[bug]: Poor validation/error message when creating robot with incompatible config (system vs project)

[qcserestipy]

Description

A user has brought up an issue when attempting to create a robot account via the CLI using a configuration that specifies project-level permissions with a wildcard namespace.

The CLI returns the error:

Error: system robot configuration must include system-level permissions

From the user's perspective, this is confusing because the configuration explicitly defines "level": "project", yet the CLI appears to interpret the request as a system-level robot creation. Additionally, similar configurations appear to be accepted when using the Harbor UI.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Run command:

   ./bin/harbor-cli robot create -r robot.json

2. Use the following configuration:

   {
     "permissions":[
       {
         "access":[
           {
             "resource":"repository",
             "actions":["pull"]
           }
         ],
         "kind":"project",
         "namespace":"*"
       }
     ],
     "name":"test",
     "description":null,
     "duration":-1,
     "level":"project"
   }

3. Observe error:

   Error: system robot configuration must include system-level permissions
   

Expected Behavior

The behavior should be clarified or adjusted in one of the following ways:

• The CLI should accept the configuration if this is a valid scenario (as suggested by UI behavior), or

• The CLI should provide an early validation error clearly stating that:

  • robot create creates a system-level robot
  • "namespace": "*" is only valid for system robots
  • Project-level robots must be created using project robot create

The error message should guide the user toward the correct command and configuration.

Actual Behavior

The CLI returns a generic error requiring system-level permissions, which does not clearly explain:

• Why the configuration is being treated as system-level
• Why a project-level configuration is invalid in this context
• What the correct alternative command or configuration should be

Environment

• Tool version: latest harbor-cli
• Harbor version: latest Harbor
• Other relevant details: issue reproduced with wildcard namespace configuration

Conclusion

This combination results in a mismatch that is not clearly communicated to the user.

Improving early validation and error messaging would significantly improve usability and reduce confusion.