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When action isn't in the request, it returns with the error code "help" which could be more specific

For example:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?=query&prop=info&titles=Main%20Page&format=xml

vs the correct one:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?action=query&prop=info&titles=Main%20Page&format=xml

Hmm... Roan, would an appropriate thing here be to return an error code that says 'no action' along with the help?

Or is this just the way we handle not having anything else to do?

The default value for the action parameter is 'help', so this is expected behavior.