[mvanhorn]

Summary

Suppresses the focus-stealing console windows that flash on every cold start of browse on Windows by routing the console-subsystem child spawns through a hidden path. execFileSync('icacls', ...) in browse/src/file-permissions.ts gets windowsHide: true, and the Bun.spawnSync launcher and git-root calls in browse/src/cli.ts and browse/src/config.ts fall back to Node's child_process with windowsHide: true on Windows, since Bun.spawnSync does not honor windowsHide on bun 1.3.11.

Why this matters

Issue #1784 reports that on Windows 11 every cold start of browse flashes two or more focus-stealing conhost.exe windows that interrupt typing in other apps. A Win32_ProcessStartTrace traced the flashes to console-subsystem children spawned without an effective windowsHide: the node detach launcher and git rev-parse calls go through Bun.spawnSync, which ignores windowsHide on bun 1.3.11, and the icacls.exe calls use execFileSync without the flag. The fix adds windowsHide: true to the execFileSync calls in file-permissions.ts and, on Windows only, routes the launcher and git lookups in cli.ts and config.ts through Node's child_process (which honors the flag), keeping Bun.spawnSync on POSIX behind the existing platform check.

Testing

browse/test/cli-windows-hide.test.ts is a static regression test asserting the cold-start spawn sites carry windowsHide or use the hidden-spawn helper on Windows, and fails if a console-subsystem spawn site reintroduces a non-hidden Windows spawn. POSIX continues to use Bun.spawnSync unchanged. Full suite runs in CI.

Fixes #1784

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[buddy7599bot]

Flagging an overlap so this and your #1863 don't collide: both fix the same defect class — Windows console flashes from browse cold-start spawns (#1784 here, #1835 there) — and both add a new browse/test/cli-windows-hide.test.ts, so they'll conflict on that file once either merges.

They also cover disjoint spawn sites:

• This PR correctly routes the outer launcher (Bun.spawnSync(['node','-e',launcherCode]) → nodeSpawnSync('node', ..., { windowsHide: true })), plus taskkill, the getGitRoot/getRemoteSlug git probes, and the icacls ACL calls, through Node's spawnSync with windowsHide — addressing the real root cause that Bun.spawnSync ignores windowsHide on Bun 1.3.11. Solid, and broader than fix: add windowsHide to browse detached server spawn on Windows #1863.
• But it leaves launcherCode's inner detached spawn (spawn(process.execPath,[...],{detached:true,stdio:['ignore','ignore','ignore'],...})) without windowsHide:true. That is exactly the line fix: add windowsHide to browse detached server spawn on Windows #1863 adds. On Windows a detached:true child allocates its own console unless windowsHide is set, so by fix: add windowsHide to browse detached server spawn on Windows #1863's premise the detached server itself can still flash under this PR alone.

So neither PR is complete in isolation — the full fix is the union (outer launcher + inner detached spawn + taskkill + git + icacls). Suggest folding #1863's launcherCode change into this PR (the broader of the two), keeping a single cli-windows-hide.test.ts, and closing #1863 as superseded. Worth extending this PR's test to also assert windowsHide:true appears inside the launcherCode string, so the merged version pins both halves.

[kaiwulff]

Thanks for picking this up — the Bun.spawnSync→Node child_process approach here matches what we've been running as a local patch on Windows since #1784, so this is great to see upstreamed.

One gap worth folding in while you're here: browse/src/find-browse.ts has the same uncovered call that config.ts does. At the current tip its getGitRoot() is:

function getGitRoot(): string | null {
  ...
  const proc = Bun.spawnSync(['git', 'rev-parse', '--show-toplevel'], { ... });

That's the identical git rev-parse via Bun.spawnSync this PR fixes in config.ts, but find-browse.ts isn't in the changeset (only cli.ts, config.ts, file-permissions.ts). In our Win32_ProcessStartTrace for #1784, getGitRoot() showed up as a flicker source from both config.ts and find-browse.ts, and find-browse compiles to its own console-subsystem binary — so this one will keep flashing after the PR lands. Applying the same Windows-only Node-child_process + windowsHide: true treatment to find-browse.ts's getGitRoot() (and extending the cli-windows-hide.test.ts regression to cover that spawn site) should close it.

[mvanhorn]

Good to hear it matches what you've been running locally since #1784, that's solid real-world validation. On the overlap flag: #1863 and this PR are complementary rather than competing. #1863 adds windowsHide to the long-lived detached server spawn; this one covers the short-lived cold-start child spawns that flash a console per invocation. Either can land first; no shared lines.

[mvanhorn]

Correcting my earlier comment: the two PRs did overlap after all, both touched the startServer launcher block and both created cli-windows-hide.test.ts. Rather than leave a guaranteed merge conflict, #1863's changes are folded in here (commits 4d30746 and 77ebc14): windowsHide on the inner detached server spawn, the osascript raise helper, and the POSIX server spawn, plus its every-detached-spawn-carries-windowsHide test invariant. #1863 is closed; this PR is now the complete console-flash fix.

[time-attack]

@mvanhorn Rewrite this to cover the reported Git spawn in find-browse and add a Windows test confirming no visible console window appears.

[mvanhorn]

Done (299b3a4). find-browse.ts's getGitRoot() now takes the same Windows-only nodeSpawnSync + windowsHide:true path and keeps Bun.spawnSync on POSIX, matching the config.ts treatment @kaiwulff flagged as the second flicker source. Extended cli-windows-hide.test.ts with a regression pinning the hidden git spawn at that site, so a future revert to Bun.spawnSync there fails the suite; the focused suite passes 8/8. It follows the same static source-assertion approach as the rest of the #1784 coverage rather than spawning a live Windows console in CI.

[capy-ai]

Thanks @mvanhorn, and thanks @kaiwulff for the real-desktop verification. Closing this one without merging: main already carries its windowsHide hunks (icacls in file-permissions.ts, the launcher and taskkill in cli.ts, the detached server spawn), and @kaiwulff confirmed zero console windows and no focus steal on Windows 11 with an unpatched v1.91.15.0 build (#1784). The remaining Bun.spawnSync to node:child_process swap would not change behavior inside Bun, whose child_process.spawnSync forwards to Bun.spawnSync with the same options. Nothing new from this PR landed in the wave PR #3022; it records #1784 as fixed on main, and adds a TODO for a real-desktop Windows spawn smoke test.