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fix(codex-bridge): give the identity lease a start token on Windows - #978

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fix(codex-bridge): give the identity lease a start token on Windows#978
joelmitz wants to merge 2 commits into
fujibee:mainfrom
joelmitz:upstream/windows-start-token

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Fixes #977.

The codex bridge could not start on Windows at all: startToken() had two
sources and Windows satisfies neither, so writeLease() failed closed on an
empty token every time and the launcher respawned it into the same wall.

/proc/<pid>/stat   ENOENT
ps -o lstart=      ps: unknown option -- o

The fail-closed is correct (#906) — the missing Windows source is what this adds:
Process.StartTime.Ticks through PowerShell, in both codex-bridge.js
startToken() and codex-bridge-launcher.sh _start_token, with pwsh admitted
to the lease schema.

One source, not a preference list

WMIC's CreationDate is ~2x cheaper (0.36 s vs 0.83 s measured) and was the
first implementation. It is dropped, and not because WMIC may be missing: a
per-side "WMIC, else PowerShell" order lets the writer and the reaper resolve
different sources for the same process whenever only one of them can reach
wmic.exe, and their tokens differ by format — so the reaper reads a live
bridge's lease as another process's. Reproduced with wmic shadowed on one side:

node: src=wmic token=20260824045224.102163+540
bash: src=pwsh token=639231439441021632

powershell.exepwsh fallback is safe where WMIC was not: both return
identical Ticks for a pid, so the src label names the format, not the binary.

The Windows branch replaces the /proc branch rather than preceding it

MSYS/Cygwin expose a working /proc, but it is keyed by their own pid space
while the lease records the Windows process.pid, so preferring it would return
an unrelated process's start time with nothing to signal it. Measurements in #977.

Tests

Six cases against _read_lease — the reaper's only gate on a lease, so its
accept/reject set is the contract that widening proc|ps to proc|ps|pwsh
changes. Exercised directly, the way tests/test_remote.bats already does for
_remote_endpoint_display, rather than through the reaper: that path needs a
spawnable bridge and a live pid, which is what does not work under Git Bash
(#567) and has nothing to do with the schema.

Two detect the change; four are guards. Stated as a table rather than a pass
count so a reviewer checking it finds the same thing:

case with the change without it
a pwsh lease parses ok fails
windows-native: a live pid yields an integer pwsh token ok fails
a pwsh token that is not an integer is rejected ok ok
an unrecognised startsrc is rejected (wmic included) ok ok
proc/ps still parse; proc non-numeric still rejected ok ok
POSIX: a live pid yields a proc or ps token ok ok

wmic is in the rejection case deliberately, not as an arbitrary bad value: it
pins the decision above, so reintroducing WMIC fails loudly.

Only the case that runs PowerShell carries windows-native in its name, so it
lands on that leg; the rest carry no marker and run everywhere. The two
platform-specific cases complement each other — on either leg one runs and the
other skips.

Verification

  • Windows 11 26200 / MINGW64 / node 22 (win32) / codex-cli 0.149.0: the six cases
    pass; re-run against the parent commit's codex/ tree, the two
    change-detecting cases fail as tabled
  • Linux (Bats 1.14.0 from a clone): the five non-windows-native cases pass and
    the mutation check reproduces. Run independently on a separate machine by a
    second person, not a re-run of the Windows box
  • End to end on Windows: the bridge starts, publishes
    start=639231452158110466 startsrc=pwsh, and a message sent to the role drives
    a turn and gets an answer. Before this change the same sequence produced only
    the token error

Not verified

  • bats tests/ green on Windows. That is not achievable and is not new: the
    workflow shards the suite over [ubuntu-latest, macos-latest] only, and the
    Windows leg runs filter: "windows-native". The full file has never been
    expected to pass under Git Bash
  • launcher: windows-native starts the bridge (#567) fails on our Windows
    machine with and without this change. It asserts the half of codex bridge on Windows: port-detection liveness probe asks tasklist about an MSYS pid, so it always aborts on iteration 1 #567 that is not
    fixed: the parent-liveness probe asks tasklist about an MSYS pid, and the two
    pid spaces are disjoint (tasklist finds winpid 19568 only; kill -0 finds
    MSYS pid 3994449 only). The workflow already lists windows runtime (#567)
    among its known intermittent reds
  • macOS is not covered by our own runs; the POSIX branches are untouched, but
    that is an argument, not a measurement

Unrelated flake, for context

tests/test_codex_bridge_launcher.bats flakes under full-suite load on Linux
independently of this change: baseline produced the same not ok 17 on one of
three full runs, and the failing test moves between runs, while single-test runs
were green 3/3 on both. We are not claiming equal rates — the run count is far
too small — only that the same failure occurs without this change.

The codex bridge could not start on Windows at all. Every launch died in
writeLease() with "cannot determine process start token for identity lease",
20+ times in a row in run/codex-bridge.<team>.<agent>.log.

startToken() had exactly two sources and Windows satisfies neither:

  /proc/<pid>/stat   ENOENT -- Windows has no /proc
  ps -o lstart=      "ps: unknown option -- o" -- the only ps likely to be on
                     PATH there is MSYS's, and it rejects -o outright rather
                     than degrading

Both yield an empty token, and writeLease() fails closed on an empty token by
design (fujibee#906: a bridge that cannot publish an enumerable lease must not go on
to arm its network, or it becomes exactly the unreapable orphan the lease
exists to prevent). So the fail-closed was correct; the missing source was not.

Adds Process.StartTime.Ticks via PowerShell as the Windows source, in both
codex-bridge.js startToken() and codex-bridge-launcher.sh _start_token, and
admits "pwsh" in the lease schema.

ONE source, not a preference list
---------------------------------

WMIC's CreationDate is ~2x cheaper (0.36s vs 0.83s measured) and was the first
implementation, but it is deprecated and already absent from Windows 11 installs
that have dropped the Feature-on-Demand.

The problem is not that WMIC may be missing. It is that a per-side "WMIC, else
PowerShell" order lets the writer and the reaper resolve DIFFERENT sources for
the SAME process whenever only one of the two can reach wmic.exe. Their tokens
then differ by FORMAT, so the reaper reads a live bridge's lease as some other
process's and never collects the orphan. This was reproduced, not theorised:
with wmic shadowed on one side only, the two sides returned

  node: src=wmic token=20260824045224.102163+540
  bash: src=pwsh token=639231439441021632

for one pid. Ticks is the one value both sides can always agree on, so WMIC's
speed is not worth the divergence and it is not used at all.

Falling back from powershell.exe to pwsh is safe for a reason that does not
apply to WMIC: both return the SAME Ticks for a given pid (measured), so the
src label names the format, not the executable. Verified that when
powershell.exe is unreachable, both sides fall through to pwsh and still agree.

Windows must not take the /proc branch
--------------------------------------

The Windows branch is taken INSTEAD of the /proc branch, not merely before it.
MSYS and Cygwin do expose a working /proc -- field 22 and all -- but it is keyed
by the emulation layer's own pid space, while a lease records the Windows pid
codex-bridge.js sees as process.pid. Measured on MINGW64: the same shell is MSYS
pid 3065729 and winpid 1456. Letting /proc win would silently return the start
time of whatever unrelated MSYS process sits at that number, which is the
recycled-pid confusion the token exists to prevent, only harder to notice
because nothing errors.

Verification
------------

Windows 11 26200, MINGW64, node 22 (win32), codex-cli 0.149.0.

- node startToken() and shell _start_token return byte-identical
  "pwsh<TAB>639231441791462826" for the same live Windows pid; likewise when
  powershell.exe is unreachable and both fall through to pwsh
- _read_lease: 8 cases pass -- pwsh integer accepted, pwsh non-integer and
  empty rejected, wmic-format rejected, proc/ps regressions still accepted,
  proc non-numeric and an unknown src still rejected
- end to end: bridge starts (alive, armed), publishes
  start=639231452158110466 startsrc=pwsh, and an agmsg message sent to the role
  drives a turn and gets an answer back. Before this change the same sequence
  produced only the token error
- tests/test_codex_bridge_launcher.bats gives byte-identical results with and
  without this change on this machine (10 of 12 fail either way; the suite does
  not run on MSYS). NOT validated on Linux or macOS -- the POSIX branches are
  untouched, but that is an argument, not a measurement
…rim the rationale to the PR

Adds the regression tests the previous commit described but did not commit, and
moves the evidence behind the WMIC decision out of the code and into the PR.

Tests
-----

`_read_lease` is the reaper's only gate on a lease, so its accept/reject set is
the contract that widening `proc|ps` to `proc|ps|pwsh` changes. The six cases
exercise it directly -- the pattern tests/test_remote.bats already uses for
`_remote_endpoint_display` -- rather than through the reaper, which needs a
spawnable bridge and a live pid. That is exactly what does not work on Git Bash
(fujibee#567), and the schema question depends on neither.

Only the case that actually runs PowerShell carries `windows-native` in its name,
so it lands on the Windows leg; the schema cases carry no such marker and run on
every leg.

What each case is for, stated plainly rather than as "6 tests pass":

| case | with the change | without it |
|---|---|---|
| a pwsh lease parses | ok | **fails** |
| windows-native: a live pid yields an integer pwsh token | ok | **fails** |
| a pwsh token that is not an integer is rejected | ok | ok |
| an unrecognised startsrc is rejected | ok | ok |
| proc and ps still parse; proc non-numeric still rejected | ok | ok |
| POSIX: a live pid yields a proc or ps token | skip on Windows | skip |

Two detect the change; four are guards. The `wmic` label is in the rejection case
deliberately and not as an arbitrary bad value: it pins the decision not to adopt
WMIC, so reintroducing it fails loudly.

Comments
--------

The WMIC rationale ran 22 lines in codex-bridge.js and 20 in the launcher. The
conclusion belongs in the code; the measurements behind it (the reproduced
divergence, MSYS pid 3065729 vs winpid 1456) belong in the PR, where a reader
looking for *why* will be. Trimmed to 10 and 14 lines with no fact dropped from
the argument itself.

Verification
------------

Windows 11 26200, MINGW64, bats-core 1.14.0 from a clone.

- the six cases: all pass; re-run against `dbb9c2c2`'s codex/ tree, the two
  change-detecting cases fail as tabled above
- NOT `bats tests/` green on this machine, and that is not achievable here:
  .github/workflows/tests.yml shards the suite over `[ubuntu-latest,
  macos-latest]` only, and the Windows leg runs `filter: "windows-native"`. The
  full file has never been expected to pass under Git Bash
- `launcher: windows-native starts the bridge (fujibee#567)` fails here with and without
  this change. It asserts the half of fujibee#567 that is not fixed: on Git Bash the
  parent-liveness probe asks `tasklist` about an MSYS pid. Measured on this
  machine -- the same shell is MSYS pid 3994449 and winpid 19568; `tasklist`
  finds only the latter, `kill -0` only the former. The workflow itself lists
  `windows runtime (fujibee#567)` among its known intermittent reds
- ubuntu/macos results are NOT from this machine and are not claimed here
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The codex bridge cannot start on Windows: startToken() has no source there

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