Fix AttributeError when base_url is not set

[jeff-schnitter]

Problem

The CLI was crashing with AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'strip' in GitHub Actions workflows and other automated environments when:

• No config file exists
• CORTEX_BASE_URL environment variable is not set
• --url flag is not provided

This bug was discovered when the publish workflow failed to post custom events to Cortex production after promoting v1.1.0 to main.

Root Cause

In cortexapps_cli/cli.py:130, the code tries to strip the url variable:

url = url.strip('"\' /')

However, when there's no config file (lines 97-112 path), the default URL was never set, leaving url as None.

The default URL was only set in the else block (line 126) when a config file exists.

Solution

Added a safety check before the strip operation to ensure url has a default value:

# Set default URL if not provided
if not url:
    url = "https://api.getcortexapp.com"

Changes

• ✅ Added default URL check in cli.py before strip operation
• ✅ Added test case test_no_base_url_defaults_correctly to verify the fix
• ✅ All existing config tests pass

Testing

just test tests/test_config_file.py
# All 7 tests passed

The new test specifically reproduces the bug scenario and confirms the fix works.

Impact

• Severity: High (broke GitHub Actions workflows)
• Affected: v1.1.0
• Fixed: This PR

Fixes #151

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