diff --git a/src/hwylterm/hwylcli.nim b/src/hwylterm/hwylcli.nim
index 3254fe7..a520fa7 100644
--- a/src/hwylterm/hwylcli.nim
+++ b/src/hwylterm/hwylcli.nim
@@ -1069,6 +1069,11 @@ func genPosArgHandler(cfg: CliCfg, body: NimNode) =
       body.add quote do:
         result = @[`numArgs`..^1]
 
+  # first and last already absorbed the remaining args
+  elif maKind in [First, Last]:
+    body.add quote do:
+      result = @[] # args are ab
+
 func addPostParseHook(cfg: CliCfg, body: NimNode) =
   ## generate block to set defaults and check for required flags
   let flagSet = ident"flagSet"
diff --git a/tests/cli/tcli.nim b/tests/cli/tcli.nim
index 3b1ae19..8f313e0 100644
--- a/tests/cli/tcli.nim
+++ b/tests/cli/tcli.nim
@@ -9,3 +9,5 @@ suite "hwylcli":
     checkRunWithArgs("posLastExact", "a b c d e", """first=a, second=b, third=@["c", "d", "e"]""")
     checkRunWithArgs("posNoMulti", "5 b c", """first=5, second=b, third=c""")
     checkRunWithArgs("posNoMulti", "5 b c d", """error missing positional args, got: 4, expected: 3""", code = 1)
+    checkRunWithArgs("enumFlag","--color red", "")
+    checkRunWithArgs("enumFlag","--color black", "")