Error during cci task run retrieve_changes about cumulusci HOT 2 OPEN

I believe this is due to a misunderstanding on my part.

I was referring to the documentation https://cumulusci.readthedocs.io/en/stable/unpackaged.html where I found the command cci task run retrieve_changes --path unpackaged/config/qa --namespace_tokenize npsp to retrieve unpackaged metadata.

When the --path is set it looks like it uses that value as the root directory when running sfdx force:mdapi:convert

So when I run
cci task run retrieve_changes --path unpackaged/config/dev --org dev

I see in the output that cumulusci tries to run the command
sfdx force:mdapi:convert -r C:\Users\zw\repos\a\unpackaged\config\dev -d force-app

Since there is nothing in the -r folder it gives an error. When I run retreieve_changes without a --path it works fine but it adds it to the force-app folder.

Is what I am explaining expected behavior?

from cumulusci.