Review of PR #38

“Programs Obeya starts on Windows run without a window, so git no longer flashes terminals and steals the focus”, by Juri Wolf. One commit, 5 files, +61 / −2.

Verdict: good to merge. The fix is small, sits in one place and does what it says. Two small points remain (below); neither blocks the merge.

What the PR does

On Windows, an Obeya started without a console window of its own (a scratch Obeya, or one started without a terminal) opened a new console window for every program it ran. With Windows Terminal as the default terminal, every git call flashed a window that took the keyboard focus, several times a second while agents were working. Now Obeya starts every program hidden by default. Programs that are meant to be seen (Explorer, the terminal for a login) still open a window.

Contributor's demo: the demo video on their page (36 Terminal windows in 5 minutes before the fix, none after).

What was checked

Merged onto the current main without conflicts. Typecheck is clean, and all 1735 tests pass.
The diff contains only this change, nothing unrelated.
Bun's node-compatible process functions go through the same hidden-by-default path, but they say explicitly whether a window should show. So programs meant to be visible (Explorer, a login terminal) stay visible. Verified with a probe on Bun 1.4.3.
The agents' Claude Code processes and the remote-session ssh start hidden. No part of Obeya starts a program before the default is set.
It works with Obeya's stall monitor, which also wraps program starts.
Codex reviewed it as a second reviewer and found the same two points, nothing more.
Not tested on Windows here (no Windows machine). The contributor measured it on a real Windows desktop.

Open points

minorVoice installation and voice samples still open console windows on Windows.

Installing the narration voice from the settings, and playing a voice sample there, run uv/Python without the hide flag (plugin/skills/demo/lib/voices.ts, its exec). Each of these steps opens a console window for a few seconds to minutes. This happens rarely, not several times a second like git, but the PR says every program runs without a window. The fix is one option: windowsHide: true.

nitThe design-doc paragraph doesn't follow the doc conventions.

The new paragraph in docs/design/running-obeya.md describes the old behaviour in the past tense and puts the decision (a default for all calls rather than an option on each call, 2026-11-01) in the running text. By the repo's rules, the description stays in the present tense, and the decision goes in the chapter's Decisions list.