--help on any subcommand is safe (kz4pg)

cyberine help                 # same as cyberine --help
cyberine version              # same as cyberine --version
cyberine reap --help          # prints the usage line; never scans or signals anything
npm run selftest:help-flag    # every registered subcommand, --help, in an isolated HOME

--help (or -h) anywhere before a -- prints the subcommand's usage and exits 0. Most handlers print their own richer help; agents, chat, tui, setup, reap, maintenance, status and version used to ignore the flag and run (on 2026-09-28 cyberine reap --help reaped real runs), and now print their registry usage lines from src/core/commandRegistry.ts before any handler runs. selftest:help-flag runs every registered subcommand with --help under a temp HOME and CYBERINE_HOME, no keys and no agent CLIs on PATH, and fails on a timeout, a missing usage line, or any file written.

Known Limitations and Deferred Work. The check is top-level only: cyberine tasks status --help and other second-level verbs rely on each handler. evolve, trajectory and provenance print usage on --help but exit 1.