FixLab Windows background probes

When to use

Use when Git console windows flash during idle dashboard/chat polling, or when adding background repository probes to those paths. Also use for loopback connection resets in same-process tests around Git work or dashboard restarts.

Verified solution

The chat polls /api/status once per second by default. Repository inspection prunes owned artifacts, which resolves the Git artifact root. Cache inspection has a separate Git helper. Either helper can open a brief Windows console even when no job or executor is running.

Keep windowsHide: true and shell: false on both background spawnSync helpers:

• Artifact-root Git helper: runGit, reached through pruneArtifactDirectories and resolveArtifactRoot.
• Dashboard Git helper: runGit, used by createCacheContext; /api/status calls inspectRepository.
• Chat polling: runChat.

Preserve command arguments, output handling and existing ownership checks. Do not disable polling or change the owned executor's containment behavior to hide windows created by a different background helper.

Same-process HTTP fixtures

Keep fixture requests separate from the runtime's global fetch pool and its /api/session self-probes. Blocking Git work or restarting a server can expose stale pooled sockets. The dashboard server suite's jsonRequest uses node:http with agent: false, preserving real HTTP without retries. A Connection: close header alone can still select an already pooled socket.

The socket-isolation regression verifies distinct fixture/probe connections, GET/POST methods, JSON payloads, headers and status codes:

node --test --test-name-pattern="dashboard JSON fixtures isolate|connected Copilot recovery reuses|shared dashboard jobs refresh develop|idle finalization retains" test\dashboard-server.test.js

Do not treat a separately passing rerun as proof that the full suite passed, or increase retries, deadlines or concurrency to conceal a failure.

Validation

Working directory: . from the FixLab repository root, containing package.json. Run the existing regression in PowerShell:

node --test --test-name-pattern="idle status polling and cache inspection hide their Git windows" test\dashboard-server.test.js

The regression performs real HTTP status polling and cache inspection, checks native Git spawn options, and verifies idle polling never starts an executor. Its builtin-module spy must be restored in finally, including syncBuiltinESMExports().

Run npm run validate for implementation changes. On Windows, pwsh -NoLogo -NoProfile -File scripts\validate.ps1 runs that same required gate while temporarily preventing idle sleep.

Pitfalls

An interactive executor's console settings do not cover every independent Git probe. Inspect the actual polling path before changing process-launch code. Do not hide intended interactive terminals, bypass permissions, or stop unrelated Git processes.