Windows auto-refresh appears stale; CLI diagnostics exit 0 with no output

[davidjirovec]

Summary

On Windows, CodexBar does not seem to auto-refresh Codex usage as expected. I tried to collect the requested diagnostics first, but the installed Windows executable exits successfully without printing any output for the documented CLI commands.

Environment

• App: Win-CodexBar / CodexBar Desktop
• Installed executable: C:\Users\David\AppData\Local\Programs\CodexBar\codexbar.exe
• ProductVersion: 0.32.6
• FileVersion: 0.32.6
• ProductName: CodexBar Desktop
• Windows install metadata still shows DisplayName REG_SZ CodexBar 0.23.1, but file metadata and update cache indicate 0.32.6 is installed.
• Latest GitHub release checked: v0.32.7 released 2026-06-08. Its changelog does not appear to mention CLI output or refresh fixes.

Original symptom

Codex usage does not appear to update automatically on Windows. I expected background refresh to update usage according to the configured refresh interval.

Diagnostics attempted first

From WSL, codexbar is not on PATH:

$ codexbar diagnose
bash: line 1: codexbar: command not found

I located the Windows executable and ran it directly:

C:\Users\David\AppData\Local\Programs\CodexBar\codexbar.exe diagnose
C:\Users\David\AppData\Local\Programs\CodexBar\codexbar.exe usage -p codex
C:\Users\David\AppData\Local\Programs\CodexBar\codexbar.exe --help
C:\Users\David\AppData\Local\Programs\CodexBar\codexbar.exe --version

Actual result for all of the above:

exit code: 0
stdout: empty
stderr: empty

I also ran the same commands through a Windows .cmd wrapper with stdout/stderr redirected to files. Both commands exited 0, but the output files were 0 bytes:

diagnose_exit=0
usage_exit=0
diagnose_bytes=0
usage_bytes=0

Expected behavior

• codexbar diagnose should print a redacted diagnostic JSON/report.
• codexbar usage -p codex should print Codex usage or a useful provider error.
• --help / --version should print output when invoked from a shell.
• If the installed desktop executable is not intended to serve as the CLI, the Windows install/release should either ship a console CLI executable or the docs should clarify how Windows users should run the documented CLI diagnostics.

Notes from local inspection

The source repo appears to contain a real Rust CLI entrypoint with diagnose and usage subcommands, while the installed release folder only contains the Tauri desktop executable:

C:\Users\David\AppData\Local\Programs\CodexBar\codexbar.exe
C:\Users\David\AppData\Local\Programs\CodexBar\WebView2Loader.dll
C:\Users\David\AppData\Local\Programs\CodexBar\unins000.exe

The release assets also appear to be installer/portable desktop executables rather than a separate console CLI binary.

[Finesssee]

Thanks for reporting the issue, I will fix this ASAP

[Finesssee]

Fixed in Win-CodexBar v0.32.8:
https://github.com/Finesssee/Win-CodexBar/releases/tag/v0.32.8

This release addresses both parts of the report:

• Provider auto-refresh now runs from the Tauri backend, so it continues even when the tray panel is closed and the floating bar is disabled.
• Installed builds now include codexbar.exe as the real console CLI and codexbar-desktop.exe as the tray app. Start Menu shortcuts launch the tray app, while terminal commands like codexbar --help, codexbar --version, codexbar diagnose, and codexbar usage -p codex use the CLI.

The Windows installer smoke test also now verifies CLI --version and --help output before release.