Refuse an unknown run input by name before reading its value

`fluksio run --param lr=0.002` died with a bare JSONDecodeError: `--param`
is not a `run` flag, so it became an input named `param` whose value
`lr=0.002` was json-decoded. The name check ran after the coercion, so the
decode error always won. Names are now checked first, and a coercion error
is a SyncError naming the input and its type, the way `_ask_params` has
always done it.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_019Hra4ndWMCLU5F3KjUuVAc

backend/fluksio/sdk/cli.py

@@ -439,33 +439,52 @@ def _ask_params(definition: dict[str, Any]) -> dict[str, Any]:
 def _params(definition: dict[str, Any], rest: list[str]) -> dict[str, Any]:
     """Turn `--lr 0.05` into a typed parameter, using the flow's own inputs."""
     types = _input_types(definition)
-    params: dict[str, Any] = {}
+    # Collected as written and typed afterwards, so a name this flow does not
+    # have is refused by name rather than by whatever its value failed to parse
+    # as: `--param lr=0.002` is a sweep's spelling, and said so it reads as an
+    # input called `param` holding unparseable json.
+    raw: dict[str, str | bool] = {}
     pending: str | None = None
     for token in rest:
         if token.startswith("--"):
             if pending is not None:
                 # A flag with no value is a flag: `--resume` means true.
-                params[pending] = True
+                raw[pending] = True
             name, sep, value = token[2:].partition("=")
             # Only the name is spelled with dashes; a value may hold one, and
             # `--lr=1e-4` is the case that says so.
             pending = name.replace("-", "_")
             if sep:
-                params[pending] = _coerce(value, types.get(pending, "json"))
+                raw[pending] = value
                 pending = None
             continue
         if pending is None:
             raise SyncError(f"unexpected argument '{token}'")
-        params[pending] = _coerce(token, types.get(pending, "json"))
+        raw[pending] = token
         pending = None
     if pending is not None:
-        params[pending] = True
-    unknown = sorted(set(params) - set(types))
+        raw[pending] = True
+    unknown = sorted(set(raw) - set(types))
     if unknown:
+        hint = ""
+        if unknown[0] == "param":
+            hint = (
+                " — one value is `--<name> <value>`; several is a sweep: "
+                "`fluksio sweep --param name=v1,v2`"
+            )
         raise SyncError(
             f"'{unknown[0]}' is not an input of this flow (it takes "
-            f"{', '.join(sorted(types)) or 'none'})"
+            f"{', '.join(sorted(types)) or 'none'}){hint}"
         )
+    params: dict[str, Any] = {}
+    for name, value in raw.items():
+        if value is True:
+            params[name] = True
+            continue
+        try:
+            params[name] = _coerce(value, types[name])
+        except ValueError as exc:
+            raise SyncError(f"'{name}' takes {types[name]}: {exc}") from exc
     return params
 
 

backend/tests/test_cli.py

@@ -88,6 +88,24 @@ def test_run_arguments_are_typed_by_the_flow_they_are_for() -> None:
         _params(definition, ["--nonesuch", "1"])
 
 
+def test_a_sweeps_param_spelling_is_refused_by_name() -> None:
+    """`run --param lr=0.002` is a name this flow has not got, and says so."""
+    import pytest
+
+    from fluksio.sdk import SyncError
+    from fluksio.sdk.cli import _params
+
+    definition = {"inputs": [{"spec": {"name": "lr", "dtype": "float"}}]}
+
+    # Not a JSONDecodeError over `lr=0.002`, which is what reading the value
+    # before the name used to give.
+    with pytest.raises(SyncError, match="sweep --param"):
+        _params(definition, ["--param", "lr=0.002"])
+
+    with pytest.raises(SyncError, match="'lr' takes float"):
+        _params(definition, ["--lr", "fast"])
+
+
 def test_serve_uses_the_installation_the_directory_belongs_to(
     tmp_path: Path, monkeypatch
 ) -> None: