diff --git a/scripts/cli/cli_initialize.sh b/scripts/cli/cli_initialize.sh
index 3b02511..eef8204 100755
--- a/scripts/cli/cli_initialize.sh
+++ b/scripts/cli/cli_initialize.sh
@@ -13,12 +13,21 @@ cliInitialize()
 
     # Dynamic routing - auto-discover ALL categories!
     local category="$initial_command1"
-    
+
     # Handle empty command as help
     if [[ -z "$category" ]]; then
         category="help"
     fi
-    
+
+    # Verb aliases. Routing is the category DIRECTORY name, which is not always
+    # the word that comes to hand — `libreportal validate system` is what people
+    # type, and it failed as an unknown command while the working spelling was
+    # `validation`. Map the synonym onto its directory rather than renaming the
+    # directory, so the handler name derived below still matches.
+    case "$category" in
+        validate) category="validation" ;;
+    esac
+
     local commands_file="$install_scripts_dir/cli/commands/$category/cli_${category}_commands.sh"
     local header_file="$install_scripts_dir/cli/commands/$category/cli_${category}_header.sh"
     
@@ -41,7 +50,11 @@ cliInitialize()
         local help_commands_file="$install_scripts_dir/cli/commands/help/cli_help_commands.sh"
         if [[ -f "$help_commands_file" ]]; then
             source "$help_commands_file"
-            handleHelpCommands
+            # cliHandleHelpCommands, not handleHelpCommands — the latter has never
+            # existed, so every unrecognised verb printed "Unknown command" and
+            # then died on `handleHelpCommands: command not found` instead of
+            # showing the help that was the whole point of this branch.
+            cliHandleHelpCommands
         fi
     fi
 }