cookie-picker UI dies mid-flow: parent-PID watchdog kills server ~15s after CLI exits

[karolzdebel]

Summary

$B cookie-import-browser opens a picker UI served by the browse server, but the parent-PID watchdog kills that server shortly after the spawning CLI exits. Users interacting with the picker UI hit Failed to fetch on import.

Repro

1. $B cookie-import-browser — picker opens at http://127.0.0.1:<port>/cookie-picker.
2. Interact with the picker UI (scan domains, search, etc.).
3. Click + to import a domain.
4. UI shows Import failed for <domain>: Failed to fetch.

Root cause

Two patches landed close together and their interaction wasn't exercised:

• Parent-PID watchdog added in browse/src/server.ts:753-768 (commit 03973c2f, fix: community security wave — 8 PRs, 4 contributors (v0.15.13.0) #847, v0.15.13.0). Polls BROWSE_PARENT_PID every 15s and calls shutdown() when the parent is gone.
• cli.ts:229 always sets BROWSE_PARENT_PID = String(process.pid) — i.e., the CLI's own pid. The CLI exits as soon as cookie-import-browser returns the picker URL, so the next watchdog tick kills the server.
• The picker UI's subsequent fetch() calls then fail. The 30-min IDLE_TIMEOUT_MS never gets a chance to apply.

The watchdog polls every 15s, so the kill fires 0–15s after the CLI exits. Any picker interaction past that point fails. Likely slipped past testing because a fast click-through (import the first domain in the initial list) can land before the first tick; real use (scanning domains, searching) gives it time to fire.

Proposed fix (by Claude Code)

Let the watchdog skip shutdown while the picker has unexpired codes or sessions. Two-file change:

browse/src/cookie-picker-routes.ts — export state check:

export function hasActivePicker(): boolean {
  const now = Date.now();
  for (const [code, expiry] of pendingCodes) {
    if (expiry > now) return true;
    pendingCodes.delete(code);
  }
  for (const [session, expiry] of validSessions) {
    if (expiry > now) return true;
    validSessions.delete(session);
  }
  return false;
}

browse/src/server.ts — consult it in the watchdog:

} catch {
  if (hasActivePicker()) return;
  console.log(`[browse] Parent process ${BROWSE_PARENT_PID} exited, shutting down`);
  shutdown();
}

Bounded by the existing 1-hour SESSION_TTL_MS, so orphan risk on Windows stays small. Tested locally: server stays up for the picker flow, shuts down normally after session expiry.

[garrytan]

Closing — fixed on main. Same root cause as #943 and #1006. The parent-process watchdog is now disabled in headed/connect/cookie-picker mode.