Windows: lifecycle.js uses Unix-only ps/sleep/tail, causing false status and unreliable loop management

[q7793527]

Summary

src/ops/lifecycle.js is not Windows-compatible because it shells out to Unix commands like ps, sleep, and tail.

This breaks lifecycle management on Windows in multiple ways:

• status reports running: false even when the loop process is alive
• check can misclassify health because process discovery fails
• stop/restart rely on Unix sleep calls
• log relies on Unix tail
• startup troubleshooting becomes confusing because the loop may be running while lifecycle reports otherwise

Environment

• Evolver version: 1.65.0
• Node.js: node.exe on Windows
• Platform: Windows
• Launch mode: node index.js --loop

Reproduction

1. Start the loop on Windows:

   node src/ops/lifecycle.js start

2. Confirm the process is really alive from the OS side.
3. Run:

   node src/ops/lifecycle.js status

4. Observe that it may return {"running":false} even though the loop process is still running.

Root Cause

Current lifecycle implementation uses Unix-only shell commands:

• ps -e -o pid,args
• ps -p <pid> -o args=
• sleep
• tail

Those are not portable on standard Windows environments.

What We Observed

Before patching locally, status returned running: false on Windows while the actual process command line was:

node C:\Users\Administrator\<redacted>\skills\evolver\index.js --loop

After applying a local Windows compatibility patch, lifecycle behaved correctly and reported:

{
  "running": true,
  "pids": [
    {
      "pid": 2184,
      "cmd": "node C:\\Users\\Administrator\\<redacted>\\skills\\evolver\\index.js --loop"
    }
  ],
  "log": "logs\\evolver_loop.log"
}

and:

{
  "healthy": true,
  "pids": [2184]
}

Impact

This is user-visible on Windows because:

• local auto-evolution appears broken even when it is actually running
• restart/stop behavior becomes unreliable
• login-startup debugging is much harder
• operators may accidentally launch duplicate loops or think startup failed

Suggested Fix

Add a Windows code path in src/ops/lifecycle.js for:

• process discovery
• command line lookup
• sleeping/delay
• tailing logs

Examples:

• use PowerShell / CIM / Get-CimInstance Win32_Process for process discovery and command line lookup
• use PowerShell Start-Sleep for delays
• use PowerShell Get-Content -Tail for log tailing
• use path.delimiter instead of hardcoded : when mutating PATH

Privacy Note

All local paths in this report were redacted manually before submission.