`but skill install` automatically selecting the first option, preventing user selection

[ipsquiggle]

Version

0.19.5

Operating System

Windows

Distribution Method

msi (Windows)

Describe the issue

When running but skill install through either pwershell or cmd on windows, it automatically selects the first option in the menus, preventing user selection.

For example, if I run it, "Local" got automatically selected, forcing me to select the format.

If I run but skill install --global then the format is automatically selected, preventing me from having the choice.

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Note: in the process of capturing screenshots for this bug, I pressed "enter" to close the screenshot window, and the but command in the background selected an option upon it gaining focus.

This leads me to believe your menu system is not handling the correct key events, for example, using a "key up" instead of "key down" or similar.

How to reproduce (Optional)

1. enter but skill install at the console (pwsh or cmd)
2. observe that a question pops up but the first option is already selected.

Expected behavior (Optional)

No response

Relevant log output (Optional)

[Byron]

Thanks a lot for reporting!

Could you create a video for this? Here is how it looks like on macOS:

Screen.Recording.2026-03-04.at.05.46.34.mov

Unfortunately we don't have any team member working on Windows, so a lot of less obvious bugs we won't catch until it's too late.
The underlying implementation is in the vendored cli-prompts crate, and all it does is to interpret crossterm key presses.
Maybe it's a crossterm bug, but in any case, it probably needs an investigation on that platform to be fixed, and any help is welcome.

[ipsquiggle]

Here's a clip of the process:

Carnac_72g9d9wZqo.mp4

You can see that:

1. Even though return was only pressed once to accept the shell command, the first menu item gets selected
2. Arrowing up and down causes a duplication of the menu rather than clearing and redrawing it as shown in your video.

I noticed that this is a different interface that the rest of but uses, for example, when disambiguating the branch for a commit:

I unfortunately don't have the spoons to directly help with the implementation right now, but might I suggest two easy solutions for the meantime:

1. Change the "fancy" menu in the skill installer to use the "boring" numeric menu used elsewhere
2. Allow calling the install command with a target directly, i.e. but skill install --local --copilot to allow bypassing the menu (and offering general CLI goodness 😉)