Add support for multiple flag values via repeated flags using ellipsis syntax by Copilot · Pull Request #6198 · wp-cli/wp-cli

Copilot · 2026-01-19T10:18:37Z

Implementation Complete: Multiple Flag Values Support ✅

This PR implements support for passing the same flag multiple times to provide multiple values, addressing issue #159. Users can now use --status=active --status=parent instead of being limited to comma-separated values.

Core Changes

✅ Modified Configurator::unmix_assoc_args() to collect multiple flag values into arrays
✅ Updated Subcommand::validate_args() to handle repeating parameters using ellipsis syntax
✅ Added validation for array values with improved error messages
✅ Full backward compatibility maintained
✅ Applied code review feedback: modern array destructuring, avoided end() side effects
✅ Uses existing ellipsis syntax (...) consistent with repeating positional parameters

Testing & Quality

✅ Unit tests (6/6 pass in ConfiguratorTest)
✅ Feature tests (3 scenarios, 24 steps, all pass)
✅ Added test for invalid value appearing first in array
✅ Linting, phpcs pass
✅ CodeQL security scan (no issues)

Usage Example

# NEW: Use repeated flags
wp theme list --status=active --status=parent

# STILL WORKS: Comma-separated
wp theme list --status=active,parent

# STILL WORKS: Single value  
wp theme list --status=active

How to Add to Your Command

Use the ellipsis syntax in the synopsis (same as for repeating positional parameters):

/**
 * [--status=<status>...]
 * : Filter by status
 * ---
 * options:
 *   - active
 *   - inactive
 * ---
 */

This leverages the existing $spec['repeating'] attribute from SynopsisParser, which already detects the ellipsis and works with infrastructure like prompt_args().

Follow-up Required

The changes in vendor files (Theme_Command.php, Plugin_Command.php, CommandWithUpgrade.php) need to be submitted to the wp-cli/extension-command repository separately. See MULTIPLE_FLAG_VALUES_IMPLEMENTATION.md for details.

Files Changed

php/WP_CLI/Configurator.php - Argument parsing with modern array destructuring
php/WP_CLI/Dispatcher/Subcommand.php - Validation logic using $spec['repeating']
tests/ConfiguratorTest.php - Unit tests
features/multiple-flag-values.feature - Feature tests with ellipsis syntax
MULTIPLE_FLAG_VALUES_IMPLEMENTATION.md - Documentation

Original prompt

This section details on the original issue you should resolve

<issue_title>wp theme list show multiple status</issue_title>
<issue_description>I am creating an audit script and noticed that you cannot use more than one status with the wp theme list command.

Here is an example on a live site:
wp theme list
Output
+----------------+--------+--------+---------+
| name           | status | update | version |
+----------------+--------+--------+---------+
| woodmart-child | active | none   | 1.0.0   |
| woodmart       | parent | none   | 4.4.0   |
+----------------+--------+--------+---------+
I can filter by one status
wp theme list --status=active
Output
+----------------+--------+--------+---------+
| name           | status | update | version |
+----------------+--------+--------+---------+
| woodmart-child | active | none   | 1.0.0   |
+----------------+--------+--------+---------+
But if I try to get both the active and parent status in one command it fails
wp theme list --status=active,parent
Output
+------+--------+--------+---------+
| name | status | update | version |
+------+--------+--------+---------+
+------+--------+--------+---------+
</issue_description>

<agent_instructions>Similar to the senstive: true annotation, there could be one called multiple: true. Then, when parsing arguments, if doing something like --flag=foo --flag=bar, if multiple: true is set, $assoc_args['flag'] would be an array [ 'foo', 'bar' ]</agent_instructions>

Comments on the Issue (you are @copilot in this section)
@swissspidy Sounds like it might be looking for a status called `active,parent` and not actually doing any splitting to filter by both.
So this would be more of an enhancement. I'd be open to accept a PR that covers all relevant commands and also clearly documents the behavior. Would also be good to check other commands as well to ensure they all behave similarly.</comment_new>
<comment_new>@thelovekesh
@swissspidy IMO It's hard to guess whether the user wants to pass comma-separated strings as multiple strings or the string itself contains the comma. In this case, we can explore the strategy to pass a flag multiple times in case multiple values are intended for a flag.

Example:
$ wp --flag=option1 --flag=option2
# It will be parsed by CLI as `$flag = [ 'option1', 'option2' ]`

$ wp --flag=option1,option2
# It will be parsed by CLI as `$flag = [ 'option1,option2' ]`
```</body></comment_new>
<comment_new><author>@danielbachhuber</author><body>
Related https://github.com/wp-cli/extension-command/issues/159</body></comment_new>
</comments>

Fixes wp theme list show multiple status extension-command#224

💡 You can make Copilot smarter by setting up custom instructions, customizing its development environment and configuring Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers. Learn more Copilot coding agent tips in the docs.

Co-authored-by: swissspidy <841956+swissspidy@users.noreply.github.com>

codecov · 2026-01-19T10:47:20Z

Codecov Report

❌ Patch coverage is 58.33333% with 10 lines in your changes missing coverage. Please review.

Files with missing lines	Patch %	Lines
php/WP_CLI/Configurator.php	16.66%	10 Missing ⚠️

📢 Thoughts on this report? Let us know!

Copilot

Pull request overview

This PR adds support for specifying multiple values for a flag by repeating it (e.g., --status=active --status=parent), addressing the inability to filter by multiple status values in commands like wp theme list.

Changes:

Modified argument parsing to collect repeated flags into arrays instead of overwriting values
Added multiple: true annotation support in PHPdoc YAML for parameters that should accept multiple values
Implemented backward compatibility by using the last value when multiple is not set or is false

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 5 out of 5 changed files in this pull request and generated 4 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
php/WP_CLI/Configurator.php	Collects repeated flag values into arrays during argument parsing
php/WP_CLI/Dispatcher/Subcommand.php	Validates multiple flag values and preserves arrays when `multiple: true` is set
tests/ConfiguratorTest.php	Unit test verifying multiple flag values are parsed correctly
features/multiple-flag-values.feature	Feature tests for multiple values, backward compatibility, and validation
MULTIPLE_FLAG_VALUES_IMPLEMENTATION.md	Documentation of implementation details and usage examples

💡 Add Copilot custom instructions for smarter, more guided reviews. Learn how to get started.

php/WP_CLI/Configurator.php

php/WP_CLI/Dispatcher/Subcommand.php

tests/ConfiguratorTest.php

features/multiple-flag-values.feature

…end() Co-authored-by: swissspidy <841956+swissspidy@users.noreply.github.com>

Replace the `multiple: true` annotation approach with the existing ellipsis syntax (e.g., `[--status=<status>...]`) which is already used for repeating positional parameters. This leverages the existing `$spec['repeating']` attribute from SynopsisParser rather than introducing a new annotation. Changes: - Updated Subcommand.php to check $spec['repeating'] instead of $spec_args['multiple'] - Updated feature tests to use [--status=<status>...] syntax - Updated documentation to reflect the ellipsis approach Co-authored-by: swissspidy <841956+swissspidy@users.noreply.github.com>

Initial plan

6cf3d5b

Copilot AI assigned Copilot and swissspidy Jan 19, 2026

Copilot started work on behalf of swissspidy January 19, 2026 10:19 View session

Copilot AI and others added 2 commits January 19, 2026 10:25

Implement multiple flag values support for command arguments

b1573d3

Co-authored-by: swissspidy <841956+swissspidy@users.noreply.github.com>

Add tests for multiple flag values support

cab0487

Co-authored-by: swissspidy <841956+swissspidy@users.noreply.github.com>

github-actions bot added command:theme-list enhancement labels Jan 19, 2026

Copilot AI and others added 3 commits January 19, 2026 10:29

Fix code style issues

b565004

Co-authored-by: swissspidy <841956+swissspidy@users.noreply.github.com>

Address code review feedback - improve type safety and error messages

1f44659

Co-authored-by: swissspidy <841956+swissspidy@users.noreply.github.com>

Add implementation documentation

e1449a5

Co-authored-by: swissspidy <841956+swissspidy@users.noreply.github.com>

Copilot AI changed the title ~~[WIP] Add support for multiple statuses in wp theme list command~~ Add support for multiple flag values via repeated flags Jan 19, 2026

Copilot AI requested a review from swissspidy January 19, 2026 10:33

Copilot finished work on behalf of swissspidy January 19, 2026 10:33

swissspidy requested a review from Copilot January 19, 2026 13:08

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of swissspidy January 19, 2026 13:08 View session

Copilot AI reviewed Jan 19, 2026

View reviewed changes

php/WP_CLI/Configurator.php Outdated Show resolved Hide resolved

php/WP_CLI/Dispatcher/Subcommand.php Outdated Show resolved Hide resolved

tests/ConfiguratorTest.php Show resolved Hide resolved

features/multiple-flag-values.feature Show resolved Hide resolved

Copilot started work on behalf of swissspidy January 19, 2026 13:35 View session

Copilot started work on behalf of swissspidy January 19, 2026 15:45 View session

Apply code review feedback: use modern array destructuring and avoid …

9cb9ce8

…end() Co-authored-by: swissspidy <841956+swissspidy@users.noreply.github.com>

Copilot finished work on behalf of swissspidy January 19, 2026 15:49

swissspidy marked this pull request as ready for review January 19, 2026 17:08

swissspidy requested a review from a team as a code owner January 19, 2026 17:08

swissspidy mentioned this pull request Jan 22, 2026

Extends documentation about commands' phpdoc possibilities/limitations wp-cli/handbook#580

Open

1 task

swissspidy added the breaking-change label Jan 25, 2026

swissspidy added this to the 3.0.0 milestone Feb 5, 2026

This comment was marked as resolved.

Sign in to view

Copilot started work on behalf of swissspidy February 6, 2026 22:59 View session

This comment was marked as resolved.

Sign in to view

Copilot finished work on behalf of swissspidy February 6, 2026 23:01

This comment was marked as resolved.

Sign in to view

Copilot started work on behalf of swissspidy February 6, 2026 23:03 View session

This comment was marked as resolved.

Sign in to view

Copilot AI changed the title ~~Add support for multiple flag values via repeated flags~~ Add support for multiple flag values via repeated flags using ellipsis syntax Feb 6, 2026

Copilot finished work on behalf of swissspidy February 6, 2026 23:07

Provide feedback

Saved searches

Use saved searches to filter your results more quickly

Add support for multiple flag values via repeated flags using ellipsis syntax#6198

Add support for multiple flag values via repeated flags using ellipsis syntax#6198
Copilot wants to merge 8 commits intomainfrom
copilot/add-multiple-status-support

Copilot AI commented Jan 19, 2026 •

edited

Loading

Uh oh!

codecov bot commented Jan 19, 2026 •

edited

Loading

Uh oh!

Copilot AI left a comment

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

This comment was marked as resolved.

This comment was marked as resolved.

This comment was marked as resolved.

This comment was marked as resolved.

Reviewers

Assignees

Labels

Projects

Milestone

Development

Uh oh!

2 participants

Conversation

Copilot AI commented Jan 19, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Implementation Complete: Multiple Flag Values Support ✅

Core Changes

Testing & Quality

Usage Example

How to Add to Your Command

Follow-up Required

Files Changed

Comments on the Issue (you are @copilot in this section)

Uh oh!

codecov bot commented Jan 19, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Codecov Report

Uh oh!

Copilot AI left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Pull request overview

Reviewed changes

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

This comment was marked as resolved.

This comment was marked as resolved.

This comment was marked as resolved.

This comment was marked as resolved.

Reviewers

Assignees

Labels

Projects

Milestone

Development

Uh oh!

2 participants

Copilot AI commented Jan 19, 2026 •

edited

Loading

codecov bot commented Jan 19, 2026 •

edited

Loading