fix(update): resolve Windows installer update race; drop dead pip/uv detach

[elkaix]

Summary

Fixes the Windows in-app update showing a spurious "could not close the program, close it and retry" dialog even though the update succeeded.

Root cause: the native installer's Restart Manager scan (CloseApplications) runs at the start of the actual install — after InitializeSetup (confirmed via Inno Setup's Installation Order). It raced the launching pythinker.exe teardown, found the onedir _internal/ DLLs still locked by the not-yet-exited console app (which RM can't gracefully close), and showed the Abort/Retry/Ignore dialog. By the time the user reacted, the launcher had exited and the install completed — hence "scary error, but it updated."

Fix: pass the launcher PID via /PID and wait for that process to fully exit in InitializeSetup (bounded 15s; OpenProcess(SYNCHRONIZE) + WaitForSingleObject) before the scan runs. On timeout or a manual run with no PID, it falls through to today's behavior — strictly no regression. CloseApplications=yes stays, so other open instances are still handled correctly.

Also in this PR

• Remove the now-unreachable Windows pip/uv/pipx detached-upgrade helper. Since every shipped Windows install updates through the native installer (routing in _detect_upgrade_command), the detach only remained reachable for a Windows source checkout — where the running executable is the interpreter, not a file the upgrade replaces, so there's no lock to dodge. That case now runs the upgrade inline like POSIX, surfacing real command output/errors instead of a fire-and-forget process. Deletes _spawn_detached_windows_upgrade and its two tests; the Windows do_update test is rewritten to assert the inline contract.
• Docs housekeeping: drop the stale tracked docs/superpowers/specs/*.md (moved to the now-gitignored docs/archive/).

Verification

• make check-pythinker-code (ruff + format + pyright) — passes.
• tests/ui_and_conv/test_shell_update.py + test_native_update_parity.py — 94 passed.
• The .iss [Code] change cannot be verified on macOS — Inno Setup is Windows-only and the Restart Manager behavior only reproduces on Windows. Full validation needs a Windows build via windows-installer.yml or a manual Windows /update run. Python-side, a unit test asserts the spawn args include /PID=<pid>.

Scope note

This targets the in-app /update path (pythinker hands the installer its PID). A user who manually runs the downloaded installer while pythinker is open has no PID hand-off, and "please close it" is legitimate there.

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Bug Fixes
  • Fixed spurious "could not close the program" error dialog in Windows updates by ensuring proper launcher process termination before installation begins.
  • Improved Windows update flow by running updates inline with visible command output and error messages instead of background operation.

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📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between a6ccd24 and 5634fcf.

📒 Files selected for processing (1)

• tests/ui_and_conv/test_shell_update.py

📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

Removes the _spawn_detached_windows_upgrade helper and its sys.exit call so Windows pip/uv/pipx upgrades run inline. Adds /PID=<current pid> to the Inno Setup invocation, and introduces a WaitForLauncherExit procedure in the installer that uses OpenProcess/WaitForSingleObject/CloseHandle to block up to 15 seconds for pythinker.exe to exit before setup proceeds.

Changes

Windows Update Race Fix and Inline Upgrade

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Remove detached-spawn helper and add /PID installer arg src/pythinker_code/ui/shell/update.py	Deletes _spawn_detached_windows_upgrade and its early-exit call site in do_update; extends _windows_native_installer_args to append /PID=<current pid> with comments describing the Restart Manager synchronization intent.
Inno Setup WinAPI wait for launcher exit packages/windows-installer/installer.iss	Declares OpenProcess, WaitForSingleObject, CloseHandle from kernel32.dll; implements WaitForLauncherExit to parse /PID, open the process, and wait up to 15 seconds; calls it at the top of InitializeSetup before scope-conflict checks.
Test suite updates and changelog tests/ui_and_conv/test_shell_update.py, tests/ui_and_conv/test_native_update_parity.py, CHANGELOG.md, .gitignore	Replaces the detached-upgrade + SystemExit test with an inline-upgrade assertion; removes the _spawn_detached_windows_upgrade command test; updates Inno Setup command expectations to require /PID as the final argument; adds docs/archive/ to .gitignore.

Estimated code review effort

🎯 3 (Moderate) | ⏱️ ~20 minutes

Suggested labels

bug

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 4 | ❌ 1

❌ Failed checks (1 warning)

Check name	Status	Explanation	Resolution
Docstring Coverage	⚠️ Warning	Docstring coverage is 7.14% which is insufficient. The required threshold is 70.00%.	Write docstrings for the functions missing them to satisfy the coverage threshold.

✅ Passed checks (4 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Title check	✅ Passed	Title follows conventional commits format with 'fix' type and clear scope; accurately describes the two main changes: resolving Windows installer race and removing dead Windows detach code.
Description check	✅ Passed	Description covers root cause, fix strategy, related changes, and verification steps; includes all required template sections (Related Issue, Description, Checklist) and is substantive rather than generic.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	Check skipped because no linked issues were found for this pull request.

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✨ Finishing Touches

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create PR with unit tests
• Commit unit tests in branch fix/windows-update-installer-race

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[coderabbitai]

Actionable comments posted: 1

🤖 Prompt for all review comments with AI agents

Verify each finding against current code. Fix only still-valid issues, skip the
rest with a brief reason, keep changes minimal, and validate.

Inline comments:
In `@tests/ui_and_conv/test_shell_update.py`:
- Around line 696-727: The test is overfitting to private implementation details
instead of testing observable public behavior, making it brittle to benign
internal refactors. In tests/ui_and_conv/test_shell_update.py lines 696-727,
reduce mocking of private functions like _get_latest_version,
_update_candidate_unavailable_reason, _is_windows, _detect_upgrade_command, and
_run_upgrade_command. Instead, set up the test context via public inputs
(platform and source-checkout conditions) to naturally drive the code path, and
assert only on observable outputs from the public do_update function. Similarly,
in tests/ui_and_conv/test_native_update_parity.py lines 132-168, keep any
helper-level checks narrow and move the main update flow assertions to test
through the public do_update entrypoint rather than patching internal routing
helpers.

🪄 Autofix (Beta)

Fix all unresolved CodeRabbit comments on this PR:

• Push a commit to this branch (recommended)
• Create a new PR with the fixes

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📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between f21a84a and a6ccd24.

⛔ Files ignored due to path filters (23)

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📒 Files selected for processing (6)

• .gitignore
• CHANGELOG.md
• packages/windows-installer/installer.iss
• src/pythinker_code/ui/shell/update.py
• tests/ui_and_conv/test_native_update_parity.py
• tests/ui_and_conv/test_shell_update.py

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