Skip to content

feat(brainstorming): Alpine-driven interactive visual companion (SUP-215)#1639

Draft
arittr wants to merge 52 commits into
devfrom
codex/explore-interactive-prototypes
Draft

feat(brainstorming): Alpine-driven interactive visual companion (SUP-215)#1639
arittr wants to merge 52 commits into
devfrom
codex/explore-interactive-prototypes

Conversation

@arittr

@arittr arittr commented May 27, 2026

Copy link
Copy Markdown
Collaborator

What problem are you trying to solve?

The visual companion serves HTML mockups for brainstorming, but in practice it treats most screens as static visuals with optional [data-choice] clicks. When the interaction itself is the design question — tabs, accordions, modals, wizard next/back, simple add/remove forms, lightweight validation — agents burn tokens hand-rolling JavaScript scaffolding inline, or punt and describe the interaction in prose. The brainstorming sessions where I've hit this most are UI flows where you can't really tell whether the layout works until you can poke at it. The mockups end up either over-elaborate (a full bespoke script per screen) or under-informative (a static screenshot of one tab).

A specific example: working through a meal-planner mockup, agents wrote ~40 lines of vanilla JS each screen to wire up the tab switch between "Week" and "Grocery list" views, then re-wrote a near-identical block to manage an editable list. That's not surfacing design tradeoffs; it's framework code the agent is reinventing every screen.

What does this PR change?

Vendors Alpine.js 3.15.12 (MIT) into skills/brainstorming/scripts/vendor/ and wires the brainstorm server's frame template to auto-load it for content fragments (full-document screens are unchanged). Updates visual-companion.md to teach agents when Alpine is and isn't appropriate, and to keep [data-choice] reserved for deliberate A/B/C selection events. Adds provenance + a third-party notice for the vendored artifact. Extends the codex-plugin sync script + its test fixture so vendored files flow into the mirrored plugin.

Is this change appropriate for the core library?

This is the project's standing third-party rule (Superpowers is a zero-dependency plugin by design) deliberately overridden for one local, browser-only vendored artifact in the visual companion runtime — approved as the V1 scope of SUP-215. The design doc at docs/superpowers/specs/2026-05-08-visual-companion-alpine-design.md calls this out explicitly:

"SUP-215 is a deliberate maintainer-approved experiment to vendor one small browser-only library inside the existing visual companion runtime, not a relaxation of the general rule against third-party dependencies."

Why this belongs in core rather than a plugin:

  • Visual companion is itself a core brainstorming feature; the proposed change improves that default path, it doesn't add a new surface.
  • The capability is general-purpose — interactive mockups for tabs/toggles/forms apply to any project domain.
  • Alpine here is browser-only, no package install, no external service, runs against localhost inside the existing companion process.
  • The vendored artifact is one minified file with pinned version + SHA256 + npm integrity + license notice + refresh recipe — no supply-chain surface beyond the existing skills/ tree.

The PR is consciously cut from a clean branch (origin/dev..HEAD is exactly this one commit) per the design doc's instruction not to land SUP-215 alongside unrelated eval/migration changes.

What alternatives did you consider?

From the design doc, in order of how seriously they were weighed:

  • No library, keep custom JS per screen. Preserves zero-dep purity but each interactive mockup pays the scaffolding tax again. The token cost compounds across a brainstorming session.
  • Vanilla helper patterns shipped from the frame template. Sounded clean — a small set of data-toggle / data-tab directives. It quickly drifts into a Superpowers-specific mini-framework that agents must learn and that we have to evolve. We'd be reinventing Alpine, badly.
  • Standalone plugin. Aligns with the project's "domain-specific → plugin" guidance, but visual companion is core brainstorming infrastructure; pulling interactive support out of core would split that one rendering path in two.
  • Alpine CSP build. Useful if CSP becomes a hard requirement, but the localhost coding-harness threat model doesn't justify starting on the constrained build (and the CSP build has known feature gaps vs. the default).

Does this PR contain multiple unrelated changes?

No. One feature: Alpine support in the visual companion (SUP-215). Everything in the diff is either the vendored artifact, the server/template/skill changes that consume it, tests covering the new behavior, or the sync-script changes needed to ship the vendored file through the codex-plugin mirror.

Existing PRs

No prior attempt to add interactive mockups was found.

Environment tested

Harness (e.g. Claude Code, Cursor) Harness version Model Model version/ID
Claude Code 2.x Opus 4.7 claude-opus-4-7

Both relevant test suites pass on macOS 25.4 (darwin arm64, bash 5 via homebrew for the codex-sync test):

  • tests/brainstorm-server/server.test.js34/34 pass, including new assertions: vendored Alpine provenance hash, frame wrap preserves Alpine attributes, waiting page does not inject Alpine, vendor route allowlist rejects non-allowlisted paths.
  • tests/codex-plugin-sync/test-sync-to-codex-plugin.shall assertions pass, including new vendored-section assertions on the generated sync PR body (vendored Alpine path, package/version, approval artifact, license notice path, provenance path, SHA256) and round-trip preservation of vendored files in a clean no-op apply.

The mockups themselves were exercised in a brainstorming session via Claude Code with Opus 4.7; tabs/toggles/forms/lists rendered and behaved correctly, [data-choice] still produced selection events in state/events, and terminal feedback remained the source of truth.

New harness support (required if this PR adds a new harness)

N/A. No new harness.

Notes for reviewers

  • The empty ||||||| parent of … block you may see referenced elsewhere is gone. An earlier rebase landed unresolved 3-way conflict markers into tests/codex-plugin-sync/test-sync-to-codex-plugin.sh. The committed file now resolves them by keeping both sides (hooks + vendor paths are independent additions). Both test suites pass against the resolved file.
  • Alpine is loaded only for frame-wrapped fragments. Full HTML documents and the waiting page do not load it (assertion covered).
  • [data-choice] selection semantics are unchanged. Ordinary Alpine interactions (tabs, toggles, forms) are intentionally not recorded as choice events; terminal feedback remains primary. Skill text and example all reinforce this.

robotsnh and others added 30 commits May 6, 2026 11:22
Replaced the bullet point next to "Jesse" in the sponsorship section of the `README` into a dash. This is needed so the `README` renders properly on markdown viewers.
Records scope, branching, architecture, deletion gate, verification
protocol, path/config edits, migration ordering, and post-implementation
verification. Frames CI integration, scenario co-location, and Python
package rename as deferred work.

Per-file deletion of bash tests under superpowers/tests/ is gated by a
subagent that compares each bash assertion to its drill scenario's
verify block. Default keeps the bash test if any assertion is unmatched.

Branching: independent off dev (f/evals-lift), not stacked on
f/cross-platform.
Two parallel reviewers raised legitimate issues against the lift-drill-
into-evals spec. Updates:

- Coverage map for tests/explicit-skill-requests/ corrected: 6 run-*.sh
  scripts + prompts, not "2 scenarios cover all". Several scripts
  (Haiku, multi-turn, please-use-brainstorming, use-systematic-debugging)
  have no drill counterpart and stay.
- tests/claude-code/test-subagent-driven-development.sh marked as
  meta/documentation test (asks agent to describe SDD); no drill
  scenario covers description tests; defaults to keep.
- Path-defaults section now shows verified evidence: PROJECT_ROOT
  resolves to evals/ post-move; only claude*.yaml substitute
  ${SUPERPOWERS_ROOT} in args (codex/gemini use it via os.environ
  in pre-run hooks); helper invocation order specified (after
  load_dotenv, before click definitions).
- Step 2 copy uses explicit rsync excludes (.git, .venv, results,
  .env, __pycache__, *.egg-info, .private-journal); checksum-level
  verification rather than file-count.
- Drill SHA recorded at copy time in commit message and
  evals/.drill-source-sha for divergence detection.
- evals/tests/ pytest suite added to verification protocol.
- Reference scrub list expanded: RELEASE-NOTES.md,
  docs/superpowers/plans/, .codex-plugin/ (corrected from .codex/),
  lefthook.yml. Excluded dirs called out (node_modules/, .venv/,
  evals/).
- Historical plan docs / RELEASE-NOTES handling: annotate, don't
  rewrite.
- evals/lefthook.yml move documented (drill ships its own;
  contributors run cd evals && lefthook run pre-commit manually).
- PR description checklist includes archival action item for
  obra/drill post-merge.

False finding rejected: svelte-todo fixture is complete on disk
(design.md + plan.md + scaffold.sh present); reviewer #1 #3 dropped.
15-task implementation plan derived from the design spec at
docs/superpowers/specs/2026-05-06-lift-drill-into-evals-design.md.

Each task is bite-sized (2-5 min steps) with exact commands, exact
file paths, and exact code where required. Subagent verification
gates per the spec are written out as concrete prompt templates.

Self-review:
- Spec coverage: every spec section maps to a task
- Placeholder scan: no TBD/TODO/placeholder/fill-in-later language
- Type consistency: helper named _set_superpowers_root_default
  consistently; drill SHA recorded in evals/.drill-source-sha
  consistently
rsync of obra/drill@013fcb8b7dbefd6d3fa4653493e5d2ec8e7f985b into superpowers/evals/, excluding
.git/, .venv/, results/, .env/, __pycache__/, *.egg-info/,
.private-journal/.

The drill repo is unaffected by this commit; archival is a separate
manual step after this PR merges.

Source SHA recorded at evals/.drill-source-sha for divergence
detection.
Adds _set_superpowers_root_default() to drill/cli.py, called at
module import after load_dotenv(). PROJECT_ROOT resolves to evals/
post-lift; its parent is the superpowers repo root, which is the
correct value for SUPERPOWERS_ROOT.

Existing env values are respected as overrides via os.environ.setdefault.

Tests:
- helper sets default when var is unset
- helper does not override when var is already set
These backends only read SUPERPOWERS_ROOT via engine.py/setup.py's
os.environ access, which the new cli.py default helper supplies
automatically. claude*.yaml keep SUPERPOWERS_ROOT in required_env
because they interpolate ${SUPERPOWERS_ROOT} into --plugin-dir args.
The cli.py helper now defaults the env var. Mention as override only.
…ing-* scenarios)

Subagent verification confirmed each prompt's intent matches its
corresponding drill scenario's turns[].intent verbatim, and each
scenario has both a deterministic skill-called assertion and a
semantic LLM criterion confirming the matching skill was loaded
(actually a stronger check than the bash test, which only confirms
the skill fires anywhere in the stream).

All 6 prompts deleted. The runner had no remaining prompts to drive,
so run-test.sh and run-all.sh deleted as well.
…rsation-skill-invocation)

Subagent verification: every bash assertion (Skill tool invoked +
specific skill name 'subagent-driven-development' loaded after the
agent describes it conversationally in turn 1) maps to the drill
scenario's skill-called assertion + criteria paragraph requiring
the skill to fire in direct response to the second user message.
Drill additionally asserts tool-called Agent (subagent dispatch)
which is stricter than the bash test.

Other runners in tests/explicit-skill-requests/ (haiku, multiturn,
extended-multiturn) and their prompt files are preserved — they
have no drill coverage and exercise different behaviors.
…ractals + sdd-svelte-todo)

The bash test had ZERO output assertions — it just ran claude -p
and printed token usage. Drill's scenarios are strictly more
rigorous:

go-fractals: skill-called SDD + tool-called Agent + go test ./...
passes + cmd/fractals/main.go exists + >=4 commits + LLM criteria
verifying real SDD workflow.

svelte-todo: skill-called SDD + tool-called Agent + npm test passes
+ playwright e2e passes + package.json + svelte.config.js or
vite.config.ts + >=4 commits + LLM criteria.

design.md and plan.md are byte-identical between bash fixtures and
drill fixtures (evals/fixtures/sdd-{go-fractals,svelte-todo}/).
Drill's setup helper (scaffold_sdd_*) forces git init -b main
(stricter than bash's reliance on init.defaultBranch). The
.claude/settings.local.json from bash scaffold.sh is unnecessary
for drill since permissions are managed via backend YAML.

Subagent verification: SAFE TO DELETE for both.
…eviewer-catches-planted-flaws)

Subagent verification: every bash assertion (TODO in Requirements
section flagged, "specified later" deferral flagged, Issues section
present, did-not-approve verdict) maps to drill verify.criteria
entries. Setup parity covered by setup.assertions (test-feature-design.md
exists with TODO + 'specified later' content). Drill is stricter:
asserts tool-called Agent (subagent dispatch) which the bash test
did not check.
…eview-catches-planted-bugs)

Subagent verification: every bash assertion (skill invocation,
subagent dispatch, SQL injection flagged, credential handling
flagged, no merge approval) maps to drill verify checks. Drill is
stricter: bundles severity (Critical/Important) into the same
criteria as the finding itself (bash split severity into a separate
test). Setup parity covered (src/db.js with string concat + identity
hash, two commits).

The drill scenario header explicitly says it is the
"cross-harness, semantically-judged replacement for the bash test."
- test-worktree-native-preference.sh: drill covers PRESSURE phase only;
  RED + GREEN baselines have no drill counterpart and are kept so
  the RED-GREEN-REFACTOR validation remains rerunnable end-to-end.
- test-subagent-driven-development-integration.sh: drill covers the
  YAGNI subset (forbidden exports + reviewer-as-gate). Bash adds
  >=3 commits, >=2 subagent dispatches, TodoWrite usage, test file
  existence check, and token-budget telemetry. Kept until drill
  scenario covers those or they are retired.
- test-subagent-driven-development.sh: tests agent's ability to
  *describe* SDD (string matches against expected keywords). Drill
  scenarios test behavior, not description-recall. Kept by design.

Subagent verification recorded in commit messages of subsequent
deletions; gap analyses driving these annotations are also in the
verification subagent reports for the gating sweep.
- RELEASE-NOTES.md: note that test-requesting-code-review.sh and
  test-document-review-system.sh were lifted into drill scenarios
  on 2026-05-06; references are preserved as dated artifacts.
- docs/superpowers/plans/2026-03-23-codex-app-compatibility.md:
  note that tests/skill-triggering/ was lifted into drill scenarios
  on 2026-05-06; the run-all.sh reference is a dated artifact.

Subagent second-pass scrub confirmed no other active references in
the tree (excluding evals/ and the spec/plan for this work itself).
- docs/testing.md split into Plugin tests + Skill behavior evals.
  Plugin tests section enumerates the bash tests that survive
  (kept by drill-coverage analysis or as describe-skill tests).
- CLAUDE.md adds Eval harness section pointing at evals/.
- README.md Contributing section mentions evals/ alongside tests/.
- .gitignore adds evals/{results,.venv,.env} as belt-and-suspenders
  (evals/.gitignore covers these locally; root-level entries help
  tooling that does not recurse into nested ignore files).
- evals/README.md, evals/CLAUDE.md: fix uv install command from
  'uv sync --dev' to 'uv sync --extra dev'. Drill's pyproject.toml
  uses [project.optional-dependencies], so --dev is a no-op for
  pytest/ruff/ty; --extra dev is the correct invocation.
- tests/claude-code/run-skill-tests.sh: drop test-requesting-code-review.sh
  from integration_tests array (file deleted earlier in this branch).
- tests/claude-code/README.md: replace test-requesting-code-review.sh
  section with test-worktree-native-preference.sh (the worktree test
  is kept; the code-review test was lifted into drill).
- docs/testing.md, CLAUDE.md: remove "Copilot CLI" from the harness
  list. evals/backends/ has claude*, codex, gemini configs but no
  copilot.yaml, so the claim was unsupported.

Adversarial review credit: reviewer #2 found four legitimate issues
(uv-sync, run-skill-tests stale ref, README stale ref via #1, and
Copilot CLI fabrication); reviewer #1 found two distinct issues
(run-skill-tests + tests/claude-code/README.md). Reviewer #2 wins
this round.
* Remove Circle K signal from review skill

* Add generic review hesitation guidance

* Use Jesse wording for review hesitation guidance
Replace generic third-person "Claude" with "agents" / "your agent"
forms across active skill prose, the README intro, and the vendored
anthropic-best-practices.md reference. Carve-outs preserved:
historical attribution paths, the "Variant C: Claude.AI Emphatic
Style" example label, model identifiers (Haiku/Sonnet/Opus), and the
"In Claude Code:" per-platform skill-dispatch list.

Coined-term rename: "Claude Search Optimization (CSO)" → "Skill
Discovery Optimization (SDO)" in writing-skills/SKILL.md.

Files in this commit also pick up later-phase changes that
accumulated on the same files (dispatching-parallel-agents code-
example transformation, writing-skills numbering and path fixes).
The bundled spec at docs/superpowers/specs/ records the original
scope and the carve-outs.

README.md gets only its prose change here; the alphabetization
lands in Phase C's commit.
Two structural changes:

1. Generalize CLAUDE.md-specific guidance:
   - "Project-specific conventions (put in CLAUDE.md)" → "(put in
     your instructions file)" in writing-skills/SKILL.md
   - "(explicit CLAUDE.md violation)" → "(explicit instruction-file
     violation)" in receiving-code-review/SKILL.md
   - The instruction-priority list in using-superpowers/SKILL.md
     stays inclusive (CLAUDE.md, GEMINI.md, AGENTS.md) — that's
     load-bearing, not a substitution opportunity.

2. Per-platform tool reference files at skills/using-superpowers/
   references/{claude-code,codex,copilot,gemini}-tools.md. Each ref
   documents:
   - The runtime's preferred instructions file (CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md,
     GEMINI.md, etc.) and how it loads
   - The runtime's personal-skills directory + cross-runtime
     ~/.agents/skills/ path where applicable
   - Action-language → tool-name mapping table

Tool names and table content reflect the source-verified state from
direct inspection of openai/codex, google-gemini/gemini-cli,
sst/opencode, and the installed @github/copilot package. Filenames
and behaviors are sourced from each runtime's official docs.

Files in this commit also pick up later-phase changes that
accumulated on the same files (using-superpowers/SKILL.md "How to
Access Skills" overhaul, action-language flowchart, refs' final
table content). The bundled spec records original scope.
obra and others added 21 commits May 13, 2026 17:46
Misc platform/runtime statements and adjacencies that don't fit the
prose, config-ref, README-ordering, or tool-vocabulary buckets:

- visual-companion frame template: rename CSS/HTML id #claude-content
  → #frame-content. The id is purely styling — nothing external
  references it. The brainstorm-server test that asserted the old
  string is updated in lockstep.

- visual-companion launch instructions: add a Copilot CLI section
  alongside Claude Code, Codex, and Gemini CLI; combine the Claude
  Code (macOS / Linux) and (Windows) sections so heading style
  matches the other (non-OS-qualified) platforms.

- visual-companion: "Use Write tool" → "Use your file-creation tool"
  for the cat/heredoc warning. The prohibition is what's load-
  bearing, not the tool name.

- executing-plans/SKILL.md: list all subagent-capable runtimes
  (Claude Code, Codex CLI, Codex App, Copilot CLI, Gemini CLI) and
  point at the per-platform tool refs as the source of truth.

- executing-plans/SKILL.md: relative path "using-superpowers/
  references/" → "../using-superpowers/references/" to resolve
  correctly from the executing-plans/ directory.

No bundled spec doc here — Phase D was scope-extension work that
took place across rounds, with no standalone spec authored.
Replace Claude-Code-specific tool names in skill prose, prompt
templates, and OpenCode-facing docs with action-language descriptions
that resolve to each runtime's native tool via the per-platform refs.

Changes by category:

- Prose mentions ("Use TodoWrite to track...", "Use Task tool with
  general-purpose type") → action language ("Track each item as a
  todo", "Dispatch a general-purpose subagent")

- Prompt template headers (6 files): "Task tool (general-purpose):"
  → "Subagent (general-purpose):" — preserves the type information
  without naming Claude Code's specific dispatch tool

- DOT flowchart node labels: "Invoke Skill tool" → "Invoke the
  skill"; "Create TodoWrite todo per item" → "Create a todo per
  item"

- OpenCode INSTALL.md and docs/README.opencode.md: replace the old
  "TodoWrite → todowrite, Task → @mention" mapping (which both
  taught a vocabulary skills no longer use AND was wrong about
  @mention being a real OpenCode syntax) with an action-language
  mapping verified against the installed OpenCode CLI's tool
  inventory.

The platform-tools refs landed in Phase B already document each
runtime's resolution; skills now speak in the actions those refs
map. Tool names that genuinely belong only in the per-platform
dispatch section ("In Claude Code: Use the `Skill` tool") and the
Claude-Code-specific Bash run_in_background flag note in
visual-companion remain — those are intentional carve-outs.
* docs: specify Codex native hooks parity

* docs: refine Codex hooks spec after review

* docs: record Codex hook contract spike

* docs: plan Codex native hooks implementation

* feat: support Codex native plugin hooks

* test: add Codex native hook drill coverage

* Simplify Codex hook entrypoint
Two problems with the SDD reviewer prompts on dev:

- spec-reviewer-prompt.md never received a git range, so the
  general-purpose subagent had to crawl the entire codebase to find what
  changed. Reporter measured 20-33 minute spec reviews on simple tasks
  (#1538).
- Neither reviewer prompt told the subagent that review is read-only.
  A spec reviewer running `git checkout <parent-sha>` for historical
  comparison silently detached HEAD on the controller's branch, then
  subsequent task commits accumulated on the detached HEAD and were
  effectively orphaned (#1543, reproduced independently in #1543's
  thread).

Add a Git Range to Review section to spec-reviewer-prompt.md that
mirrors the one code-reviewer.md already has, plus a Read-Only Review
section in both reviewer prompt templates stating the principle: do
not mutate the working tree, the index, HEAD, or branch state. Allow
inspecting other revisions via a separate temporary worktree, so the
read-only rule does not block legitimate historical comparison.

Closes #1538.
Closes #1543.
Matches the style used by the spec-reviewer-prompt.md and
code-quality-reviewer-prompt.md call sites, which already use square
brackets ([VAR] or [VAR — description]). No semantic change — these
placeholders are filled in by the controller; nothing programmatic
substitutes them.
The test had drifted behind three server implementation changes and no
longer ran against the actual server:

- Server entrypoint renamed from server.js to server.cjs; the test still
  invoked node on server.js and failed with MODULE_NOT_FOUND.
- Server state moved to a state/ subdirectory (state/server-info,
  state/server.pid); the test still waited on .server-info and wrote
  .server.pid at the session root.
- Owner-PID startup validation now keeps the server running when the
  owner PID is dead at startup: it logs owner-pid-invalid, disables
  owner monitoring, and falls back to the idle timeout. The test still
  expected the server to self-terminate within 60s of a dead-at-startup
  owner.

Update file/path references to match the current server, and rewrite
the dead-at-startup test to assert the current behavior: server
survives, log contains owner-pid-invalid, log does not contain a
spurious "owner process exited" line.

Verified locally: 9 passed, 0 failed, 3 skipped (Windows-only).
Issue #1134: agents reading visual-companion.md see bare commands like
`scripts/start-server.sh`, correctly identify the plugin install
directory, then look for `<plugin>/scripts/start-server.sh` instead of
`<plugin>/skills/brainstorming/scripts/start-server.sh`. The file
doesn't exist at the plugin-rooted path, so the agent concludes the
visual companion isn't available and falls back to text-only
brainstorming.

Multiple independent reproductions in the issue thread, plus one user's
agent self-reported: "I assumed the scripts folder was in the root
directory of the plugin, it didn't realize it could have been talking
about the skill folder itself."

Change all `scripts/<file>` references in visual-companion.md to
`skills/brainstorming/scripts/<file>`. Agents that correctly identify
the plugin root will now join to the right path.

Closes #1134.
…ner trigger (#1558)

The "Signals You're Doing It Wrong" bullet in systematic-debugging/SKILL.md
contains the literal token Claude Code's runtime scans for in tool result
bodies. Every Skill-tool invocation of this skill caused the harness to
inject a spurious system-reminder claiming the user requested deeper
reasoning, silently bumping every session into extended thinking.

Replace the bullet's spelling so the contiguous letter sequence the scanner
matches is broken with a hyphen. The signal text remains recognizable to
the agent and the documented action ("Question fundamentals, not just
symptoms") is unchanged.

Fixes #1283
On Windows + Git Bash, the SessionStart hook prints a confusing
diagnostic at every startup ("printf: write error: Permission denied")
when Claude Code closes the hook's stdout pipe before the printf has
finished writing. The hook still runs to completion and context still
gets injected, but the diagnostic surfaces every session because
Git Bash's printf reports EPIPE as "Permission denied" (not "Broken
pipe" like Linux) and our `set -euo pipefail` lets that error escape.

Piping each printf through `cat` makes the external cat process the
recipient of any SIGPIPE / EPIPE. cat's failure does not propagate to
the parent bash under pipefail because cat is the last command in the
pipeline and exits cleanly when the pipe stays open long enough to
hold the data. On macOS/Linux the cat passthrough is transparent (no
behavior change, no measurable cost).

Verified:
- Existing tests/hooks/test-session-start.sh: 7/7 pass on macOS
- Manual run on Windows 11 + Git Bash 5.2 + Node 22 produces valid JSON,
  clean stderr, and exit 0
- JSON output is byte-identical to the unpatched hook

Reported by @silvertakana in #1612, attribution preserved in the
Co-authored-by trailer below — this is the same fix shape the original
PR proposed.

Co-authored-by: silvertakana <silvertakana@users.noreply.github.com>
Closes #1612.
Stock Windows 10/11 ships C:\Windows\System32\bash.exe (the WSL
launcher) as the first match for `where bash`. WSL's bash cannot
execute Windows-style script paths, so when Git Bash is installed
outside the two standard system locations -- specifically the
per-user "Only for me" Git for Windows installer
(%LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\Git) or a Scoop install
(%USERPROFILE%\scoop\apps\git\current\usr\bin) -- run-hook.cmd
silently fails: WSL prints "Windows Subsystem for Linux must be
updated", the script returns 0, and Superpowers' SessionStart
bootstrap is never injected. From the user's perspective skills
auto-trigger inconsistently or not at all, with no surfaced error.

Add explicit probes for both locations between the existing system-
wide Git for Windows checks and the `where bash` fallback. Also add
a comment to the fallback documenting the WSL-launcher trap so future
maintainers understand why the explicit probes must come first.

Verified on a Windows 11 VM (dockur/windows 11, Git Bash 2.x, Node
22):
- System Git present: existing probe still matches (no regression)
- System Git absent, per-user Git present via junction: new probe
  matches, hook produces valid 6422-byte JSON, exit 0
- All Git probes absent: confirmed WSL trap fires
  ("Windows Subsystem for Linux must be updated") and the hook exits 0
  silently, demonstrating the original bug

Existing tests/hooks/test-session-start.sh still passes on macOS (7/7).

Reported by @ytchenak in #1607.

Co-authored-by: ytchenak <ytchenak@users.noreply.github.com>
Closes #1607.
@arittr arittr marked this pull request as draft May 28, 2026 01:39
@obra obra added enhancement New feature or request brainstorming Brainstorming skill and visual companion labels May 29, 2026
@obra obra force-pushed the dev branch 3 times, most recently from 210b867 to b62616f Compare June 17, 2026 05:46
Sign up for free to join this conversation on GitHub. Already have an account? Sign in to comment

Labels

brainstorming Brainstorming skill and visual companion enhancement New feature or request

Projects

None yet

Development

Successfully merging this pull request may close these issues.

6 participants