[aikins01]

Run through npx, the CLI ended sign-in with "Try telemetry traces", but npx leaves no telemetry on PATH, so the suggested command failed with command not found. Every printed command, usage line, and JSON hint now starts with the command that started the CLI: npx @telemetry-dev/cli, pnpm dlx @telemetry-dev/cli, yarn dlx @telemetry-dev/cli, or bunx @telemetry-dev/cli, and telemetry otherwise. The runner is detected from the folder it unpacked the package into, including a pnpm cache directory that was moved. A runner start also prints one line on how to install the CLI. No hint prints npx telemetry, because that name runs an unrelated npm package.

The CLI had no way to tell people about new versions. On a terminal, it now asks npm's dist-tags for the latest version at most once a day. The request runs alongside the command and is dropped if the command finishes first, so no command waits for it. A newer stable version gets one stderr line with the update command for how the CLI was installed: npm's global folder under any prefix (recognized by lib/node_modules, or by the telemetry.cmd npm writes on Windows), pnpm, bun, Yarn classic, or Volta. Any other node_modules is a project's dependency, including Yarn Plug'n'Play's cache, and gets no check. The CLI never installs anything itself. There is no check in CI, with --json, or when TELEMETRY_DEV_NO_UPDATE_CHECK or NO_UPDATE_NOTIFIER is set. status --json and login --json report cli_version and the cached latest_cli_version.

On the server side, @telemetry-dev/mcp now records mcp.client.name and mcp.client.version from the client's clientInfo on each request span, cut to 128 characters. telemetry.dev records them after this package is released and apps/web moves to that version.

Other first-run and everyday fixes:

• A new sign-in keeps the default project when the workspace still has it. Before, a re-login after an expired sign-in dropped it, so the next command asked for a project.
• status checks the saved sign-in with one list_projects call. A refused sign-in exits 4 with signed_in: false. When the check can't run, for example offline or while the token endpoint fails, it keeps the saved sign-in, says so on stderr, and sets sign_in_verified: false. A refresh that gets no answer is now a retryable server_error, not sign_in_expired.
• An empty unfiltered traces points to the quickstart, and says that experiment runs need --env experiment. With no default project set, the home screen says how to set one.
• Network errors name the configured server. When HTTPS_PROXY is set but Node.js ignores it, the error says which setting or Node.js version would use it.
• login also accepts the pasted callback address while it waits for the browser, for a browser on another device or one that never opened.
• On Windows, printed commands use double quotes. A command that no quoting keeps as typed in both cmd.exe and PowerShell isn't printed.
• Options before the command get the reordered command as the hint. Messages no longer put commands in backticks, which a shell runs when pasted. An empty sessions search suggests only wider ranges. Failed spans in trace show the span id that payload takes. -v prints the version.

Not covered yet: bun and Yarn classic global folders moved to a custom location are taken for project dependencies, so they get no update notice.

Tests run: vp test run in packages/cli (46 passed) and packages/mcp (33 passed), and vp check. Each new assertion fails when the code it covers is removed.