fix(cli): stop workspace-cli from silently stripping quotes on string args

[CapitalX]

Description

Fixes a bug where workspace-cli silently strips surrounding quotes from string arguments.

_call_tool in core/cli.py parses each key=value argument by running json.loads(v) and only falling back to the raw string on JSONDecodeError:

k, v = arg.split("=", 1)
try:
    kwargs[k] = json.loads(v)
except json.JSONDecodeError:
    kwargs[k] = v

A quoted string value is itself valid JSON, so the surrounding quotes are silently stripped. For a Gmail exact-phrase query:

workspace-cli call search_gmail_messages query='"exact phrase"'

json.loads('"exact phrase"') returns exact phrase (unquoted), so the server runs an unquoted query. There is no error — it just silently returns different/empty results, which is easy to misread as "no matches."

Fix: add _coerce_cli_value(), which only attempts json.loads when the value actually looks like JSON (empty → ""; first non-space char is {/[; exactly true/false/null; or a numeric literal). Everything else is returned unchanged as a raw string, so quotes and other characters survive verbatim. page_size=3 still coerces to int and values=[["a"]] still parses to a list.

Type of Change

• Bug fix (non-breaking change which fixes an issue)
• New feature (non-breaking change which adds functionality)
• Breaking change (fix or feature that would cause existing functionality to not work as expected)
• Documentation update

Testing

• I have added tests that prove my fix is effective or that my feature works
• New and existing unit tests pass locally with my changes
• I have tested this change manually

Added tests/core/test_cli_value_coercion.py (15 cases): strings preserved verbatim (including quoted phrases and date-like values) and JSON scalars/containers that should still be coerced. Manually verified query='"grow therapy"' now reaches the server with the quotes intact.

Checklist

• My code follows the style guidelines of this project
• I have performed a self-review of my own code
• I have commented my code, particularly in hard-to-understand areas
• My changes generate no new warnings
• I have enabled "Allow edits from maintainers" for this pull request

Additional Notes

Scope is intentionally minimal — one helper plus a two-line change at the call site, no behavior change for existing JSON-typed args. ruff check is clean on the changed files and the new test module.

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Bug Fixes

  • Improved command-line argument handling so quoted strings and Gmail phrase queries are preserved exactly as entered.
  • Continued converting JSON-like values, including numbers, booleans, lists, and objects, to their appropriate types.
  • Improved WebSocket compatibility and reliability for OAuth and dual-transport server connections.

• Tests

  • Added coverage for string preservation and JSON-style value conversion.
  • Expanded development and test support for HTTP client integration.

[coderabbitai]

Caution

Review failed

The pull request is closed.

ℹ️ Recent review info

⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: defaults

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Pro Plus

Run ID: 2a0e1499-650a-47fd-81b7-f2be1724d3de

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between a4c9a7a and 9f9bb84.

⛔ Files ignored due to path filters (1)

• uv.lock is excluded by !**/*.lock

📒 Files selected for processing (3)

• auth/oauth_callback_server.py
• main.py
• pyproject.toml

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📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

The CLI preserves string values during selective JSON coercion. Uvicorn explicitly uses websockets-sansio in two server configurations. httpx2 is added to test and development dependency declarations.

Changes

CLI coercion

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Selective CLI value coercion core/cli.py	Adds _coerce_cli_value and uses it for CLI tool arguments. Strings remain unchanged, while JSON-like values are decoded.
Coercion regression coverage tests/core/test_cli_value_coercion.py	Tests string preservation and conversion of numeric, boolean, null, array, nested-array, and object values.

WebSocket runtime configuration

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Explicit Uvicorn WebSocket backend auth/oauth_callback_server.py, main.py	Configures both Uvicorn servers to use websockets-sansio.
Test and development dependencies pyproject.toml	Adds httpx2>=2.0.0 to optional dependency lists and dependency groups.

Estimated code review effort: 3 (Moderate) | ~20 minutes

Possibly related PRs

• taylorwilsdon/google_workspace_mcp#618: Both PRs modify CLI argument value parsing in core/cli.py.

Suggested reviewers: taylorwilsdon

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 5

✅ Passed checks (5 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Title check	✅ Passed	The title clearly and concisely identifies the main fix: preventing quote stripping from string arguments in the CLI.
Description check	✅ Passed	The description follows the template, explains the bug and fix, documents testing, and completes the checklist.
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.

✨ Finishing Touches

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create PR with unit tests

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