fix(coding-agent): handle clipboard helper failures

[sethkarten]

Summary

• replace shell-string clipboard calls with fixed argument vectors and shell: false, while keeping clipboard text on stdin
• treat platform helper exit status as authoritative and preserve the Linux fallback order
• await wl-copy success, detach it from the CLI lifetime, and force a bounded failure result even if a killed child never emits close
• retain late error handling while preventing post-settlement writes or duplicate completion

Behavior

Clipboard text already traveled through stdin, so this is not an injection fix. The change removes unnecessary shell parsing and fixes lifecycle/error ownership: failed, signaled, or hung Wayland helpers now fall back to X11 or OSC 52 instead of being assumed successful or holding the CLI open.

Validation

• npx tsx ../../node_modules/vitest/dist/cli.js --run test/clipboard.test.ts from packages/coding-agent — 10 passed
• npm run check
• git diff --check

Behavioral coverage includes native and synchronous helper success, fixed argv/stdin X11 fallback, Wayland launch failure, clean success, nonzero exit fallback, child unref ownership, and a timeout that settles without any close event.

Provenance

Extracted from independently authored commits a3ba5dba6e8c280caa20cdca88f057810c35bb1a and 16f5e83cc04bfdb465494f82f0e82006aa829c2c in #1159. Kernel/RLM cancellation remains separate.

Review focus

Please verify fixed argv/stdin data flow, child and timer ownership, late-event safety, and fallback ordering across Wayland, X11, and OSC 52.

---

Note

Medium Risk
Touches process spawning for clipboard helpers (including auth URL copy). Safer argv/stdin usage, but Wayland copies now wait up to 5s and may fall back more often.

Overview
Stops treating a launched wl-copy as a successful copy. Failed, signaled, or hung Wayland helpers now time out (5s), get killed, and fall back to X11 (xclip/xsel) or OSC 52 instead of holding the CLI open or reporting a false success.

Platform clipboard tools (pbcopy, clip, termux-clipboard-set, xclip, xsel) now run via spawnSync with shell: false and stdin-only payload, and success is based on exit status rather than “did not throw”.

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Note

Fix copyToClipboard to handle unresponsive or failing Wayland clipboard helper

• copyToWaylandClipboard now spawns wl-copy with shell disabled, writes text via stdin, and waits for a clean exit (code 0, null signal) before reporting success.
• A 5-second timeout kills the process and resolves false if wl-copy is unresponsive, preventing a silent false-positive.
• On Wayland, failed wl-copy attempts now fall back to X11 tools (xclip/xsel) or OSC 52, instead of continuing as if the copy succeeded.
• All platform clipboard tool invocations (pbcopy, clip, termux-clipboard-set, xclip, xsel) are switched from execSync to spawnSync with shell: false and stdin-only input.
• Behavioral Change: clipboard operations that previously reported success on wl-copy launch (without waiting for completion) will now wait up to 5s and may fall back to X11 or OSC 52.

^{Macroscope summarized ef97087.}

[Apocrathia]

@codex review

[chatgpt-codex-connector]

Codex Review: Didn't find any major issues. Already looking forward to the next diff.

Reviewed commit: 64744d9975

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[Apocrathia]

no injection to fix here, text always went through stdin. retitle and add a changelog?

[jonaowen]

The exact-head change closes both unsafe shell interpolation and the unowned wl-copy lifecycle: fixed argv with shell:false, bounded synchronous fallbacks, async spawn/error/stdin/exit observation, forced timeout kill, and success only after terminal status. The tests gate hostile stdin, async launch failure, nonzero exit, timeout kill, and fallback ordering. I found no blocker at 64744d9975a6e4174f20b8e644b7cecc3cf8478e.

[cursor]

Cursor Bugbot has reviewed your changes and found 1 potential issue.

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[cursor]

Ceremonial timeout parameter never varies

Low Severity

copyToWaylandClipboard takes timeoutMs with a default of 5000, but its only call site never passes a timeout, so that parameter has a single legal value. That is ceremony rather than configuration.

 

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