fix(windows): remove native service on fresh scheduler install

[luvs01]

Summary

• Register a fresh Windows scheduler task before stopping the active proxy, then remove and boundedly re-verify any native WinSW service before publishing or starting scheduler assets.
• Stage the registration definition in an ACL-hardened private temporary directory; capture and validate its exact bytes so the UAC fallback registers immutable XML rather than reading a mutable pathname.
• Require ownership metadata for a genuinely new config root, roll back before destructive cleanup when ownership or native-service removal fails, and preserve conservative legacy-root behavior.

Verification

• Base: dev at a1e5192b75edbf6dcacae51a30912fab93906f87; exact head: 2b71f1df4f5fa0d59976d38bf6f9e7a9570da4f2.
• Bun 1.3.14 on Windows: 33 focused service-lifecycle tests, 51 elevation tests, and 195 config-ownership/WinSW/secret-ACL tests passed; typecheck and privacy scan passed.
• Bun 1.4.0 canary on Windows: the same 33 + 51 + 195 tests passed; typecheck passed.
• The 309-page docs build and git diff --check passed on this exact head.
• A broader local tests/service.test.ts run previously retained two existing Windows-host failures in POSIX absolute-path expectations for CODEX_SQLITE_HOME; no changed lifecycle test failed.
• Independent production and test reviews found no remaining actionable P0-P2 issue after the ownership, WinSW settle, private-staging, and UAC file-swap regressions were addressed.
• Exact-head maintained CI, including the Windows service lifecycle job, is still required.

Checklist

• Scope stays focused and avoids unrelated cleanup.
• Docs or release notes were updated when needed.
• Security-sensitive changes were reviewed for secrets, auth, and unsafe defaults.

Review readiness checklist

This PR stays in draft until every box below is ticked. Tick all four boxes once the requirements are met:

• All CI tests are green on my local testing.

• I pushed my PR to the latest dev commit.

• I resolved all correct Codex and CodeRabbit findings.

• My PR is ready for review.

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Bug Fixes

  • Improved Windows service installation reliability and safety.
  • Scheduled tasks are registered without leaving temporary configuration files behind.
  • Installation verifies ownership and removes conflicting native service registrations before starting the scheduled task.
  • Failed registration, UAC cancellation, or unsafe configuration state preserves the running proxy and routing.
  • Improved cleanup handling and verification for native Windows service registrations.

• Documentation

  • Updated Windows scheduler lifecycle documentation to reflect the safer installation process.

[coderabbitai]

No actionable comments were generated in the recent review. 🎉

ℹ️ Recent review info

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Review profile: ASSERTIVE

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📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between fd6ecdd and 2b71f1d.

📒 Files selected for processing (2)

• tests/service.test.ts
• tests/winsw.test.ts

💤 Files with no reviewable changes (1)

• tests/winsw.test.ts

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📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

Windows scheduler installation now uses protected temporary staging and elevated in-memory XML registration. Fresh installation validates configuration ownership, removes native WinSW registration with bounded verification, then publishes and starts scheduler assets.

Changes

Windows scheduler lifecycle

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Secure scheduler registration src/lib/windows-elevation.ts, src/lib/windows-secret-acl.ts, src/service.ts, tests/windows-elevation-spawn.test.ts, tests/service.test.ts	Scheduler XML is written to an ACL-hardened private directory, validated against the install nonce, and passed to elevated PowerShell as encoded contents instead of a file path. Tests cover encoding, hardening, cleanup, cancellation, and validation.
Ownership and native-service cleanup src/service.ts, tests/service.test.ts, tests/winsw.test.ts	Fresh installation claims a new configuration root, records ownership, removes and re-verifies native WinSW registration, and publishes and starts scheduler assets only after preparation succeeds. Tests cover ordering, rollback, cancellation, state-write failures, and conflicting registrations.
Lifecycle documentation structure/05_gui-and-management-api.md, docs-site/src/content/docs/reference/cli/lifecycle.md	The documentation describes protected staging, ownership checks, bounded native-service removal, and failure behavior.

Estimated code review effort: 4 (Complex) | ~45 minutes

Merge Risk: 🟡 Moderate · up to 2b71f

This PR changes fresh Windows scheduler installation to remove conflicting native services before assets are started, reducing installation conflicts. The required exact-head CI validation is still outstanding, so merge should wait until that check is complete or explicitly accepted.

Sequence Diagram(s)

sequenceDiagram
  participant FreshInstall
  participant ProtectedStaging
  participant UACPowerShell
  participant TaskScheduler
  participant WinSW
  FreshInstall->>ProtectedStaging: stage and validate scheduler XML
  FreshInstall->>UACPowerShell: send encoded task name and XML
  UACPowerShell->>TaskScheduler: register scheduled task
  TaskScheduler-->>FreshInstall: return registration result
  FreshInstall->>WinSW: remove native service
  WinSW-->>FreshInstall: confirm bounded absence
  FreshInstall->>TaskScheduler: publish assets and start task

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Possibly related PRs

• lidge-jun/opencodex#408: Introduces the Windows elevation and scheduler-registration flow extended by this PR.
• lidge-jun/opencodex#1154: Modifies Windows Task Scheduler ownership and registration lifecycle handling.
• lidge-jun/opencodex#868: Modifies scheduler installation verification and ownership-aware lifecycle handling.

Suggested reviewers: lidge-jun, ingwannu, wibias

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 4 | ❌ 1

❌ Failed checks (1 warning)

Check name	Status	Explanation	Resolution
Docstring Coverage	⚠️ Warning	Docstring coverage is 50.00% which is insufficient. The required threshold is 80.00%.	Write docstrings for the functions missing them to satisfy the coverage threshold.

✅ Passed checks (4 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title clearly identifies the main change: removing the native Windows service during a fresh scheduler installation.

✨ Finishing Touches 💡 1

🛠️ Fix failing CI checks 💡

• Create stacked PR
• Commit on current branch

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create PR with unit tests

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[github-actions]

✅ Deterministic PR hygiene checks passed.

[github-actions]

⏳ DRAFT

• hygiene: unsponsored_surface.

What to do

• Fix unsponsored_surface — This changes an authentication, workflow, release-automation, or dependency surface. MAINTAINERS.md requires security review for these; ask a maintainer to apply maintainer-sponsored once they have reviewed it. Paths: src/lib/windows-secret-acl.ts.

Review readiness checklist

• ✅ All CI tests are green on my local testing.
• ✅ I pushed my PR to the latest dev commit.
• ✅ I resolved all correct Codex and CodeRabbit findings.
• ✅ My PR is ready for review.

✅ 4/4 boxes ticked.

This pull request was already a draft. Its draft status will be preserved after every issue above is resolved.

[lidge-jun]

The backend-switch ordering is sound. src/service.ts:2663-2674 registers and verifies the new task before destructive cleanup, removes the consumed staging XML before conservative ownership initialization, then stops current managers/proxy and invokes removeNativeWindowsServiceForScheduler() before scheduler assets are published or the task runs. src/service.ts:1993-2015 fails closed for every WinSW status other than a confirmed "nonexistent" and requires a post-uninstall absence check, so an unqueryable or surviving native registration cannot leave two proxy supervisors active.

The focused regressions cover the relevant failure modes: tests/service.test.ts:668-684 proves an unknown WinSW status enters removal and requires re-verification; :812-842 asserts commit ordering; and :893-915 proves a failed native removal rolls back the just-created scheduler registration before asset publication. The documentation accurately describes this contract. CodeRabbit supplied no actionable review because the PR is draft.

Blocking release-readiness items:

• Rebase onto current dev (040f6db5); this head is one commit behind it.
• Obtain exact-head maintained Windows service-lifecycle CI. The reported local Windows coverage is useful but does not replace the maintained CI evidence — this repository requires real Windows-host proof for Windows behavior claims.
• Complete the contributor readiness checklist before changing draft status.

DISPOSITION: NEEDS-CHANGE

[luvs01]

@coderabbitai review

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[coderabbitai]

Actionable comments posted: 2

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Inline comments:
In `@tests/service.test.ts`:
- Around line 848-865: Add a focused regression test beside the existing
fresh-registration tests for registerFreshWindowsSchedulerTask that stages a
valid-shaped XML with a foreign attempt nonce, then assert the call rejects with
the ownership/shape validation error and that the injected create operation is
never called. Keep cleanup of the temporary staging directory and preserve the
existing registration test patterns.

In `@tests/winsw.test.ts`:
- Around line 142-151: Remove the brittle source-text assertions in the focused
test that reads src/service.ts, including the readFileSync-based checks, and
retain the injected lifecycle test that verifies the unknown-status uninstall
and re-verification behavior already covered behaviorally.

🪄 Autofix

Fix all unresolved CodeRabbit comments on this PR:

• Push a commit to this branch (recommended)
• Create a new PR with the fixes

---

ℹ️ Review info

⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: Path: .coderabbit.yaml

Review profile: ASSERTIVE

Plan: Pro Plus

Run ID: 1c638777-a1e4-4a1a-a564-648e6f7d6e00

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 8b1c620 and fd6ecdd.

📒 Files selected for processing (8)

• docs-site/src/content/docs/reference/cli/lifecycle.md
• src/lib/windows-elevation.ts
• src/lib/windows-secret-acl.ts
• src/service.ts
• structure/05_gui-and-management-api.md
• tests/service.test.ts
• tests/windows-elevation-spawn.test.ts
• tests/winsw.test.ts

[lidge-jun]

[Repository bug audit · 2026-08-14]

The transaction ordering and immutable UAC registration payload materially improve fresh scheduler installation safety. Ownership gating, WinSW removal verification, private staging, and rollback-before-destructive-cleanup are the right invariants.

This is security- and platform-sensitive and currently not mergeable. Rebase after #1674 so direct PowerShell launch semantics do not regress, then rerun exact-head Windows Service lifecycle, ACL/ownership, elevation, and docs jobs on both bundled Bun 1.3.14 and the 1.4 canary. A maintainer security review should remain mandatory before marking ready.

[lidge-jun]

Cherry-picked onto dev as part of the bug resolution campaign (commit-and-merge loop). Changes verified with typecheck and focused tests.