[Bug] <Bug Title Here>

[muratbul]

Summary

On Windows 11, interacting with channels in the Buzz desktop app causes multiple console / Windows Terminal windows to open and close. One window that stays open shows:

[process exited with code 1 (0x00000001)]
You can now close this terminal with Ctrl+D, or press Enter to restart.

Environment

• OS: Windows 11 (10.0.26200)
• Buzz desktop: 0.4.21 (buzz-desktop.exe from %LOCALAPPDATA%\Buzz)
• Installer: Buzz_0.4.21_x64-setup_alpha-unsigned
• Default terminal: Windows Terminal (wt.exe present)
• Git for Windows / Git Bash: installed (C:\Program Files\Git\bin\bash.exe)
• Agent global config: provider: "openai", preferred_runtime: "buzz-agent"
• Built-in agents present: Fizz / Honey / Bumble (agent_command: buzz-agent, mcp_command: buzz-dev-mcp)
• OPENAI_API_KEY / OPENAI_COMPAT_API_KEY / ANTHROPIC_API_KEY: not set in user or process environment

Steps to reproduce

1. Install Buzz 0.4.21 alpha on Windows 11.
2. Launch buzz-desktop.
3. Ensure Windows Terminal is the default terminal application.
4. Do not configure an LLM API key (or leave provider set to OpenAI without a key).
5. Open / switch between channels that involve managed agents (e.g. Welcome Team agents).

Actual behavior

• Multiple CMD / Windows Terminal windows flash open and close repeatedly.
• At least one window remains with Windows Terminal’s process-exit banner and exit code 1.
• Running the helper directly confirms config failure:

buzz-agent.exe
→ ERROR buzz_agent: config: BUZZ_AGENT_PROVIDER is required
$env:BUZZ_AGENT_PROVIDER='openai'; buzz-agent.exe
→ ERROR buzz_agent: config: OPENAI_COMPAT_API_KEY required
(exit code 2)

buzz-acp.exe contains the string process exited, which matches the observed exit handling.

Expected behavior

1. Agent subprocesses on Windows should be spawned hidden (CREATE_NO_WINDOW / equivalent), not as visible console windows — even when they fail.
2. Missing provider / API key should surface as an in-app error / agent status (e.g. in managed agent last_error), not a crash-loop of terminal windows.
3. Channel navigation should not keep respawning failing agent processes in a visible way.

Notes / suspected cause

Two related issues:

• Config failure: agents start without a usable provider/API key and exit immediately.
• Windows packaging / spawn bug: console-subsystem helpers are launched without hiding the console. With Windows Terminal as the default terminal app, every spawn becomes a visible window; auto-restart / channel activity turns that into a flash loop.

Git Bash is present, so this does not look like the documented missing-bash Windows prerequisite.

Suggested fix

• Spawn buzz-acp / buzz-agent / buzz-dev-mcp (and any cmd.exe wrappers) with CREATE_NO_WINDOW / DETACHED_PROCESS on Windows.
• Fail fast in the UI when provider/API key is missing instead of restart-looping the child process.
• Optionally gate agent auto-start until provider config validates.

Workaround

• Configure a valid provider + API key (OPENAI_COMPAT_API_KEY for OpenAI-compat, or Anthropic equivalent), or deactivate managed agents.
• Temporarily set Default terminal application to Windows Console Host to reduce visible flashes (does not fix the underlying exit loop).

Happy to provide more logs / Process Explorer captures if useful.

[theobiabo]

Being seeing lots of windows users complaining about this error (C:\Program Files\Git\bin\bash.exe)

[tzarebczan]

There's a PR open for this already and it may already be fixed on master. Should be in the next release or two hopefully!

[jjgarciarovira]

Seeing the same on Windows 11. The root cause for the windows themselves (separate from the child's exit code) is that the managed-agent adapter child is spawned without a Windows "no console" flag.

The desktop launches the buzz-acp sidecar windowless (CREATE_NO_WINDOW in desktop/src-tauri/src/managed_agents/runtime.rs), but the child spawn in crates/buzz-acp/src/acp.rs (AcpClient::spawn) only sets a Unix process-group flag. With no console on the parent, each agent child (buzz-agent, or claude-agent-acp.cmd -> cmd.exe -> node) allocates a fresh console — one per agent, flashing as sessions recycle.

#2247 hides the discovery/git/shell/auth consoles but doesn't touch this spawn site, so the per-agent harness windows remain. One-line fix alongside the existing #[cfg(unix)] block:

#[cfg(windows)]
{
    const CREATE_NO_WINDOW: u32 = 0x0800_0000;
    cmd.creation_flags(CREATE_NO_WINDOW);
}

Note this only hides the window — the process exited with code 1 you saw is a separate config issue (the agent needs its provider/key, e.g. BUZZ_AGENT_PROVIDER / OPENAI_COMPAT_API_KEY). Flagged the same fix on #2247.