diff --git a/src/lib/error-reporting.ts b/src/lib/error-reporting.ts
index ac145c6e5..17d27e5d0 100644
--- a/src/lib/error-reporting.ts
+++ b/src/lib/error-reporting.ts
@@ -52,7 +52,8 @@ type SilenceReason =
   | "auth_expected"
   | "api_user_error"
   | "api_query_error"
-  | "network_error";
+  | "network_error"
+  | "validation_error";
 
 /**
  * Classify whether an error should be silenced.
@@ -82,6 +83,15 @@ export function classifySilenced(error: unknown): SilenceReason | null {
   if (error instanceof ContextError) {
     return "context_missing";
   }
+  // A ValidationError with field "positional" means the user passed the wrong
+  // number of positional arguments — a user invocation mistake, never a CLI
+  // bug. Silence only this sub-case; other ValidationError fields (e.g.
+  // "installUrl" from buildFormatFromUrl) may reflect API-contract issues
+  // worth capturing. The `cli.error.silenced` metric preserves the volume.
+  // (CLI-1AN)
+  if (error instanceof ValidationError && error.field === "positional") {
+    return "validation_error";
+  }
   // All AuthError reasons are expected auth states the user must act on, not
   // CLI bugs: `not_authenticated` (no token), `expired` (token aged out), and
   // `invalid` (a bad/insufficiently-scoped token the user supplied). `invalid`