`--input` rejects valid inline JSON as a "file path" when it contains `~` (e.g. any `username~actor-name` id)

[Pijukatel]

Description

apify call -i '<valid JSON object>' fails with

Error: Providing a JSON file path in the --input flag is not supported. Use the "--input-file=" flag instead

whenever the JSON string contains a ~ character anywhere — even though the value is a well-formed inline JSON object, not a path. Since Actor ids use the username~actor-name format, any input that references another Actor by id triggers this (a common pattern, e.g. telling one Actor which Standby Actor to call).

Steps to reproduce

apify call my-actor --input '{"standbyActorId": "some-user~some-actor"}'

Actual:

Error: Providing a JSON file path in the --input flag is not supported. Use the "--input-file=" flag instead

Expected: the value parses as inline JSON and the call proceeds (removing the ~ from the string makes it work).

Root cause

src/lib/commands/resolve-input.ts — the path heuristic runs before any JSON parse attempt, and the home-directory check matches ~ anywhere in the string:

const inputLooksLikePath =
    // JSON file
    inputFlag.endsWith('.json') ||
    inputFlag.endsWith('.json5') ||
    // UNIX-style path access
    // this also matches Windows paths
    path.isAbsolute(inputFlag) ||
    inputFlag.startsWith('./') ||
    inputFlag.startsWith('../') ||
    // Home directory access
    inputFlag.includes('~') ||        // <-- matches inside JSON string values
    // Windows-style path access
    inputFlag.startsWith('.\\') ||
    inputFlag.startsWith('..\\');

if (fileExists || inputLooksLikePath) {
    error({
        message: `Providing a JSON file path in the --input flag is not supported. Use the "--input-file=" flag instead`,
    });
    ...
}

(observed at master @ bcdafba, reproduced with apify-cli 1.7.2)

Suggested fix

Either (or both):

• A home-directory path is only meaningful when the value starts with ~ — change inputFlag.includes('~') to inputFlag.startsWith('~').
• Skip the path heuristic entirely when the trimmed value starts with { (an object is the only accepted inline shape anyway), or attempt JSON.parse first and only fall through to the path checks when parsing fails.

Workaround

Use --input-file:

echo '{"standbyActorId": "some-user~some-actor"}' > input.json
apify call my-actor --input-file=input.json

Environment

• apify-cli 1.7.2, Node 22, Linux