Fix: Remote SSH Agent Sessions (Windows) #188

chr1syy · 2026-01-13T19:56:07Z

Improving / Fixing Remote SSH Agent Connection from Windows Client .exe (Portable/Setup)

Summary

This PR significantly improves Maestro’s SSH remote execution on Windows by fixing binary detection, stabilizing stdin handling for large prompts, and enhancing the Wizard’s SSH session awareness.

For me, this meant i couldn't use the App at all after the first installation, now i got working agents within Maestro.

Key Changes

SSH Execution & Stdin Handling

Maestro gets to a point where prompts are getting pretty long. In some cases, for example the Onboarding, the messages are longer than the Windows PowerShell allows. This leads to errors in the agent execution.

Ensures large prompts are forwarded correctly by switching to exec‑based SSH invocation.
Adds a useStdin flag and improves stdin piping to avoid Windows command‑line length limits.
Avoids forcing TTY for stream-json to prevent broken remote streams.

Wizard SSH Session Awareness

The Wizard wasn't SSH Session aware. From actually discovering an agent to chatting with him, that information was kind of lost and Maestro tried to re-discover the agent.

Adds SSH session awareness from phases 1 through 5 of the Wizard.
Skips agent availability checks during SSH Wizard sessions to avoid false negatives.
Fixes Wizard SSH remote support and ensures correct environment sourcing.

Discovering GitHub Repo (Wizard Phase 2)

The Wizard couldn't discover the GitHub Repo in my remote directory directly. This got fixed by establishing the correct SSH connection. Also the input field got debounced, because every keyboard hit led to a new ssh-call.

Environment & Shell Improvements

Sources bash profiles to correctly locate the Claude Code binary in remote environments.

WIP / REVIEW REQUIRED

This PR still needs review. Since i am only developing a solution for "my case" - the changes need to be verified to keep cross-platform compatibility working. This means macOS, linux and windows local agents have to be verified.

Also still not working and in progress:

Manual Agent Window
FileSystem on the main Window
Documentation for building on Windows

Issues

This addresses #181, #131,
Related: #56

Test-Coverage / Linting

Currently ~ 20 Test files that have to be sorted, only a small part of that is actually through changes in the ssh code.
Linting has 2 Errors remaining.

chr1syy · 2026-01-14T22:42:21Z

Reverted PR back to Draft, i'm still cleaning up after me
FileBrowser and other Bugs fixed with 28fb58e

chr1syy · 2026-01-15T12:04:57Z

updated to newest changes from pedramamini:main
fixed failing windows build c93d872
cleaned up commit mess
added startup script for windows, equivalent to npm run dev by running npm run dev:win

chr1syy · 2026-01-15T21:41:48Z

fixes inline wizard
fixed synopsis
fixed ssh/local pathing issues

chr1syy · 2026-01-17T08:30:11Z

as per discord, i fixed:

agent arg building in both wizards
grooming was hardcoded to claude, should use codex and opencode with their configurable limits now

chr1syy · 2026-01-17T10:16:35Z

fixed the causes for failing tests through code changes

Test Files: 328 passed | 1 skipped

…wizard, IPC, and agent detection - Added full SSH remote support to the wizard, including propagation of SSH config through all phases - Ensured SSH config flows correctly through IPC bridge (renderer → preload → main) - Improved agent detection with optional sshRemoteId and remote `which` resolution - Fixed SSH config transfer during manual agent creation and auto-selection flows - Added extensive debugging and structured logging for SSH execution, agent availability, and wizard message flow - Improved stdin/JSON streaming for large prompts and remote execution - Added input/output JSON stream handling and enhanced logging for SSH transport - Added sourcing of bash profiles to correctly resolve claude-code binary paths on remote hosts

… and process manager - Added extensive DEBUG-level logging for SSH command execution, spawn details, exit codes, and configuration flow - Improved Wizard SSH remote support: - Debounced remote directory validation to reduce excessive SSH calls - Fixed git.isRepo() to correctly pass remoteCwd for remote checks - Persisted SSH config in SerializableWizardState and validated directories over SSH - Ensured ConversationScreen and ConversationSession consistently pass SSH config for remote agent execution - Fixed "agent not available" errors by forwarding stdin via exec and enabling stream-json mode for large prompts - Enhanced remote agent execution logic in ProcessManager with stdin streaming, exec-based forwarding, and useStdin flag - Improved SSH file browser behavior: - Added resolveSshPath() to locate SSH binaries on Windows (Electron spawn PATH issue) - Corrected getSshContext() handling of enabled/remoteId states - Ensured synopsis background tasks run via SSH instead of local paths - Added Windows development improvements: dev:win script and PowerShell launcher for separate renderer/main terminals - Added additional SSH directory debugging logs for remote-fs and wizard flows Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

…utils and resolving TypeScript errors - Added Python 3.11 to Windows CI to restore distutils support required by node-gyp - Ensured native module rebuilds (better-sqlite3, node-pty) succeed on Windows runners - Fixed TypeScript build errors to restore clean compilation across all platforms

- Use full agent path (claude.exe) on Windows to avoid shell:true which breaks stdin piping for stream-json input mode - Fix SSH condition to check enabled flag, not just config existence - Pass sessionSshRemoteConfig through inline wizard to enable remote execution - Add synopsis SSH inheritance from parent session as backend workaround Fixes local wizard crashing with exit code 1 and SSH sessions incorrectly using local paths when SSH was disabled.

pedramamini

Thanks for this substantial PR to fix SSH remote execution on Windows! The core functionality looks solid, but there are several issues that need to be addressed before this can be merged.

Critical Issues

1. Duplicated debug logging block

In src/main/ipc/handlers/process.ts around lines 420-465, the SSH command debug logging block is duplicated verbatim twice in a row:

logger.debug(`SSH command details for debugging`, LOG_CONTEXT, { ... });
// ... exact same block repeated immediately after
logger.debug(`SSH command details for debugging`, LOG_CONTEXT, { ... });

Please remove the duplicate.

2. Duplicated availability check

In src/renderer/components/Wizard/services/conversationManager.ts around lines 1321-1367, the same if (!isRemoteSession && !agent.available) block appears twice back-to-back. Remove the duplicate.

3. Unused variable

In src/main/ipc/handlers/process.ts:321:

const shouldSendPromptViaStdin = false;

This variable is never modified and always false. Either remove it or implement the logic it was intended for.

Code Quality Issues

4. Excessive console.log statements

Several files have raw console.log statements that should be removed or converted to the proper debug logger:

src/renderer/hooks/git/useFileTreeManagement.ts has 5 debug logs
src/renderer/components/Wizard/services/conversationManager.ts has several
src/renderer/services/inlineWizardConversation.ts

5. Inconsistent indentation

Multiple files have mixed 2-space and 4-space indentation (e.g., ssh-command-builder.ts, DirectorySelectionScreen.tsx, conversationManager.ts). Please run the linter to normalize.

6. Empty blank line in workflow file

.github/workflows/release.yml adds an empty blank line at line 9 that serves no purpose - please remove.

Architectural Concerns

7. Backend workaround for frontend state issue

In src/main/ipc/handlers/process.ts:352-373, the comment explicitly states this is a workaround:

// Synopsis SSH Fix: If this is a synopsis session and it's missing SSH config,
// try to inherit it from the parent session. This is a backend workaround for
// a suspected frontend state issue where the remote config isn't passed.

Please either fix this properly in the frontend, or create an issue to track fixing it and add a // TODO(#issue-number) comment.

8. Shell portability concern

The change from $SHELL -ilc to hardcoded bash -lc with explicit profile sourcing may break for users with zsh or fish as their default shell. The original $SHELL approach was more portable. Please consider:

Reverting to use $SHELL
Or documenting this as a known limitation
Or adding logic to detect the remote shell

Once these are addressed, please ensure all tests pass and linting is clean (PR mentions 2 remaining lint errors). Looking forward to the updated version!

…alled ssh correctly

…ofile sourcing

- Ensure prompts for remote SSH agents are sent via stdin as JSON in stream-json mode, fixing agent crashes with large prompts - Always run background synopsis (history tab) on the correct remote host by propagating SSH config from the main session - Improve wizard error handling: treat nonzero agent exit codes as success if output parses as a valid response, preventing false error states in confidence-building chat - General reliability improvements for remote agent session management and output parsing

… remote git IPC handlers - Ensure remoteCwd is set for all remote git operations (isRepo, status, diff, branch, remote, numstat, tags, branches, info) - Resolves warning about missing remote working directory - Enables correct git repo detection and status for remote directories in wizard and agent flows

chr1syy · 2026-01-27T12:44:13Z

Thank you for the code review, here's the updated code to address those issues.

Critical Issues

Duplicated debug logging block

Duplications removed.

Duplicated availability check

Duplication removed.

Unused variable

Using StdIn is valued correctly, unused artifacts removed.

Code Quality Issues

Excessive console.log statements

Correct logger used where necessary, removed excessive console.log and console.debug.

Inconsistent indentation

Files normalized, Whitespace errors are fixed

Empty blank line in workflow file

removed

Architectural Concerns

Backend workaround for frontend state issue

Synopsize handles SSH-State correctly without using a Backend-Workaround now.

Shell portability concern

Reverted back to using $SHELL with profile/PATH sourcing for different remote shells.

Also fixed now:
Remote Git discovery. Folders are correctly discovered as git repos now, changes and branches are shown correctly.

Tests & Linting

No Errors remaining.

chr1syy force-pushed the fix-win-ssh-remote branch from ad95897 to c5c5474 Compare January 14, 2026 22:32

chr1syy marked this pull request as draft January 14, 2026 22:40

chr1syy force-pushed the fix-win-ssh-remote branch from 2ab94f5 to c93d872 Compare January 15, 2026 10:20

chr1syy marked this pull request as ready for review January 15, 2026 12:05

chr1syy changed the title ~~Fix/WIP: Remote SSH Agent Sessions (Windows)~~ Fix: Remote SSH Agent Sessions (Windows) Jan 15, 2026

This was referenced Jan 16, 2026

Windows Opencode detection not working #194

Closed

Issue: Agents not getting found on Remote #181

Open

chr1syy and others added 7 commits January 26, 2026 12:38

fix(agents): agent arg building, grooming

7be4577

fix(tests): fixed failing tests

5f9eff0

fix(ts): fixed typescript errors

e5ecacc

chr1syy force-pushed the fix-win-ssh-remote branch from 3d77404 to e5ecacc Compare January 26, 2026 18:52

pedramamini requested changes Jan 26, 2026

View reviewed changes

chr1syy added 7 commits January 26, 2026 21:58

fix(log): replaced console.log with logging functions

61bae47

fix(quality): indentation fixes

2cd2716

fix(synopsis): removed unnecessary variable, synopsis functionality c…

d9c1c2b

…alled ssh correctly

fix(ssh): reverted to $SHELL for portability, added different bash pr…

ac391a3

…ofile sourcing

fix(indentation)

b803f22

chr1syy requested a review from pedramamini January 27, 2026 12:44

chr1syy mentioned this pull request Jan 29, 2026

Group Chat doesn't work on Windows #243

Open

croakingtoad mentioned this pull request Jan 29, 2026

Windows Build Fails - Missing @rollup/rollup-win32-x64-msvc + SSH Path Expansion Issue #248

Open

pedramamini added the RC Getting soak time in RC branch now label Jan 30, 2026

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Fix: Remote SSH Agent Sessions (Windows) #188

Fix: Remote SSH Agent Sessions (Windows) #188

chr1syy commented Jan 13, 2026 •

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chr1syy commented Jan 13, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

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Improving / Fixing Remote SSH Agent Connection from Windows Client .exe (Portable/Setup)

Summary

Key Changes

SSH Execution & Stdin Handling

Wizard SSH Session Awareness

Discovering GitHub Repo (Wizard Phase 2)

Environment & Shell Improvements

WIP / REVIEW REQUIRED

Issues

Test-Coverage / Linting

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chr1syy commented Jan 14, 2026

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chr1syy commented Jan 15, 2026

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Critical Issues

1. Duplicated debug logging block

2. Duplicated availability check

3. Unused variable

Code Quality Issues

4. Excessive console.log statements

5. Inconsistent indentation

6. Empty blank line in workflow file

Architectural Concerns

7. Backend workaround for frontend state issue

8. Shell portability concern

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chr1syy commented Jan 27, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

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Critical Issues

Code Quality Issues

Architectural Concerns

Tests & Linting

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Reviewers

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chr1syy commented Jan 13, 2026 •

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chr1syy commented Jan 27, 2026 •

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