windows: plugin update check spawns git in a visible console window #55457

Summary

On Windows, every time the OpenCode desktop app starts, an empty console window titled C:\Program Files\Git\cmd\git.exe pops up and stays visible for several seconds. It comes from the plugin update check, which runs git for git-sourced plugins (e.g. git+https://...). Every other child process OpenCode spawns passes windowsHide: true; this code path does not, and because the background service has no console, Windows allocates a brand-new visible console window for the git child.

Environment

• opencode version: 2.0.29 (desktop app, bundled CLI 2.0.29). A separately installed CLI on PATH reports 2.0.18.
• OS: Windows 10.0.19045 (win32 x64)
• Terminal: OpenCode desktop app (Electron), not a terminal client
• Shell: C:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe
• Install/channel: desktop app (@opencode-aidesktop, packaged, channel latest)
• Active plugins:
  • superpowers@git+https://github.com/obra/superpowers.git (project config)
  • compound-engineering@git+https://github.com/EveryInc/compound-engineering-plugin.git (global config)
  • opencode-wakatime (registry spec; fails to load in V2 for unrelated reasons)
  • two local plugins

Reproduction

1. On Windows, configure at least one plugin from a git spec, e.g. "plugin": ["superpowers@git+https://github.com/obra/superpowers.git"].
2. Start the OpenCode desktop app (it launches the bundled CLI as opencode-cli.exe serve --service, which has no console).
3. Let the plugin update check run at startup.
4. A console window titled C:\Program Files\Git\cmd\git.exe appears, empty (git's stdio is piped), and remains for the duration of the git operation.

The same happens on demand with POST /api/plugin/check, which makes it easy to reproduce deterministically:

# timed window sampling while triggering the check
opencode api post /api/plugin/check --data "{}"

Observed (window enumerated via EnumWindows every 150 ms, ConsoleWindowClass, title match):

23:26:17.90  POST /api/plugin/check issued
23:26:18.20  window APPEAR  pid=35484  proc=git  title=[C:\Program Files\Git\cmd\git.exe]
23:26:24.68  window GONE
23:26:24.59  request returned

The window lifetime equals the git operation lifetime (here ~6.5 s), which is why it looks like a stuck popup rather than a flash. In the same 90-second sampling window, the ~12 snapshot/diff git invocations that OpenCode performs did not create any window.

Expected Behavior

No console window should appear. Every other process OpenCode spawns hides its console window, including on Windows: the bundled @opencode/AppProcess service spawns with windowsHide: !0, and even the kill path uses pr.exec("taskkill /pid ... /T /F", { windowsHide: !0 }).

Actual Behavior

The plugin update check spawns git without hiding the console window, so Windows allocates a new visible console window for it:

timestamp=2026-10-14T15:14:55.820Z level=WARN run=97c65e04 role=server
message="failed to check plugin update"
target=superpowers@git+https://github.com/obra/superpowers.git
cause="Cause([Fail(NpmInstallFailedError (cause: Error: An unknown git error occurred))])"

Note the corresponding git process is not logged by AppProcess ("spawning process" lines contain only the AppProcess spawns), confirming a different spawn path.

Relevant code shape in the bundled CLI (2.0.29):

• Npm.check resolves the spec with { preferOnline: true, noGitRevCache: true, ignoreScripts: true } and, for type === "git", resolves through the bundled npm git code (@npmcli/git), which shells out to git. No windowsHide is passed there.
• @opencode/AppProcess does pass windowsHide: true for StandardCommand spawns.

Because the desktop app's background service has no console, a console subsystem child spawned without CREATE_NO_WINDOW gets a fresh console window from Windows. (Verified independently: spawning cmd.exe from a console-less host process produces a window titled C:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe with identical behavior.)

Additional Context

• Frequency: every desktop app start (the "already checked" cache is an in-memory 24h map inside the service, and the service is restarted with the app).
• The window lingers longer when the git operation is slow or retried; in this environment the check fails after retries (An unknown git error occurred), so the window stays for several seconds.
• Impact: cosmetic but alarming — an unexplained black git.exe console window appears on every launch.
• Workaround that works (verified): pin the git plugin to a full 40-hex commit, e.g. superpowers@git+https://github.com/obra/superpowers.git#8ca22dba9a94f28898bbce59f2537ff4d87c747d. Npm.check then returns early (if (!a.mutable) return false) and never invokes git. Measured after pinning: POST /api/plugin/check returned in 0.3–0.6 s (was ~6.9 s) with no git process and no window. Downside: updates become manual.
• Suggested fix: pass windowsHide: true (or create with CREATE_NO_WINDOW) for the plugin/npm git spawns, matching AppProcess.
• Not specific to one project: observed with the global plugin set as well as the project plugin set.