fix(desktop): converge profile deletion — stop respawn + refresh rail (supersedes #52301, #49335) - #57329
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…vent respawn loop
When the renderer sends a DELETE /api/profiles/{name} request, the IPC
handler tears down the profile's pool backend (or primary backend) via
prepareProfileDeleteRequest. However, the very next line calls
ensureBackend(profile), which spawns a fresh pool backend for the just-
deleted profile. The new backend's startup path calls ensure_hermes_home(),
which recreates the profile directory — defeating the deletion and leaving
the process as a zombie.
On the next Desktop restart the cycle repeats: the profile directory exists,
the Desktop spawns a backend, the backend recreates the directory after
deletion, and PIDs accumulate indefinitely.
Fix: make prepareProfileDeleteRequest return the torn-down profile name.
The IPC handler uses this to route the DELETE to the primary backend
instead of spawning a new pool backend for the deleted profile.
Fixes #52279
This was referenced Jul 2, 2026
OutThisLife
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Aug 17, 2026
Two independent bugs let a deleted profile reappear / leave orphaned resources on next launch: 1. hermes_cli/profiles.py's backend-process scanner required argv[0] to resolve to an executable literally named "hermes". Electron's pool-backend spawn resolves the hermes console-script shim's path and execs it via the interpreter directly (python3 /path/to/hermes ...), so argv[0] reports as "python3" and the scanner never matched the running backend -- delete removed the profile's files but left its live backend process running (still bound to a port via uvicorn), which accumulates across repeated delete/recreate cycles. 2. The desktop sidebar's ProfileRail only refreshed its cached profile list once, on mount, so a delete/create/rename from another surface (another window, or the CLI) left a stale ghost entry until something unrelated triggered a refetch. Note: a delete via this window's own Manage-Profiles view already refreshes the shared $profiles atom ProfileRail subscribes to (confirmed by reading refreshProfiles() and handleConfirmDelete()) -- this fix only covers the cross-window/cross- process staleness gap, not a duplicate of the already-merged #57329's Manage-Profiles rail-refresh work. Fix 1: recognize a python-interpreter argv[0] exec'ing a hermes-named console-script shim via argv[1]. Fix 2: refresh the profile list on window focus/visibilitychange, matching the existing pattern used elsewhere in the sidebar (sidebar/index.tsx, use-background-sync.ts, star-map.tsx, use-gateway-boot.ts all use the same focus+visibilitychange pattern). ## Related work already on main PR #57329 (merged) fixed the *headline* symptom from issue #52279 (deleted profile respawns) via a different, non-overlapping mechanism: routing profile-delete through the primary backend instead of spawning a fresh pool backend, plus a separate recreation guard in ensure_hermes_home() (#49435, merged) that makes a backend spawned into a deleted profile's directory raise FileNotFoundError instead of silently recreating it. This PR is NOT a duplicate of that fix. Verified: even with both of those merged, a backend process that survives because of gap #1 above still holds a bound port via uvicorn -- it just can no longer resurrect the profile directory. That's real resource-hygiene, not a symptom already covered. Gap #2 touches a different file/component (ProfileRail / profile-switcher.tsx) than #57329's rail-refresh half (which touched the Manage-Profiles view's own $profiles.ts / index.tsx) and covers a distinct staleness path (cross-window/cross-process, not same-window delete-then-refresh). Tests: tests/hermes_cli/test_profiles.py -- 156 passed (existing + regression coverage for the argv[0] python-interpreter detection case). Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
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Summary
Consolidates the two Desktop-side halves of the profile-deletion bug (#47368) into one review unit, since they compose into a single behavior — "when a profile is deleted, it actually goes away and stays gone in the UI":
prepareProfileDeleteRequestnow returns the torn-down profile name, and thehermes:apihandler routes that request to the primary backend instead of spawning a fresh pool backend. A freshly spawned pool backend callsensure_hermes_home(), which would recreate the just-deleted profile directory and leave a zombie process. This is the Desktop-side complement to the CLI recreation guard in Prevent deleted profiles from being recreated by stale dashboards #49435.refreshProfiles()helper on$profilesand points the Manage-Profiles view'srefresh()at it, so a deletion updates the shared rail cache instead of only the local list. Preserves the existing list on a failed refresh.Both commits are cherry-picked with original authorship intact.
Why one PR
These are the same language (desktop TS/Electron), the same CI lane, and the same user-visible outcome; they don't overlap in code but they finish each other's job. The CLI root-cause fix (#49435, recreation guard) lands separately — with it, a backend spawned into a deleted profile now exits on
FileNotFoundErrorinstead of resurrecting the tree, and these two changes make the Desktop stop spawning it and reflect the deletion immediately.Supersedes
Closes #52279Closes #49289Part of #47368.
Validation
tsc -p . --noEmit(apps/desktop)node --test electron/profile-delete-respawn.test.cjsvitest run src/store/profile.test.tseslint(all touched files)#49335 was stale against
main(import drift around$profileColors/getProfileSetupCommandand the starmap-cache test block); reconciled during the cherry-pick.Co-authored-by: liuhao1024 sunsky.lau@gmail.com
Co-authored-by: Tranquil-Flow 66773372+Tranquil-Flow@users.noreply.github.com