fix: deprecate --visibility flag instead of removing it (#923)

Removing --visibility in #918 made passing the flag illegal (unknown
flag), breaking existing scripts. Restore it as a deprecated flag so it
is accepted with a deprecation notice rather than erroring.

Drop the hardcoded visibility "private" added in #922 as a backwards-
compat shim for servers that still required the field; prod no longer
requires it. The field is now sent only when the user explicitly passes
the deprecated flag (json omitempty), preserving compatibility with
older instances that still mandate it.

Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

Author: ToreMerkely

cmd/kosli/createFlow.go

@@ -47,11 +47,10 @@ type createFlowOptions struct {
 type FlowPayload struct {
 	Name        string `json:"name"`
 	Description string `json:"description"`
-	// TODO: Visibility is deprecated and ignored by recent Kosli servers, but older
-	// instances still reject the payload without it. Keep sending
-	// "private" until the minimum supported server version no longer requires
-	// this field, then remove the field and the assignment in run().
-	Visibility string   `json:"visibility"`
+	// Visibility is deprecated. It is only sent when the user explicitly passes
+	// the deprecated --visibility flag, so that older instances that still
+	// require the field keep working.
+	Visibility string   `json:"visibility,omitempty"`
 	Template   []string `json:"template,omitempty"`
 }
 
@@ -87,11 +86,17 @@ func newCreateFlowCmd(out io.Writer) *cobra.Command {
 	}
 
 	cmd.Flags().StringVar(&o.payload.Description, "description", "", flowDescriptionFlag)
+	cmd.Flags().StringVar(&o.payload.Visibility, "visibility", "", visibilityFlag)
 	cmd.Flags().StringSliceVarP(&o.payload.Template, "template", "t", []string{}, templateFlag)
 	cmd.Flags().StringVarP(&o.TemplateFile, "template-file", "f", "", templateFileFlag)
 	cmd.Flags().BoolVar(&o.UseEmptyTemplate, "use-empty-template", false, useEmptyTemplateFlag)
 	addDryRunFlag(cmd)
 
+	err := cmd.Flags().MarkDeprecated("visibility", "this flag is deprecated and will be removed in a future version.")
+	if err != nil {
+		logger.Error("failed to mark visibility as deprecated: %v", err)
+	}
+
 	return cmd
 }
 
@@ -100,7 +105,6 @@ func (o *createFlowOptions) run(args []string) error {
 	var url string
 	var err error
 	o.payload.Name = args[0]
-	o.payload.Visibility = "private"
 
 	if o.TemplateFile != "" || o.UseEmptyTemplate {
 		url, err = neturl.JoinPath(global.Host, "api/v2/flows", global.Org, "template_file")

cmd/kosli/createFlow_test.go

@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ func (suite *CreateFlowCommandTestSuite) SetupTest() {
 
 func (suite *CreateFlowCommandTestSuite) TestCreateFlowCmd() {
 	deprecationWarning := "[warning] creating a flow without --template-file or --use-empty-template uses a deprecated API endpoint and will stop working in a future release; please provide a template\n"
+	visibilityDeprecationNotice := "Flag --visibility has been deprecated, this flag is deprecated and will be removed in a future version.\n"
 	tests := []cmdTestCase{
 		{
 			wantError: true,
@@ -73,6 +74,11 @@ func (suite *CreateFlowCommandTestSuite) TestCreateFlowCmd() {
 			cmd:       "create flow newFlow --description \"my new flow\" --template foo --template-file testdata/valid_template.yml" + suite.defaultKosliArguments,
 			golden:    "Error: only one of --template, --template-file is allowed\n",
 		},
+		{
+			name:   "deprecated --visibility flag is accepted (no longer illegal) and warns",
+			cmd:    "create flow newFlowWithVisibility --visibility public --use-empty-template --description \"my new flow\" " + suite.defaultKosliArguments,
+			golden: visibilityDeprecationNotice + "flow 'newFlowWithVisibility' was created\n",
+		},
 		// flows v2
 		{
 			name:   "can create a flow with a valid template",

cmd/kosli/root.go

@@ -129,6 +129,7 @@ The ^.kosli_ignore^ will be treated as part of the artifact like any other file,
 	envDescriptionFlag              = "[optional] The environment description."
 	flowDescriptionFlag             = "[optional] The Kosli flow description."
 	trailDescriptionFlag            = "[optional] The Kosli trail description."
+	visibilityFlag                  = "[deprecated] The visibility of the Kosli flow. This flag is deprecated and will be removed in a future version."
 	templateFlag                    = "[defaulted] The comma-separated list of required compliance controls names."
 	templateFileFlag                = "[optional] The path to a yaml template file. Cannot be used together with --use-empty-template"
 	templateFileSimpleFlag          = "[optional] The path to a yaml template file."