background process made accessible from menu bar

[niladrix719]

Fixes: #236

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Improvements
  • Automatic recovery/start of the background process when it is missing or destroyed.
  • DevTools synchronization between main and background windows: background window is shown as needed and its DevTools open or close to mirror the main window’s DevTools state.

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[CLAassistant]

All committers have signed the CLA.

[coderabbitai]

Walkthrough

This change updates src/main/main.ts: enableBGWindowDebug is converted from a synchronous function to async and now starts the background process when the background window is missing or destroyed. Background-window handling is modified to synchronize DevTools with the main window: if the main window DevTools are open, the background window DevTools are opened in detached mode; if the main window DevTools are closed, the background window DevTools are closed. An import for startBackgroundProcess was added and toggleDevTools usage was replaced with conditional DevTools management.

Estimated code review effort

🎯 3 (Moderate) | ⏱️ ~20 minutes

Possibly related PRs

• [ONCALL-184] fix: bg-process opens for windows #240: Adds calls to enableBGWindowDebug from menu actions and depends on its signature/behavior changes.

Suggested reviewers

• nsrCodes

Pre-merge checks and finishing touches

✅ Passed checks (5 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title is only partially related to the main change; it mentions menu bar accessibility but omits the core implementation detail of synchronizing DevTools between main and background windows.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	The PR changes implement the core requirement from issue #236 by making the background process debuggable through DevTools synchronization with the main window.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	All changes are directly aligned with issue #236: adding background process startup logic and synchronizing DevTools visibility between main and background windows as required.
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check.

✨ Finishing touches

• 📝 Generate docstrings

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create PR with unit tests
• Post copyable unit tests in a comment

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📜 Recent review details

Configuration used: Organization UI

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Pro

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between a12ae45 and 0f6ce9a.

📒 Files selected for processing (1)

• src/main/main.ts

🧰 Additional context used

🧬 Code graph analysis (1)

src/main/main.ts (1)

src/main/actions/startBackgroundProcess.js (1)

• startBackgroundProcess (25-83)

🔇 Additional comments (3)

src/main/main.ts (3)

41-41: LGTM!

The import is correctly added for the new background process startup functionality.

---

316-327: Previous review issue addressed; DevTools sync logic is correct.

The default value for shouldBeOpen has been fixed from true to false (line 319), ensuring DevTools only open when the main window explicitly has them open.

The synchronization logic correctly:

• Shows the background window (line 317)
• Opens DevTools in detach mode when main window DevTools are open (line 323)
• Closes background DevTools only if they're currently open (line 324-325)

---

306-314: Async callback pattern is acceptable here.

The conversion to async and the defensive startup logic look correct. The startBackgroundProcess function (per relevant snippets) already handles the case where a background window exists, preventing duplicate creation.

At line 333, this async function is passed to MenuBuilder and invoked in menu click handlers (lines 132, 195, 332, 395 in src/main/menu.ts) without awaiting. This fire-and-forget pattern is appropriate because:

1. The try-catch block at lines 308-330 handles errors internally
2. Electron menu click handlers (click: () => void) don't expect return values and shouldn't block the UI
3. The function is self-contained and manages its own lifecycle

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[coderabbitai]

Actionable comments posted: 1

🧹 Nitpick comments (1)

src/main/main.ts (1)

328-330: Consider adding user feedback on error.

The error handling currently only logs to console. If starting the background process fails, the user receives no feedback about why the menu action didn't work. Consider showing a dialog or notification to inform the user of the failure.

💡 Example enhancement

     } catch (error) {
       console.error(error);
+      dialog.showErrorBox(
+        "Background Process Error",
+        "Failed to start background process for debugging. Check logs for details."
+      );
     }

📜 Review details

Configuration used: Organization UI

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Pro

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between cdbeea3 and a12ae45.

📒 Files selected for processing (1)

• src/main/main.ts

🧰 Additional context used

🧬 Code graph analysis (1)

src/main/main.ts (1)

src/main/actions/startBackgroundProcess.js (1)

• startBackgroundProcess (25-83)

🔇 Additional comments (2)

src/main/main.ts (2)

41-41: LGTM! Import is correctly added.

The import follows the existing pattern and is properly used in the enableBGWindowDebug function.

---

306-314: Good implementation of background process initialization.

The async conversion and logic to start the background process when missing or destroyed directly addresses the PR objective of making the background process accessible from the menu bar.

[nsrCodes]

thanks for the contribution, but this was recently fixed in a separate PR that seems to have a more consistent UX