[CLI] surf catalog rejects --limit (inconsistent with rest of CLI; 72 wasted retries observed)

[JamesDaizs]

Summary

surf catalog search is the only list-returning subcommand that rejects --limit. Every other subcommand (market-price, news-feed, search-project, project-defi-metrics, etc.) accepts it. Result: agents reasonably guess --limit N and burn a retry.

72 occurrences of Error: unknown flag: --limit on surf catalog across 6 runners in the recent CAIA batch.

Reproduction

surf catalog search "dex revenue" --limit 5 -o json -f body.data
# Error: unknown flag: --limit
# Usage:
#   surf catalog search <query> [flags]
# Examples:
#   surf catalog search "polymarket volume"
#   surf catalog search bridge

surf catalog --help lists ZERO flags except -h, --help and --json. No hint that --limit should not be used here.

Suggested fix (pick one)

1. Accept --limit on catalog search — easiest. Catalog already implicitly limits results; just expose the flag.
2. Improve the error message with a hint:

   Error: unknown flag: --limit
   Hint: 'surf catalog search' returns top results by default. Refine the query string to narrow.
   

Source

cyberconnecthq/research-eval → reviews/surf_cli_vulns.md section B1.