CLI coerce numeric types. (#769)

kschwab · web-flow · commit ce9804c4620d · 2026-02-03T14:30:22.000+01:00
diff --git a/pydantic_settings/sources/providers/cli.py b/pydantic_settings/sources/providers/cli.py
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@
 )
 
 import typing_extensions
-from pydantic import AliasChoices, AliasPath, BaseModel, Field, PrivateAttr
+from pydantic import AliasChoices, AliasPath, BaseModel, Field, PrivateAttr, TypeAdapter, ValidationError
 from pydantic._internal._repr import Representation
 from pydantic._internal._utils import is_model_class
 from pydantic.dataclasses import is_pydantic_dataclass
@@ -619,6 +619,11 @@ def _merged_list_to_str(self, merged_list: list[str], field_name: str) -> str:
         decode_list: list[str] = []
         is_use_decode: bool | None = None
         cli_arg_map = self._parser_map.get(field_name, {})
+        try:
+            list_adapter: Any = TypeAdapter(next(iter(cli_arg_map.values())).field_info.annotation)
+            is_num_type_str = type(list_adapter.validate_python(['1'])[0]) is str
+        except (StopIteration, ValidationError):
+            is_num_type_str = None
         for index, item in enumerate(merged_list):
             cli_arg = cli_arg_map.get(index)
             is_decode = cli_arg is None or not cli_arg.is_no_decode
@@ -628,6 +633,12 @@ def _merged_list_to_str(self, merged_list: list[str], field_name: str) -> str:
                 raise SettingsError('Mixing Decode and NoDecode across different AliasPath fields is not allowed')
             if is_use_decode:
                 item = item.replace('\\', '\\\\')
+                try:
+                    unquoted_item = item[1:-1] if item.startswith('"') and item.endswith('"') else item
+                    float(unquoted_item)
+                    item = f'"{unquoted_item}"' if is_num_type_str else unquoted_item
+                except ValueError:
+                    pass
             elif item.startswith('"') and item.endswith('"'):
                 item = item[1:-1]
             decode_list.append(item)
diff --git a/tests/test_source_cli.py b/tests/test_source_cli.py
@@ -745,15 +745,28 @@ def check_answer(cfg, prefix, expected):
             assert cfg.model_dump() == expected
 
     args: list[str] = []
-    args = [f'--{prefix}num_list', arg_spaces('[1,2]')]
-    args += [f'--{prefix}num_list', arg_spaces('3,4')]
-    args += [f'--{prefix}num_list', '5', f'--{prefix}num_list', '6']
+    args = [f'--{prefix}str_list', arg_spaces('["1","2"]')]
+    args += [f'--{prefix}num_list', arg_spaces('["1","2"]')]
+    args += [f'--{prefix}str_list', arg_spaces('"3","4"')]
+    args += [f'--{prefix}num_list', arg_spaces('"3","4"')]
+    args += [f'--{prefix}str_list', '"5"', f'--{prefix}str_list', '"6"']
+    args += [f'--{prefix}num_list', '"5"', f'--{prefix}num_list', '"6"']
     cfg = CliApp.run(Cfg, cli_args=args)
     expected = {
         'num_list': [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6],
         'obj_list': None,
         'union_list': None,
-        'str_list': None,
+        'str_list': ['1', '2', '3', '4', '5', '6'],
+    }
+    check_answer(cfg, prefix, expected)
+
+    args = [arg.replace('"', '') for arg in args]
+    cfg = CliApp.run(Cfg, cli_args=args)
+    expected = {
+        'num_list': [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6],
+        'obj_list': None,
+        'union_list': None,
+        'str_list': ['1', '2', '3', '4', '5', '6'],
     }
     check_answer(cfg, prefix, expected)
 
