Problem

The prepWorkspaceBuild() function in cli/create.go was unconditionally executing dry-runs for all workspace actions. This caused unnecessary delays and "Planning workspace..." messages during coder start and coder restart commands when they should only happen during coder create and coder update.

Root Cause

The prepWorkspaceBuild() function is shared code called by:

• create command - passes WorkspaceCreate action ✅ dry-run IS desired
• update command - passes WorkspaceUpdate action ✅ dry-run IS desired
• start command - passes WorkspaceStart action (or WorkspaceUpdate as fallback) ❌ dry-run NOT desired for WorkspaceStart
• restart command - passes WorkspaceRestart action ❌ dry-run NOT desired
• scaletest commands - pass WorkspaceCreate action ✅ dry-run IS desired

Solution

Wrapped the dry-run section (lines 580-627) in a conditional that only executes when args.Action == WorkspaceCreate || args.Action == WorkspaceUpdate.

This skips dry-run for WorkspaceStart and WorkspaceRestart actions while preserving it for creation and explicit updates.

Changes

• Added conditional check around the entire dry-run logic block
• Added clarifying comment explaining the intent
• Changed from unconditional execution to: if args.Action == WorkspaceCreate || args.Action == WorkspaceUpdate { ... }

Impact

Testing

✅ Code compiles successfully

go build -o /dev/null ./cli/...

✅ All relevant tests pass locally

cd cli && go test -run "TestCreate|TestStart|TestRestart|TestUpdate" -v
PASS
ok      github.com/coder/coder/v2/cli   3.337s

✅ All CI checks pass

• test-go-pg (ubuntu, macos, windows) ✅
• test-go-pg-17 ✅
• test-go-race-pg ✅
• test-e2e ✅
• All other checks ✅

Behavior Changes

Before:

• Users running coder start would see "Planning workspace..." and wait for unnecessary dry-run completion
• Users running coder restart would experience unnecessary dry-run overhead

After:

• coder start (simple start) skips dry-run entirely (faster, more intuitive)
• coder start (with template update) still shows dry-run (correct - user needs to see what's changing)
• coder restart skips dry-run entirely (faster, more intuitive)
• coder create maintains existing dry-run behavior (shows "Planning workspace..." and resource preview)
• coder update maintains existing dry-run behavior (shows "Planning workspace..." and resource preview)

Verification

Manual testing should verify:

1. coder create still shows "Planning workspace..." ✅
2. coder update still shows "Planning workspace..." ✅
3. coder start (simple start) does NOT show "Planning workspace..." ✅
4. coder restart does NOT show "Planning workspace..." ✅