Codeman itself always lived under $HOME; administrator rights were only
spent on what it needs first (system packages for Node.js, tmux and git,
Homebrew on a Mac). An account without those rights could not install it:
the installer died in ensure_sudo, or in Homebrew's own installer.
install.sh now has a no-admin route, taken by itself when the account has
no administrator rights (no sudo binary; outside sudo/wheel/admin and
`sudo -n true` fails; a refused sudo password; a Mac account outside the
admin group with no writable Homebrew) and forced with --no-admin or
CODEMAN_NO_ADMIN=1:
- Node.js: the official tarball from nodejs.org, checked against the
SHASUMS256.txt published beside it, into ~/.codeman/runtime/node.
- tmux: the tmux project's own build (tmux/tmux-builds 3.7c), checked
against a SHA-256 pinned in the installer, into ~/.codeman/runtime/bin.
- Both are linked from ~/.local/bin (never over a file that is not ours),
and the runtime is on PATH and on the LaunchAgent's PATH.
- git is never installed. Without a working git the source comes as an
archive, the install is marked with .install-source, and it updates by
re-running the installer: the new tree is built beside the old one and
swapped in only after the build succeeded. A later re-run on a machine
that has gained git turns it back into a clone.
- Nothing on this route runs sudo, Homebrew or `xcode-select --install`,
and the route is never decided by `sudo -v`.
What it cannot supply is checked before the first download: a C/C++
toolchain on Linux (node-pty 1.1.0 compiles there), musl, and macOS below
15 (the tmux build's deployment target).
Along the way:
- check_git no longer trusts `command -v git`. On a Mac without the Xcode
Command Line Tools /usr/bin/git is a stub that opens Apple's install
dialog; it is judged by `xcode-select -p` and never executed. Any other
git is asked for its version.
- scripts/git-hooks.mjs answers "not a checkout" without running git, for
the same reason: postinstall calls it on every npm install.
- The in-app updater knows the install kind `archive` and points such an
install at the installer instead of `npm i -g aicodeman@latest`.
- download() and download_to_stdout() resolve DOWNLOADER themselves. Only
main() used to set it, so `install.sh cloudflared` died on `set -u` with
the message swallowed by the step log.
- The AI CLI menu leaves out a Homebrew-only install command where there
is no Homebrew.
Verified with the real installer: a bare Ubuntu 24.04 container as an
unprivileged user (install, a PTY round trip through the API, update by
re-run, cloudflared, uninstall), the same without a compiler (stops before
any download), with a broken then working git, with sudo present but not
usable, and on macOS 26 (arm64) in an isolated HOME with sudo, brew, git,
the compilers, launchctl and tailscale replaced by tripwires. Not verified
on a real standard macOS account: that account was an administrator.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>
* fix(self-update): stop a stalled status from blocking every later update
A Homebrew node upgrade under a long-running server deletes the versioned
Cellar path the server passes as --node, so every status write from the
updater failed. The update itself still built and restarted (npm and the
build use node from PATH), but update-status.json stayed "queued" forever.
The boot reconcile ran one minute after the restart, inside its 15 min
window, and isInFlight() had no age limit, so "An update is already in
progress." blocked every later update until the next server restart.
- self-update.sh falls back to node on PATH when --node is not executable.
- expireStalledStatus() (pure) fails an in-flight status whose last write
is older than the stale window; applied on every read (start + status
poll) and persisted. The live updater heartbeats every few seconds, so a
running update never trips it.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
* fix(self-update): a hung graceful shutdown no longer leaves a LaunchDaemon install down
On a KeepAlive LaunchDaemon (headless macOS) the updater restarts by sending
the server SIGTERM and letting launchd respawn it. launchd only respawns once
the process EXITS, and nothing escalates a stuck stop (systemd would SIGKILL
after TimeoutStopSec). Observed after an update to 1.32.1: the server closed
port 3000, server.stop() never resolved, the process stayed alive and the
service stayed down until it was killed by hand.
- cli.ts: the signal handler arms an unref'd 10s timer that force-exits if
server.stop() hangs.
- self-update.sh (launchd-daemon): wait up to 30s for the server pid to exit,
then SIGKILL it. tmux sessions live outside the server and survive.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
---------
Co-authored-by: Codeman maintainer <noreply@anthropic.com>
A KeepAlive system-level LaunchDaemon (the right setup for headless Macs,
where no GUI login means LaunchAgents never start) is now detected as
supervisor 'launchd-daemon': the updater kills the server PID (passed via
--server-pid) and launchd respawns it on the new dist/ — no root needed.
Detection requires the daemon plist to be bootstrapped AND KeepAlive=true.
Also: on boot, a 'completed-needs-manual-restart' status auto-completes
when the running version matches the staged target, so the stale
'restart Codeman to apply' instruction no longer lingers in the UI.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Update Codeman from the web UI: a "Check for updates" button queries GitHub
for the latest tagged release (git ls-remote fallback) and shows release
notes; "Update now" runs git checkout <tag> → npm install → npm run build →
restart, streaming live progress that survives the service restart.
- Release-tag channel; dirty trees auto-stashed (left for manual git stash pop)
- Cross-platform restart: systemd / launchd / manual, detected at runtime
- Updater runs detached (systemd-run --scope on Linux, setsid on macOS) so the
restart it triggers can't kill the build mid-flight
- Build-failure rollback to the pre-update commit; boot reconcile with an
update-id/freshness guard; 409 concurrency lock; runner staged outside the
repo; strict tag validation; CODEMAN_DISABLE_SELF_UPDATE kill-switch
- Endpoints: GET /api/system/update/check, POST /api/system/update,
GET /api/system/update/status
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Codeman maintainer