Hide managed Chrome windows on Windows

[JJLiebig]

Summary

• hide ordinary managed Chrome with native SW_HIDE after every isolated-tab setup
• mark native SW_RESTORE transitions so concurrent unattended runs preserve only intentional login/challenge/recovery visibility
• replace repeated DevTools minimize/restore composition transitions without adding settings or browser flags

Root cause

PR #19 changed Windows process brokering and priority, but parking still depended on PR #18's DevTools minimize transition. Live probing with two concurrent leases showed the managed Chrome_WidgetWin_1 window was visible, normal, and uncloaked. A first native-hide attempt also proved that creating a later isolated tab can make the HWND visible again, so each ordinary setup must re-hide it while preserving explicitly restored human-recovery windows.

Validation

• plugin validator
• pnpm run build
• pnpm run lint
• pnpm test (19 files, 281 tests)
• pnpm run format:check
• pnpm pack --dry-run
• Review Suite fast: one verified peer-recovery finding fixed; second round and closure clean. A subsequent live-only HWND re-show finding produced the final native-property delta; the owner explicitly waived a third round to enforce the two-round cap.
• controlled 3-run Windows dogfood on exact head: all three logs reached Clicked send button; all three harvested their exact responses; each setup logged native hide; live HWND probe after concurrent tab creation showed Visible=false, Minimized=false; first completion left two leases and shared Chrome alive; final completion left zero leases and zero managed descendants
• DWM before exact-head run: 2199.4 MB private, 1429.4 MB working set, 4676 handles, 40.8% one core. During: 2186.4 MB, 1405.4 MB, 4684 handles, 27.1%. Settled after without DWM restart: 2197.2 MB, 1419.4 MB, 4691 handles, 45.2%.

Summary by CodeRabbit

• New Features

  • Managed Chrome windows on Windows are now hidden after isolated-tab setup to reduce desktop clutter.
  • Windows automatically reappear when human interaction is needed, including login, recovery, visible challenges, or retained debug sessions.
  • Reattach and relaunch flows now restore Chrome windows more reliably.

• Documentation

  • Updated Windows behavior documentation and changelog notes.

[coderabbitai]

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ℹ️ Recent review info

⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: defaults

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Pro Plus

Run ID: 50a05812-908d-467d-81f1-ec79fafbb1f4

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between b2c5ff5 and 787ee35.

📒 Files selected for processing (6)

• CHANGELOG.md
• docs/windows-work.md
• src/browser/chromeLifecycle.ts
• src/browser/index.ts
• src/browser/reattach.ts
• tests/browser/chromeLifecycle.test.ts

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📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

Managed Windows Chrome now hides ordinary windows after isolated-tab setup. Human authentication, challenge, and recovery flows restore windows through PID-based control, with CDP fallback behavior retained.

Changes

Windows Chrome visibility

Layer / File(s)	Summary
PID-based Chrome visibility control src/browser/chromeLifecycle.ts, tests/browser/chromeLifecycle.test.ts	hideChromeWindow now supports Windows and macOS, accepts injectable dependencies, and returns a success boolean. Shared Windows PowerShell/User32 logic hides or restores matching Chrome windows while preserving human-recovery windows. Tests cover both operations and their commands.
Managed window recovery flow src/browser/index.ts, src/browser/reattach.ts, docs/windows-work.md, CHANGELOG.md	Browser setup, authentication, reattach, and relaunch flows now prefer PID-based restoration and use CDP normalization as fallback. Documentation records minimized-then-hidden startup and the restoration exceptions.

Estimated code review effort: 3 (Moderate) | ~20 minutes

Merge Risk: ⚪ Minimal · up to 787ee

The change hides managed Chrome windows while preserving intentional recovery visibility, with validation and Windows dogfood completed; no actionable merge-blocking risk remains.

Sequence Diagram(s)

sequenceDiagram
  participant BrowserOrchestration
  participant ChromeLifecycle
  participant PowerShellUser32
  participant CDPFallback
  BrowserOrchestration->>ChromeLifecycle: hide managed Chrome by PID
  ChromeLifecycle->>PowerShellUser32: hide matching Chrome windows
  PowerShellUser32-->>ChromeLifecycle: return visibility result
  ChromeLifecycle-->>BrowserOrchestration: return success boolean
  BrowserOrchestration->>ChromeLifecycle: restore Chrome by PID
  ChromeLifecycle->>PowerShellUser32: restore matching Chrome windows
  PowerShellUser32-->>ChromeLifecycle: return restoration result
  BrowserOrchestration->>CDPFallback: normalize target when PID restoration fails

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🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 4 | ❌ 1

❌ Failed checks (1 warning)

Check name	Status	Explanation	Resolution
Docstring Coverage	⚠️ Warning	Docstring coverage is 0.00% which is insufficient. The required threshold is 80.00%. Docstring coverage is scoped to functions touched by this diff. Analyzed 7 functions across 4 files. (2 skipped: 2 …	Write docstrings for the functions missing them to satisfy the coverage threshold.

✅ Passed checks (4 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title clearly and concisely describes the main change: hiding managed Chrome windows on Windows.
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.

Full details: Docstring Coverage

Explanation

Docstring coverage is 0.00% which is insufficient. The required threshold is 80.00%. Docstring coverage is scoped to functions touched by this diff. Analyzed 7 functions across 4 files. (2 skipped: 2 unsupported.)

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✨ Finishing Touches 💡 1

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• Commit unit tests in branch fix/windows-dwm-parking

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