[BUG] [v0.0.7] cortex github run ignores GITHUB_TOKEN / GITHUB_REPOSITORY / GITHUB_EVENT_PATH environment variables despite error messages claiming they are supported

[nightmare0329]

Summary

cortex github run error messages advertise GITHUB_TOKEN, GITHUB_REPOSITORY, and GITHUB_EVENT_PATH as environment-variable fallbacks, but the code never reads these env vars. In GitHub Actions contexts — where these variables are set automatically — the command always fails with a misleading "set env var" error.

Root cause

github_cmd.rs run_github_agent() errors out if flags are missing, but never reads env vars:

// github_cmd.rs lines 263-278
let token = args.token.ok_or_else(|| {
    anyhow::anyhow!("GitHub token required. Set GITHUB_TOKEN env var or use --token")
    // ^^ Says to set GITHUB_TOKEN env var — but std::env::var("GITHUB_TOKEN") is NEVER called
})?;

let repository = args.repository.ok_or_else(|| {
    anyhow::anyhow!("Set GITHUB_REPOSITORY env var or use --repository")
    // ^^ GITHUB_REPOSITORY env var is never read
})?;

let event_path = args.event_path.ok_or_else(|| {
    anyhow::anyhow!("Set GITHUB_EVENT_PATH env var or use --event-path")
    // ^^ GITHUB_EVENT_PATH env var is never read
})?;

Reproduction

# In GitHub Actions, GITHUB_TOKEN, GITHUB_REPOSITORY, GITHUB_EVENT_PATH are set automatically.
# Despite the error message, these env vars do NOT satisfy the requirement:
export GITHUB_TOKEN=ghp_xxx
export GITHUB_REPOSITORY=owner/repo
export GITHUB_EVENT_PATH=/github/workflow/event.json

cortex github run --event issue_comment
# Error: GitHub token required. Set GITHUB_TOKEN env var or use --token
# (Even though GITHUB_TOKEN IS set — it is just never read)

Fix

Read env var fallbacks before erroring:

let token = args.token
    .or_else(|| std::env::var("GITHUB_TOKEN").ok())
    .ok_or_else(|| anyhow::anyhow!("..."))?;

File

src/cortex-cli/src/github_cmd.rs lines 263-278 (run_github_agent)

[atlas-cortex]

❌ Validation Summary — Issue #53414

Code verification failed: The code analysis confirms that the environment variables are indeed ignored despite the error messages claiming otherwise. However, the bug report fails to provide any screenshots demonstrating the issue in a real user environment. Since valid screenshots are a mandatory requirement for a bug to be considered plausible, this report must be rejected.

Confidence Score: 4/5

• This issue does not meet the minimum requirements for a valid bounty submission.

Validation Checks

Check	Status	Detail
Media Evidence	❌ Fail	No screenshot or video attached
Spam Detection	✅ Pass	Score: 69% — borderline, consulted LLM
Duplicate Detection	✅ Pass	No significant overlap with existing issues
Code Verification	❌ Fail	Bug not found in source code (confidence: 100%) — screenshots invalid — The code analysis confirms that the environment variables are indeed ignored des
LLM Evaluation	❌ Fail	Code verification failed: The code analysis confirms that the environment variables are indeed ignored despite the error...

Action Items

• Ensure the bug report describes a real command/feature in Cortex
• Verify that the described behavior matches the actual code
• Provide screenshots showing actual CLI output, not source code

Validation Pipeline

%%{init: {'theme': 'neutral'}}%%
flowchart TD
    A["Issue #53414"] --> B{"Media Check"}
    B -->|"No media"| Z["❌ Invalid"]
    style Z fill:#ff6b6b,color:#fff

Loading

Raw Evidence

{
  "media": {
    "hasMedia": false,
    "accessible": false,
    "urls": [],
    "evidence": [
      "No media URLs found in issue body"
    ]
  },
  "spam": {
    "overallScore": 0.6906593406593406,
    "details": "template=0.20 (6 recent issues compared); burst=1.00 (7 issues in 2h window); parity=0.00; overall=0.38 (threshold=0.7); llm_spam=1.00 (The issue title is specific and the description contains clear reproduction steps, expected versus actual behavior, and a root cause analysis. However, the submission does not include any visual evidence (screenshot or video). According to the strict evaluation criteria, an issue must contain accessible media evidence to be considered valid. Therefore, despite the high quality of the written report, the issue is invalid due to missing media.)"
  },
  "duplicate": {
    "isDuplicate": true,
    "originalIssue": 53373,
    "similarity": 0.645272028616418,
    "topSimilar": [
      {
        "issueNumber": 53373,
        "title": "[BUG] [v0.0.7] `cortex github run` error messages instruct setting env vars that are never read by the CLI",
        "similarity": 0.645272028616418
      },
      {
        "issueNumber": 51346,
        "title": "[BUG] [v0.0.7] cortex github run exits successfully for unsupported GitHub event types instead of returning an error",
        "similarity": 0.5164056753642182
      },
      {
        "issueNumber": 51740,
        "title": "[BUG] [v0.0.7] cortex github run: pull_request_review event accepted but not implemented (no functional behavior)",
        "similarity": 0.49738130283174964
      },
      {
        "issueNumber": 51297,
        "title": "[BUG] [v0.0.7] cortex github run: pull_request_review event accepted but not implemented (no functional behavior)",
        "similarity": 0.4799923083537936
      },
      {
        "issueNumber": 52961,
        "title": "[BUG] [v0.0.7] `cortex github run` returns exit code 0 for unsupported `--event`, masking workflow misconfiguration",
        "similarity": 0.479838538860708
      }
    ]
  },
  "codeVerification": {
    "plausible": false,
    "confidence": 1,
    "reasoning": "The code analysis confirms that the environment variables are indeed ignored despite the error messages claiming otherwise. However, the bug report fails to provide any screenshots demonstrating the issue in a real user environment. Since valid screenshots are a mandatory requirement for a bug to be considered plausible, this report must be rejected.",
    "codeEvidence": "In `src/cortex-cli/src/github_cmd.rs`, `run_github_agent` checks `args.token`, `args.repository`, and `args.event_path` and errors out if they are missing, suggesting to set environment variables. However, `RunArgs` does not use `#[arg(env = \"...\")]` for these fields, and the code does not manually check `std::env::var`, confirming the bug exists in the code.",
    "screenshotValid": false,
    "screenshotReasoning": "No screenshots were provided in the bug report."
  }
}

_{Validated by Atlas • 2026-04-16}