meshbay.git/packaging/win/electron-builder.msix.yml, branch 0.16

docs: drop the references to design notes that live outside the repo

2026-09-18T23:15:53Z

Seventeen comments across the Windows packaging targets pointed at C:\Users\admin\devel\light-client.md and msix-installer.md -- absolute paths on one developer's machine, unreadable to anyone else who clones this repository and unverifiable by any test here. The surrounding prose already carried the substance in every case, so these are removals, not rewrites, with two exceptions where the pointer was doing real work: electron-builder.msix.yml's header told the reader to go read §4 and §8 first. It now states the fact directly (an AppX/MSIX install never elevates, by design, so the package carries none of installer.nsh's elevation logic) and says the open items are called out at each declaration below -- which they already were, at `capabilities` and `customExtensionsPath`. The two "msix-installer.md §8" citations become "an open item" / "the other open item", beside the description of the item that was already there. Paragraphs the removals left ragged are re-wrapped. Verified: node suite 1403 pass / 4 skip (71 of them test_packaging_win.py), both electron-builder configs still parse as YAML, node --check on main.js. The .ps1 edits are inside <# #> comment headers plus one deleted Write-Host in a block that keeps two others; no pwsh on this machine to parse them. Not touched, and much larger: ~230 comments elsewhere in the codebase cite per-feature design notes (musicbay.md, mediacenter.md, auth-confirm.md and twenty more) that were merged into docs/MESHBAY_DESIGN.md. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5

fix(packaging): three MSIX first-run regressions found by a real sideload

2026-09-12T13:48:22Z

A second-machine sideload of the MSIX target surfaced three things the earlier verification round (which only proved the package installs and runs) had missed: 1. meshbay-node missing from PATH. installer.nsh's customInstall adds node-runtime\ to HKCU\Environment at install time -- an unelevated per-user write, never blocked by MSIX's no-elevation rule, only by the more basic fact that an AppX/MSIX install runs no custom code at all. packaging/win/ensure-node-path.ps1 (idempotent, no admin verb) plus main.js's winEnsureNodeOnPath() do it from the app itself instead, once per launch, shipped to Full and MSIX (not Light, nothing to add there). Verified live via the Node inspector protocol: the entry was in HKCU\Environment\Path after a launch, absent before. 2. A daemon that crashes on startup failed silently. spawnNodeDetached() used stdio: 'ignore', so a real crash reproduced live (a second instance colliding with the first on 127.0.0.1:18000) left waitForNode()'s generic 60s timeout as the only failure ever shown. spawnNodeDetachedWatched() pipes stdio and watches ~2.5s, rejecting immediately with the daemon's own stderr on an early exit; a survivor has its streams released and runs fully detached exactly as before. First version bounded the captured text by line count and a live test showed that cut the actual OSError line -- two uvicorn/asyncio tracebacks followed it in the real capture -- so it is bounded by characters instead. 3. No hint that a startup-mode choice exists. The install-time radio page was the only place this was ever offered, and nothing replaces it now that no install-time page can exist at all. SetupWelcome (the existing first-run banner) grew a conditional hint, shown only while a bundled node is present and neither autostart nor service mode is configured yet. Considered and rejected: linking straight to the Node page -- its route is gated on a linked hub node key, false on the exact fresh-install screen this hint targets, so the link would have been dead on arrival. New key setup.node_startup_hint, added to all ten locale catalogues. test_packaging_win.py gained six tests pinning all three (69 total). Full plan and verification detail: C:\Users\admin\devel\msix-installer.md section 13 (out of repo). Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5

feat(packaging): an MSIX target for Microsoft Store submission

2026-09-11T15:51:51Z

Store certification of the NSIS "MSI/EXE" submission failed on three checks (silent-install verification, Add/Remove Programs entry, bundleware check) -- traced and reproduced live to one cause: SmartScreen blocks an unsigned, internet-downloaded installer at the shell layer before Microsoft's own unattended validation bot ever gets to run it. MSIX sidesteps this class of failure entirely: submitted through the Store's native pipeline, there is no browser-download-then-launch step for SmartScreen to intercept, and Microsoft signs the package itself at publish time -- free, and specific to this submission type (Trusted Signing remains a paid service for the MSI/EXE path). Full plan and findings: C:\Users\admin\devel\msix-installer.md (out of repo). electron-builder.msix.yml carries the same bundle as Full (node runtime, ffmpeg, both service scripts) -- an AppX/MSIX install never elevates, by design, but that changes only *when* the two elevated operations can run, not whether the daemon ships. No main.js changes were needed: the on-demand elevation path for service-mode (winElevateServiceMode(), driven from the Node page) already existed for a different reason and depends only on service-mode.ps1 being present as an extraResource, true for any packaged Windows target. identityName/publisher/publisherDisplayName are the real values from Partner Center's app-identity reservation, not placeholders. build-win-msix.ps1 points electron-builder at the system Windows 10 SDK (auto-detected) instead of letting it download its own bundled copy -- that download's 7z extraction creates symlinks this target never uses and fails without SeCreateSymbolicLinkPrivilege, reproduced on this machine. build/appx/ carries the four tile images the AppX target requires regardless of showNameOnTiles, generated once from the existing app icon (see that directory's README) since the system-SDK redirect has no vendor samples to fall back to. build/appx-extensions.xml declares windows.startupTask by hand rather than via electron-builder's addAutoLaunchExtension, which always targets the Electron shell -- this points at the bundled node binary instead, matching what "starts at sign in" already means for Full. Verified live via a signed sideload install (self-signed test cert, cleaned up after): the package installs and the app runs correctly. One finding worth carrying forward -- the declared network capabilities (internetClientServer, privateNetworkClientServer) do not create any firewall exemption for this app, most likely because automatic capability-based exemption is an AppContainer-sandbox property and this app deliberately runs full-trust, outside any sandbox. Not a regression: no install-time elevation was possible either way, so the cost is the same one-time OS firewall prompt firewall.ps1's own header already documents as its fallback today. Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5