_NEXT_STEP if single else strings.LABEL_NEXT_STEPS

src/dlthub_init/prompts.py

@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 
 from __future__ import annotations
 
+import sys
 from typing import cast
 
 import beaupy
@@ -17,8 +18,21 @@ def _echo_selection(value: str) -> None:
     console.print(f"[{CURSOR_STYLE}]{TICK_CHAR}[/{CURSOR_STYLE}] [bold]{value}[/bold]")
 
 
+def stdin_is_interactive() -> bool:
+    stream = sys.stdin
+    try:
+        return stream is not None and stream.isatty()
+    except (OSError, ValueError):
+        return False
+
+
 def confirm(message: str, *, default: bool = True) -> bool:
     console.print(f"\n[bold]{message}[/bold]")
+    if not stdin_is_interactive():
+        # No TTY to read a selection from (piped stdin, CI, agents). beaupy would
+        # crash with a termios error, so fall back to the default answer instead.
+        _echo_selection("Yes" if default else "No")
+        return default
     choice = cast(
         str,
         beaupy.select(

src/dlthub_init/strings.py

@@ -80,6 +80,10 @@
 STEPS_LABEL_OPEN_AGENT = (
     "Open your coding agent (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, …) in this workspace and tell it what to build."
 )
+STEPS_LABEL_USE_SKILLS = (
+    "This workspace ships dltHub skills in [bold].agents/skills/[/bold] — "
+    "use them to guide building your dltHub workspace."
+)
 
 CMD_INSTALL_UV_UNIX = "curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh"
 CMD_UV_SYNC = "uv sync"

tests/test_display.py

@@ -40,8 +40,16 @@ def test_nothing_written_message_for_empty_plan(self):
 
 
 class NextStepsTest(unittest.TestCase):
-    def _render(self, project_dir, *, synced, uv_installed=True):
-        return _capture(lambda: display.print_next_steps(project_dir, synced=synced, uv_installed=uv_installed))
+    def _render(self, project_dir, *, synced, uv_installed=True, interactive=True, skills_available=False):
+        return _capture(
+            lambda: display.print_next_steps(
+                project_dir,
+                synced=synced,
+                uv_installed=uv_installed,
+                interactive=interactive,
+                skills_available=skills_available,
+            )
+        )
 
     def test_single_step_in_place_synced(self):
         out = self._render(Path.cwd(), synced=True)
@@ -57,6 +65,20 @@ def test_multiple_steps_numbered_for_subdir(self):
         self.assertIn("2.", out)
         self.assertIn("uv sync", out)
 
+    def test_interactive_points_at_coding_agent(self):
+        out = self._render(Path.cwd(), synced=True, interactive=True, skills_available=True)
+        self.assertIn("Open your coding agent", out)
+        self.assertNotIn(".agents/skills", out)
+
+    def test_non_interactive_points_at_skills(self):
+        out = self._render(Path.cwd(), synced=True, interactive=False, skills_available=True)
+        self.assertIn(".agents/skills", out)
+        self.assertNotIn("Open your coding agent", out)
+
+    def test_non_interactive_without_skills_falls_back(self):
+        out = self._render(Path.cwd(), synced=True, interactive=False, skills_available=False)
+        self.assertIn("Open your coding agent", out)
+
 
 class DisplayPathTest(unittest.TestCase):
     def test_cwd_is_dot(self):

tests/test_prompts.py

@@ -8,6 +8,9 @@
 class ConfirmTest(unittest.TestCase):
     def setUp(self):
         display.console.quiet = True
+        interactive = patch("dlthub_init.prompts.stdin_is_interactive", return_value=True)
+        interactive.start()
+        self.addCleanup(interactive.stop)
 
     def tearDown(self):
         display.console.quiet = False
@@ -26,5 +29,22 @@ def test_default_controls_initial_cursor(self, select):
         self.assertEqual(select.call_args.kwargs["cursor_index"], 1)
 
 
+class NonInteractiveConfirmTest(unittest.TestCase):
+    def setUp(self):
+        display.console.quiet = True
+        non_interactive = patch("dlthub_init.prompts.stdin_is_interactive", return_value=False)
+        non_interactive.start()
+        self.addCleanup(non_interactive.stop)
+
+    def tearDown(self):
+        display.console.quiet = False
+
+    @patch("dlthub_init.prompts.beaupy.select")
+    def test_returns_default_without_prompting(self, select):
+        self.assertTrue(confirm("Proceed?", default=True))
+        self.assertFalse(confirm("Proceed?", default=False))
+        select.assert_not_called()
+
+
 if __name__ == "__main__":
     unittest.main()