And the docs say

pulumi up [template|url] [flags]

but putting flags between

pulumi

and the command also seems to work?

That’s definitely possible. Do you think this would be clearer with flags mentioned twice? The form as shown in the help text there is definitely the recommended form.

It might be clearer if

pulumi up

rejected the flags in the unexpected location? But maybe Postel’s Law takes effect here, I’m not sure what generally accepted best practice is with CLI apps.