On a Mac without the developer tools, /usr/bin/git is a placeholder: running
it, even as `git --version`, makes macOS open its "install the command line
developer tools" window. The server asked "is git here?" exactly that way on
the first page load (isGitAvailable() from renderIndexHtml), so a no-admin
install on such a Mac ended with that window one second after the server
started, and it would have come back at every start. Found on a new MacBook
on 2026-11-06: the system log names the Codeman server as the parent of that
git process.
One gate now stands in front of every git the server starts
(src/utils/git-availability.ts). On macOS it resolves git on the PATH itself;
when that is the placeholder, `xcode-select -p` must name a developer folder
that holds a git of its own. xcode-select only prints and never opens a
window. Without the tools, git counts as absent and is never started: every
caller gets the ENOENT it already answers with "git is not installed".
A refusal is asked again after a minute, so installing the tools later needs
no server restart for the git features, and isGitAvailable() no longer
memoizes that one refusal.
Gated: the clone and worktree runners, the Git panel's status and fetch, the
update check and repository status, and Read My Mind's workspace signals.
test/git-spawn-gate.test.ts covers the decision and scans src/ for a git spawn
in a file that does not call the gate, with the reviewed list of sites pinned.
Checked for real on macOS 27. With the developer tools present (Command
Line Tools on one Mac, Xcode on another) the gate resolves /usr/bin/git,
finds the tools and allows git, in 3 to 5 ms. On a MacBook with no
developer tools, a fresh no-admin install with this fix started the server
and loaded the page with git reported as absent, no window opened, and the
system log holds no request to install the tools; the same install without
the fix logged that request one second after the server started.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>
