test(ext): daemon-runtime-spawn polls fast — kills worker-pool flake

ensureBundledDaemon gained an optional { startTimeoutMs } that flows
through to ensureDaemon's existing parameter. Production callers (3
sites) call it with no args; behavior unchanged. The spawn-merge test
suite now passes startTimeoutMs: 200, dropping per-test runtime from
~15s to ~250ms (5 tests × 1s instead of 5 tests × 15s).

Why: the slow test surfaced as a vitest worker-pool crash on Windows
+ Node 24 push-event CI runs ([vitest-pool]: Worker forks emitted
error after the 75s test file completes). The matrix slot's
pull_request run completed identically and passed; the difference was
runner state at worker teardown after a long-running file. Fixing the
test to fail-fast removes the worker stress entirely.

Coverage unchanged: spawn() still observed before ensureDaemon throws.
The 5 cases (provider env merged, empty {} → no passphrase, hard-coded
overrides win, back-compat without provider, no process.env mutation)
all still pass.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

Author: A.R.

packages/extension/src/daemon/runtime.ts

@@ -116,13 +116,14 @@ function reapStaleVersionedDaemon(config: RuntimeConfig): void {
   removeStaleLock(lockPath);
 }
 
-export async function ensureBundledDaemon() {
+export async function ensureBundledDaemon(options: { startTimeoutMs?: number } = {}) {
   const config = requireRuntimeConfig();
   reapStaleVersionedDaemon(config);
   return ensureDaemon({
     configDir: config.configDir,
     spawnDaemon: spawnBundledDaemon,
     treatSelfAsZombie: true,
+    ...(options.startTimeoutMs !== undefined ? { startTimeoutMs: options.startTimeoutMs } : {}),
   });
 }
 

packages/extension/tests/daemon-runtime-spawn.test.ts

@@ -39,11 +39,13 @@ function fakeChild() {
   return { on: vi.fn(), unref: vi.fn() } as unknown as ReturnType<typeof childProcess.spawn>;
 }
 
-// ensureBundledDaemon polls the (mocked, never-actually-running) daemon for
-// up to ~15s before throwing. Each test catches that throw and asserts on
-// the captured spawn() options — so we just need a per-test timeout that
-// exceeds the launcher's 15s deadline.
-const TEST_TIMEOUT_MS = 20_000;
+// ensureBundledDaemon would normally poll the (mocked, never-actually-
+// running) daemon for ~15s before throwing. Each test catches that throw
+// and asserts on the captured spawn() options. We pass a tiny
+// startTimeoutMs (200ms) so the polling loop fails fast — this keeps the
+// suite under ~2s instead of ~75s and avoids vitest worker-pool stress
+// on Windows + Node 24 CI runners that surfaced as flaky failures.
+const FAST_DEADLINE_MS = 200;
 
 describe("spawnBundledDaemon merges buildDaemonEnv result", () => {
   beforeEach(() => {
@@ -62,13 +64,13 @@ describe("spawnBundledDaemon merges buildDaemonEnv result", () => {
       bundledVersion: "0.8.41",
       buildDaemonEnv: async () => ({ PERPLEXITY_VAULT_PASSPHRASE: "test-pass" }),
     });
-    try { await ensureBundledDaemon(); } catch { /* health-check failure is expected */ }
+    try { await ensureBundledDaemon({ startTimeoutMs: FAST_DEADLINE_MS }); } catch { /* health-check failure is expected */ }
     expect(spawnMock).toHaveBeenCalled();
     const opts = spawnMock.mock.calls[0]?.[2] as { env: Record<string, string> };
     expect(opts.env.PERPLEXITY_VAULT_PASSPHRASE).toBe("test-pass");
     expect(opts.env.ELECTRON_RUN_AS_NODE).toBe("1");
     expect(opts.env.PERPLEXITY_CONFIG_DIR).toBe("/tmp/perp-test");
-  }, TEST_TIMEOUT_MS);
+  });
 
   it("does not set PERPLEXITY_VAULT_PASSPHRASE when provider returns {}", async () => {
     configureDaemonRuntime({
@@ -77,10 +79,10 @@ describe("spawnBundledDaemon merges buildDaemonEnv result", () => {
       bundledVersion: "0.8.41",
       buildDaemonEnv: async () => ({}),
     });
-    try { await ensureBundledDaemon(); } catch { /* expected */ }
+    try { await ensureBundledDaemon({ startTimeoutMs: FAST_DEADLINE_MS }); } catch { /* expected */ }
     const opts = spawnMock.mock.calls[0]?.[2] as { env: Record<string, string> };
     expect(opts.env.PERPLEXITY_VAULT_PASSPHRASE).toBeUndefined();
-  }, TEST_TIMEOUT_MS);
+  });
 
   it("hard-coded overrides win over provider env", async () => {
     configureDaemonRuntime({
@@ -90,22 +92,22 @@ describe("spawnBundledDaemon merges buildDaemonEnv result", () => {
       // Provider tries to clobber critical overrides — must not succeed.
       buildDaemonEnv: async () => ({ ELECTRON_RUN_AS_NODE: "0", PERPLEXITY_CONFIG_DIR: "/evil" }),
     });
-    try { await ensureBundledDaemon(); } catch { /* expected */ }
+    try { await ensureBundledDaemon({ startTimeoutMs: FAST_DEADLINE_MS }); } catch { /* expected */ }
     const opts = spawnMock.mock.calls[0]?.[2] as { env: Record<string, string> };
     expect(opts.env.ELECTRON_RUN_AS_NODE).toBe("1");
     expect(opts.env.PERPLEXITY_CONFIG_DIR).toBe("/tmp/perp-test");
-  }, TEST_TIMEOUT_MS);
+  });
 
   it("works without a provider (back-compat)", async () => {
     configureDaemonRuntime({
       configDir: "/tmp/perp-test",
       serverPath: "/tmp/perp-test/server.mjs",
       bundledVersion: "0.8.41",
     });
-    try { await ensureBundledDaemon(); } catch { /* expected */ }
+    try { await ensureBundledDaemon({ startTimeoutMs: FAST_DEADLINE_MS }); } catch { /* expected */ }
     const opts = spawnMock.mock.calls[0]?.[2] as { env: Record<string, string> };
     expect(opts.env.ELECTRON_RUN_AS_NODE).toBe("1");
-  }, TEST_TIMEOUT_MS);
+  });
 
   it("does not mutate process.env after spawn", async () => {
     delete process.env.PERPLEXITY_VAULT_PASSPHRASE;
@@ -115,7 +117,7 @@ describe("spawnBundledDaemon merges buildDaemonEnv result", () => {
       bundledVersion: "0.8.41",
       buildDaemonEnv: async () => ({ PERPLEXITY_VAULT_PASSPHRASE: "must-not-leak" }),
     });
-    try { await ensureBundledDaemon(); } catch { /* expected */ }
+    try { await ensureBundledDaemon({ startTimeoutMs: FAST_DEADLINE_MS }); } catch { /* expected */ }
     expect(process.env.PERPLEXITY_VAULT_PASSPHRASE).toBeUndefined();
-  }, TEST_TIMEOUT_MS);
+  });
 });