v0.6.1 macOS arm64: --ui=true persists config but HTTP server never starts

[Nick-CHI]

Summary

--ui=true --port=9749 parses, persists to ~/.cache/codebase-memory-mcp/config.json, but the embedded HTTP graph UI never binds the port. No ui.serving log is ever emitted. UI is unreachable.

Environment

• Binary: codebase-memory-mcp 0.6.1 (CLI --version)
• serverInfo.version over MCP: 0.10.0 (mismatch with CLI version — possible release-tag drift)
• File: Mach-O 64-bit executable arm64, 240.8 MB
• Install path: /Users/nick/.local/bin/codebase-memory-mcp
• macOS 26.4.1 (Darwin 25.4.0 arm64), Apple Silicon
• update -y reports "Already up to date (0.6.1)"

Reproduction

codebase-memory-mcp config set ui_enabled true
codebase-memory-mcp config set ui_port 9749
cat ~/.cache/codebase-memory-mcp/config.json
# {"ui_enabled": true, "ui_port": 9749}

tail -f /dev/null | codebase-memory-mcp --ui=true --port=9749 2>err.log &
sleep 3
lsof -iTCP:9749 -sTCP:LISTEN   # empty
cat err.log
# level=info msg=mem.init budget_mb=18432 total_ram_mb=36864

No process listens on 9749 (or any other port). No child process forked. Only stderr line is mem.init.

What I tried

• --ui=true --port=9749 (flag form)
• --ui true --port 9749 (space-separated)
• --ui alone
• Persisted config + no flags
• TTY via script -q /dev/null …
• After full MCP handshake + tools/call list_projects (returns data correctly — 3 indexed projects, so DB layer is fine)
• CBM_DIAGNOSTICS=1 (only adds diagnostics.start log, no UI log)

Display bug (secondary)

config set ui_enabled true echoes ui_enabled = true and writes the JSON, but config list shows only auto_index / auto_index_limit. The ui_* keys are persisted but hidden from list.

Strings in binary suggesting UI is wired

ui_enabled
ui_port
ui.config.saved
ui.config.corrupt
ui.config.write_fail
ui.no_assets
ui.unavailable
ui.serving
ui.index.start
ui.index.fork
ui.index.done
ui.http.mcp_fail
/api/layout*
/api/index
/api/index-status
/api/project*
/api/browse*
/api/adr*
/api/project-health*
/api/processes
/api/logs*
/api/process-kill
/index.html
/assets/*
http://127.0.0.1:%d
axum / hyper

So the code path exists; it just never runs in the 0.6.1 release binary.

Hypothesis

UI startup branch is gated behind a check that fails silently in the published macOS arm64 build (missing embedded assets? feature flag not enabled at compile time? early return before bind?). The absence of ui.no_assets / ui.unavailable / ui.serving in stderr suggests UI init isn't even reached.

Ask

1. Confirm whether --ui is supposed to work in 0.6.1 macOS arm64 release, or if it's a main-only feature.
2. If shipped: add a stderr log at the UI init entrypoint (success or failure) so users can tell why it's silent.
3. Fix config list to display ui_enabled / ui_port.
4. Reconcile CLI --version (0.6.1) with MCP serverInfo.version (0.10.0).

[mosi-kha]

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