this seems fine

main.go

@@ -18,17 +18,11 @@ const binroot = "/town/commands"
 var rootCmd = &cobra.Command{
 	Use:   "town",
 	Short: "Run commands unique to tilde.town",
-	DisableFlagParsing: true,
-}
-
-func init() {
-	rootCmd.Flags().BoolP("help", "h", false, "")
 }
 
 var adminCmd = &cobra.Command{
 	Use:   "admin",
 	Short: "Run administrative commands",
-	DisableFlagParsing: true,
 }
 
 func isAdmin() (bool, error) {
@@ -111,6 +105,7 @@ func parseCommand(targetCmd *cobra.Command, yamlPath string) {
 	parsedCmd := &cobra.Command{
 		Use:                filepath.Base(executablePath),
 		RunE:               execWrapper(executablePath),
+		DisableFlagParsing: true,
 	}
 	if doc.ShortDesc != "" {
 		parsedCmd.Short = doc.ShortDesc
@@ -140,7 +135,6 @@ func execWrapper(executablePath string) func(*cobra.Command, []string) error {
 }
 
 func cli() int {
-	rootCommand.PersistentFlags().BoolFlagP("help", "h", false)
 	err := parseCommands(rootCmd, "core")
 	if err != nil {
 		fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr, "failed to parse core commands: %s", err)