fix: set the Windows node up at sign-in, and stop it for real

2026-10-07T20:22:51Z

Found by the first Windows beta tester, then reproduced on a clean install. After a service-mode install nothing set the node up for the account that signed in: the boot task started a node that quit ("hub.username not set"), and the sidebar showed Node / Create group only once the hub held a node key. The only way to the wizard that provisions was the home page's welcome card, which an account already in a group never sees. The way out was `meshbay-node init` and the key pasted on the profile page -- which is also what PACKAGING-GUIDE.md told people to do. - main.js `node:ensure`, called by app.js at sign-in: provisions, starts and links the node this build ships (Windows, bundled node only). A node set up for another account, or an account linked to another node, is left alone. node:start waits for it, so the two never race. - The sidebar shows the Node section when a node exists on this machine. - The Node page's status is the node's: its control API and the process list, not the service task's state (a node started from a terminal ran while the page said Stopped). Stop says Stopped only once no meshbay-node.exe is left, and stays offered for a process that answers nothing. - CLI stop kills the pid that answered when a graceful stop does not finish, and fails with the reason when a node process is still there. - The daemon ends its process 3s after _shutdown(): Python's exit waited for a busy indexer thread, with the control API already closed. Armed by main() only, never by a daemon run inside a test. - node.toml is read as utf-8-sig (PowerShell 5.1 writes a BOM), and a config that cannot be read is logged instead of dying silently in service mode. - "Pair this browser" queues the code for the next group of this node to open instead of saying "Paired successfully"; no banner before a group. - test_e2e_windows_app.py (opt-in, MESHBAY_WIN_E2E=1) drives the installed app against a throwaway hub: fresh account to linked node, Stop, Start, Restart, checked against the real processes. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5

meshbay.git/packages/meshbay-node/tests/test_windows_node_lifecycle.py, branch main

fix: set the Windows node up at sign-in, and stop it for real