[finding] `create-objectstack` has no `--package-manager` override, so its probe is the only way to choose — while `objectstack init` next door takes the flag

[os-zhuang]

Observation recorded while implementing #11616 (PR #12041). Not folded into that PR: it changes what the tool does for a user, and #11616 was explicitly scoped to changing only what it reports.

What was measured

At 3954fb7df, the two scaffolders in this repo disagree on whether the user may name a package manager at all.

packages/cli/src/commands/init.ts takes an explicit override and falls back to detection only when the flag is absent (init.ts:711 declares it, init.ts:868 consumes it):

chosenPm = (flags['package-manager'] as typeof chosenPm | undefined) ?? detectPackageManager();

packages/create-objectstack/src/index.ts declares exactly two flags — --skip-install and --skip-skills (index.ts:383-384). There is no override. Its probe is the only input, so whatever pnpm --version answers is final.

Why it is worth recording rather than acting on

#11616 made a failed probe say so instead of silently passing itself off as a considered npm choice. That warning now names a situation the user has no flag to answer:

⚠ pnpm is installed but `pnpm --version` failed (<reason>); using npm as a fallback.

It is not a dead end today — --skip-install plus running the install by hand gets there — so this is an asymmetry and a small papercut, not a measured failure. Recording it because the two tools sit one directory apart and read as if they share a contract: scaffold-next-steps-pm.test.ts's own header calls the cli one "the same contract for create-objectstack", which is true of the output it pins and not of the input surface.

The part that needs a decision, not an implementation

The two detectors deliberately answer different questions, and that is defensible rather than drift:

	question	mechanism
objectstack init	which PM invoked me	npm_config_user_agent
create-objectstack	which PM is available	spawned pnpm --version probe

A user running npm create objectstack has an npm user-agent while possibly preferring pnpm, so create-objectstack cannot simply adopt the sibling's strategy. Adding a flag is capability expansion with no measured pull behind it, which the startup scope discipline says to default against — so this is filed as an observation for grading, not as queued work.

Filed unassigned.

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