REQ-O-016: --no-config Flag

Tier: Opt-In | Priority: P1

Source: §28 Config File Shadowing & Precedence

Addresses: Severity: High / Token Spend: High / Time: High / Context: Medium

Description

The framework MUST provide --no-config as a standard flag on every command. When passed, the framework MUST skip loading all config files (local .toolrc, user ~/.config/tool/config.*, and system /etc/tool/config.*). Environment variable overrides MUST still apply (they are not "config files"). With --no-config, behavior MUST depend only on explicit CLI flags and compiled-in defaults, making the invocation fully reproducible regardless of the execution environment's config files.

Acceptance Criteria

--no-config causes no config file to be read, regardless of what files exist
Environment variables still take effect with --no-config
meta.config_sources is an empty array when --no-config is passed
--no-config is present in every command's --help output

Schema

Types: response-envelope.md

When --no-config is passed, meta.config_sources is an empty array, confirming no config files were loaded.

Wire Format

$ tool deploy --target staging --no-config --output json

{
  "ok": true,
  "data": { "deployed": true },
  "error": null,
  "warnings": [],
  "meta": { "config_sources": [], "duration_ms": 941 }
}

Example

Opt-in at the framework level; automatically available on every command.

app = Framework("tool")
app.enable_no_config()   # registers --no-config on all commands

# Reproducible invocation independent of environment config files:
$ tool deploy --target staging --region us-east-1 --no-config
→ meta.config_sources: []  # only CLI flags and env vars apply

Requirement	Tier	Relationship
REQ-F-028	F	Provides: `meta.config_sources` field that `--no-config` sets to empty
REQ-O-015	O	Composes: `--show-config` with `--no-config` confirms no files were loaded
REQ-O-024	O	Composes: `--context` and `--no-config` may be combined for isolated context