fix(vscode): set TZ for gh child processes on Windows

[santhiprakash]

Issue

Fixes #12912

Context

When gh is spawned on Windows without TZ in its environment, it calls tzutil.exe to resolve the local time zone. When Windows Terminal is the default terminal, that tzutil child creates a visible console window that flashes for ~300–500 ms and steals focus from fullscreen games.

The PRStatusPoller (and other Agent Manager code) already spawns gh through execWithShellEnv in packages/kilo-vscode/src/agent-manager/shell-env.ts, so this is the single choke-point where we can stop the console flash for every gh call.

Implementation

• Added a withTzEnv helper in shell-env.ts that:
  • only runs on process.platform === "win32";
  • only applies when the spawned command is gh (by base name, stripping .exe);
  • uses process.env.TZ if set, otherwise falls back to Intl.DateTimeFormat().resolvedOptions().timeZone and caches the result;
  • respects an explicit TZ already present in the caller-supplied env.
• execWithShellEnv now wraps every invocation with withTzEnv before calling exec(), so PRStatusPoller, WorktreeManager, and any future gh callers all get TZ automatically.
• util/process.ts already forces windowsHide: true on every child process, but the visible window comes from the tzutil grandchild spawned by gh, so hiding the gh window alone is not enough. Passing TZ prevents gh from spawning tzutil in the first place.
• Added a focused unit test in packages/kilo-vscode/tests/unit/shell-env.test.ts covering: TZ injection, fallback inference, non-gh commands, non-Windows platforms, and explicit TZ preservation.
• Added a .changeset for the user-facing bug fix.

Screenshots / Video

N/A — the visible console window is a transient Windows Terminal focus-steal that cannot be captured in a static screenshot, and the fix is verified by the unit tests.

How to Test

Manual/local verification

• bun test tests/unit/shell-env.test.ts → 15 pass (TZ-specific cases pass)
• bun run test:unit → 3732 pass, 0 fail
• bun run lint → pass
• bun run typecheck → pass
• bun run format:check → pass
• bun run knip → pass
• bun run script/check-md-table-padding.ts → pass

Reviewer test steps

1. On Windows, set Windows Terminal as the default terminal.
2. Open a workspace where the Agent Manager polls PR status.
3. Observe that gh calls from PRStatusPoller no longer flash a console window.

Blocked checks and substitute verification

The local git push pre-push hook runs the full bun turbo typecheck pipeline. The JetBrains typecheck attempted to download Gradle and failed with a network timeout (java.net.SocketTimeoutException: Connect timed out while fetching gradle-9.4.1-bin.zip). This is unrelated to the kilo-vscode changes. Substitute verification:

• bun turbo typecheck --filter='!@kilocode/kilo-jetbrains' completed successfully (28 tasks, all type checks passed).
• bun run typecheck in packages/kilo-vscode/ completed successfully.

Checklist

• Issue linked above, or exception explained
• Tests/verification described
• Screenshots/video included for visual changes, or marked N/A
• Changeset considered for user-facing changes
• I personally reviewed the diff and can explain the changes, including any AI-assisted work.

[kilo-code-bot]

SUGGESTION: fs.symlinkSync may fail for Windows contributors running these tests locally

Creating a file symlink on Windows requires Developer Mode or an elevated process (SeCreateSymbolicLinkPrivilege). A contributor on Windows without either will hit EPERM: operation not permitted, symlink here and the whole TZ suite fails before reaching its assertions. CI only runs these tests on Linux, so it won't catch that.

Consider a small fallback, e.g. try { fs.symlinkSync(...) } catch { fs.copyFileSync(process.execPath, path.join(dir, "gh")) }, or skip the suite when symlink creation isn't permitted. The git symlink in the "non-gh commands" test below has the same exposure.

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Reply with @kilocode-bot fix it to have Kilo Code address this issue.

[kilo-code-bot]

Code Review Summary

Status: 1 Issue Found | Recommendation: Address before merge

Overview

Severity	Count
CRITICAL	0
WARNING	0
SUGGESTION	1

Issue Details (click to expand)

SUGGESTION

File	Line	Issue
packages/kilo-vscode/tests/unit/shell-env.test.ts	24	fs.symlinkSync may fail with EPERM for Windows contributors without Developer Mode/elevation; consider a copy fallback or skip

The fix itself is sound: withTzEnv is correctly gated to win32 + gh basename, preserves caller-supplied TZ, all gh spawns route through execWithShellEnv (verified choke point), the cached inferredTz introduces no memory leak, tests exercise real child processes, and the changeset is user-facing.

Fix these issues in Kilo Cloud

Files Reviewed (3 files)

• .changeset/fix-gh-tz-windows-console.md - 0 issues
• packages/kilo-vscode/src/agent-manager/shell-env.ts - 0 issues
• packages/kilo-vscode/tests/unit/shell-env.test.ts - 1 issue

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_{Reviewed by kimi-k3 · Input: 80.8K · Output: 16.7K · Cached: 756.7K}

_{Review guidance: REVIEW.md from base branch main}

[johnnyeric]

Thanks for your contribution! This has been superseded by #12936, so I’m closing this PR. I really appreciate your time and effort. Hope to see more from you!