How to Capture CLI Errors Before Developers Leave Your Tool

A developer who installs your CLI already wants the product to work. When auth login dies inside Docker Compose or a helper exits 137, that intent evaporates fast. Support never hears about it because the person never opens a browser to complain.

Capturing CLI errors at the wrapper boundary is the cheapest place to keep command, OS, runtime, and exit code together.

You do not need a new product surface. Wrap the binary or command path your customers already run. When the process fails, send a probe with the error code and stack, then ask one short question in the terminal.

AethelLayer’s CLI path is designed for that workflow so DX can answer from an inbox instead of reconstructing the session from memory.

Attach taxonomy labels like Docker or OAuth. Draft a GitHub issue for human approval. Measure how often the same CLI path fails in a week. That loop turns one-off curses into a product backlog you can defend.