[Bug] Desktop app hangs on macOS due to interactive shell flag (-i) in sidecar spawn

[kilhyeonjun]

Description

The OpenCode Desktop app (Tauri-based) gets stuck on the "Starting server..." loading screen on macOS. The root cause is the -i (interactive) flag used when spawning the sidecar CLI process.

Root Cause

In packages/desktop/src-tauri/src/lib.rs (around line 134-145), the sidecar is spawned via:

app.shell().command(&shell)
  .args(["-il", "-c", &format!("\"{}\" serve --port={}", sidecar.display(), port)])

The -i flag forces interactive mode, which causes zsh to:

1. Load ~/.zshrc (oh-my-zsh, themes, plugins)
2. Initialize ZLE (Zsh Line Editor) hooks
3. Set up prompt rendering, syntax highlighting, autosuggestions

Since the desktop app has no TTY (it's a GUI process), ZLE-dependent plugins like zsh-syntax-highlighting and zsh-autosuggestions hang indefinitely during initialization — they expect terminal I/O that doesn't exist.

Reproduction

# This works (non-interactive):
zsh -c "/Applications/OpenCode.app/Contents/MacOS/opencode-cli debug config"

# This works (login only, no interactive):
zsh -lc "/Applications/OpenCode.app/Contents/MacOS/opencode-cli debug config"

# This HANGS (interactive + login):
zsh -il -c "/Applications/OpenCode.app/Contents/MacOS/opencode-cli debug config"

Environment

• OS: macOS Sequoia (Apple Silicon)
• OpenCode Desktop: v1.2.13
• Shell: /bin/zsh with oh-my-zsh + zsh-syntax-highlighting + zsh-autosuggestions (extremely common setup)
• Theme: agnoster

Desktop App Logs (failing)

INFO opencode_lib: Initializing app
INFO opencode_lib: Main and loading windows created
INFO opencode_lib: Setting up server connection
INFO opencode_lib::cli: CLI is up to date, skipping sync
← Stops here. Never reaches "Attempting server connection"

Suggested Fix

Change the shell invocation from -il to -lc:

// Before (hangs when user has ZLE plugins):
.args(["-il", "-c", &format!("\"{}\" serve --port={}", sidecar.display(), port)])

// After (login shell for PATH, but no interactive mode):
.args(["-lc", &format!("\"{}\" serve --port={}", sidecar.display(), port)])

The -l (login) flag is sufficient to load ~/.zprofile for PATH setup (Homebrew, nvm, etc.). The -i flag is unnecessary for a non-interactive subprocess and actively harmful in a no-TTY environment.

Related Issues

• Desktop sidecar spawn can time out on macOS with interactive shell startup #13926 — Same symptom (CLOSED, but the -i flag is still present in v1.2.13)
• Desktop app fails to start on Linux/Wayland - 'open terminal failed: not a terminal' #9505 — Linux/Wayland: "open terminal failed: not a terminal" (same root cause)
• Opencode Desktop error with nushell as default shell #8716 — nushell as default shell causes spawn failure (same $SHELL -il -c pattern)
• [GUI - Macos] An error occurred while loading the application #13597 — macOS: "Health check timed out" (same symptom)

Workaround

Users can add TTY guards to their ~/.zshrc to prevent blocking in non-TTY environments:

# Before oh-my-zsh theme/plugin setup:
if [[ -t 0 ]]; then
  plugins=(git zsh-syntax-highlighting zsh-autosuggestions)
else
  plugins=(git)
fi

But this is a workaround — the app should not require users to modify their shell configuration.

[github-actions]

This issue might be a duplicate of existing open issues that share the same root cause (the -il shell invocation pattern). Please check:

• Desktop app fails to start on Linux/Wayland - 'open terminal failed: not a terminal' #9505: Desktop app fails to start on Linux/Wayland ('open terminal failed: not a terminal') — same underlying $SHELL -il -c pattern causing failures in non-TTY environments
• Opencode Desktop error with nushell as default shell #8716: OpenCode Desktop error with nushell as default shell — same $SHELL -il -c spawn pattern causing failures

Note that #13926 (which you referenced) is closed but covers the same macOS-specific symptom. If the fix from that issue didn't fully land in v1.2.13, it may be worth linking this issue directly to that one for tracking.

[Brendonovich]

I think this is a bit tricky as we've had a number of people expect their .zshrc etc to be available to their agents. I'm not sure people are always diligent about separating things into .zshrc and .zprofile, me included.
Appreciate the extra explanation about the different flags.

[Brendonovich]

Alright it seems like this is causing a lot of problems with the desktop hanging, will remove -i one final time then we can direct people to put tools they deem necessary into their shell's non-interactive mode config file like .zprofile.