fix(windows): hide console flash on backend git/gh/pdftoppm spawns the sweep missed

tests/test_windows_subprocess_no_window_flags.py

@@ -300,6 +300,42 @@ def fake_run(cmd, **kwargs):
     assert captured[0][0][0] == "ffmpeg"
     assert captured[0][1]["creationflags"] == _CREATE_NO_WINDOW
 
+def test_checkpoint_manager_git_hides_windows(monkeypatch):
+    from tools import checkpoint_manager
+
+    captured = []
+
+    def fake_run(cmd, **kwargs):
+        captured.append((cmd, kwargs))
+        return _Completed(stdout="clean\n")
+
+    monkeypatch.setattr(checkpoint_manager, "windows_hide_flags", lambda: _CREATE_NO_WINDOW)
+    monkeypatch.setattr(checkpoint_manager.subprocess, "run", fake_run)
+
+    ok, _, _ = checkpoint_manager._run_git(["status", "--short"], Path("C:/store"), ".")
+    assert ok
+    assert captured[0][0][0] == "git"
+    assert captured[0][1]["creationflags"] == _CREATE_NO_WINDOW
+
+
+def test_skills_hub_gh_token_hides_windows(monkeypatch):
+    from tools import skills_hub
+
+    captured = []
+
+    def fake_run(cmd, **kwargs):
+        captured.append((cmd, kwargs))
+        return _Completed(stdout="gho_from_cli\n")
+
+    monkeypatch.setattr(skills_hub, "windows_hide_flags", lambda: _CREATE_NO_WINDOW)
+    monkeypatch.setattr(skills_hub.subprocess, "run", fake_run)
+
+    auth = skills_hub.GitHubAuth.__new__(skills_hub.GitHubAuth)
+    assert auth._try_gh_cli() == "gho_from_cli"
+    assert captured[0][0] == ["gh", "auth", "token"]
+    assert captured[0][1]["creationflags"] == _CREATE_NO_WINDOW
+
+
 def test_tui_slash_worker_hides_python_window(monkeypatch):
     from tui_gateway import server
 

tools/checkpoint_manager.py

@@ -58,6 +58,7 @@
 import time
 from pathlib import Path
 from hermes_constants import get_hermes_home
+from hermes_cli._subprocess_compat import windows_hide_flags
 from typing import Dict, List, Optional, Set, Tuple
 
 from utils import env_int
@@ -321,6 +322,7 @@ def _run_git(
     env = _git_env(store, str(normalized_working_dir), index_file=index_file)
     cmd = ["git"] + list(args)
     allowed_returncodes = allowed_returncodes or set()
+
     try:
         result = subprocess.run(
             cmd,
@@ -330,6 +332,10 @@ def _run_git(
             env=env,
             cwd=str(normalized_working_dir),
             stdin=subprocess.DEVNULL,
+            # Checkpoints fire several bare git calls per turn from the
+            # console-less desktop/gateway backend; suppress the per-call
+            # conhost flash on Windows (no-op on POSIX).
+            creationflags=windows_hide_flags(),
         )
         ok = result.returncode == 0
         stdout = result.stdout.strip()
@@ -450,6 +456,7 @@ def _init_store(store: Path, working_dir: str) -> Optional[str]:
             capture_output=True, text=True,
             env=init_env, timeout=_GIT_TIMEOUT,
             stdin=subprocess.DEVNULL,
+            creationflags=windows_hide_flags(),
         )
         if result.returncode != 0:
             return f"Shadow store init failed: {result.stderr.strip()}"

tools/skills_hub.py

@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@
 from datetime import datetime, timezone
 from pathlib import Path, PurePosixPath
 from hermes_constants import get_hermes_home
+from hermes_cli._subprocess_compat import windows_hide_flags
 from agent.skill_utils import is_excluded_skill_path
 from typing import Any, Dict, List, Optional, Tuple, Union
 from urllib.parse import urljoin, urlparse, urlunparse
@@ -302,6 +303,7 @@ def _try_gh_cli(self) -> Optional[str]:
                 ["gh", "auth", "token"],
                 capture_output=True, text=True, timeout=5,
                 stdin=subprocess.DEVNULL,
+                creationflags=windows_hide_flags(),
             )
             if result.returncode == 0 and result.stdout.strip():
                 return result.stdout.strip()

tui_gateway/server.py

@@ -9126,8 +9126,13 @@ def _(rid, params: dict) -> dict:
             "-f", str(first_page), "-l", str(last_page),
             str(pdf_path), str(out_prefix),
         ]
+        from hermes_cli._subprocess_compat import windows_hide_flags
+
         try:
-            res = subprocess.run(argv, capture_output=True, text=True, timeout=120, stdin=subprocess.DEVNULL)
+            res = subprocess.run(
+                argv, capture_output=True, text=True, timeout=120, stdin=subprocess.DEVNULL,
+                creationflags=windows_hide_flags(),
+            )
         except subprocess.TimeoutExpired:
             return _err(rid, 5028, "pdftoppm timed out (>120s)")
         if res.returncode != 0: