[omercangumus]

What

squad watch's PidTracker now cross-checks a live process's real OS start time against the tracked spawnedAt before killing it in cleanup()/cleanupStale(), instead of trusting a bare PID number.

Why

Fixes #1641

isAlive() is process.kill(pid, 0) and killTree() kills by PID alone — name/spawnedAt were only ever used in the post-kill log line, never checked before the kill. If watch dies without cleaning up .watch-pids and the OS reassigns that PID to something unrelated before the next cleanupStale() run, the tracker kills whatever now owns that number. Repro is in the issue: a .watch-pids entry claiming a month-old spawn gets killed against a process that actually started 90 seconds ago, no contradiction check anywhere in the path.

How

• getProcessStartTime(pid): looks up the OS's real start time for a PID — wmic process where ProcessId=X get CreationDate on Windows (parses the CIM_DATETIME UTC-offset field properly, not just the local wall-clock digits), ps -o lstart= -p X elsewhere. Returns null if it can't be determined.
• matchesTrackedIdentity(proc): compares that against proc.spawnedAt with a 5-minute tolerance (spawn/scheduling delay, not the minutes-to-months drift a real PID reuse produces). Fails open (returns true) when the start time can't be determined, so normal cleanup isn't blocked when wmic/ps aren't available.
• cleanup() and cleanupStale(): both call the check right before killTree(); on mismatch they log a warning and skip the kill instead of proceeding.

Testing

Added a identity check (#1641) block to the existing test/cli/watch-pid-tracker.test.ts suite, same mock style as the rest of the file (execFileSync mocked at module level, process.kill spied per-test):

• skips the kill when the OS start time contradicts the tracked record (recreates the issue's exact repro numbers)
• still kills when the start times line up within tolerance
• still kills when the start time can't be determined at all (fail-open, matches prior behavior for anyone without wmic/ps)
• parses a real Windows wmic CreationDate response and a real POSIX ps -o lstart= response into the correct UTC instant

npx vitest run test/cli/watch-pid-tracker.test.ts
 Test Files  1 passed (1)
      Tests  16 passed (16)

Ran the broader watch suite too — test/cli/watch.test.ts hit its known cold dynamic-import 5s timeout (3 tests), confirmed pre-existing by rerunning the same file with --testTimeout=20000, all 6 pass. Not caused by this change; same quirk documented on prior PRs against this repo.

cd packages/squad-sdk && npm run build then cd packages/squad-cli && npm run build (both package-local, no root prebuild churn) — clean, tsc --noEmit -p packages/squad-cli/tsconfig.json clean. eslint on both changed files: 0 errors, 12 warnings, all n/no-sync/no-console on the same categories the file already triggered before this change (execFileSync, console.log) — no new warning categories.

Diff hygiene: git diff vs git diff -w identical, git diff --check clean — hit the usual CRLF drift on this box (working copy silently went CRLF on both edited files despite LF-committed blobs), normalized back to LF and reverified against git show HEAD:<path> before staging.

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⚠️ Quick Check

• Changeset added: .changeset/1641-pid-tracker-identity-check.md (patch @bradygaster/squad-cli)

PR Readiness Checklist

Branch & Commit

• Branch created from dev (upstream, fresh fetch)
• Branch is up to date with dev
• Verified diff contains only intended changes (1 source + 1 test file + changeset)
• PR is not in draft mode
• Commit history is clean (single commit)

Build & Test

• npm run build (per-package) passes
• npm test — targeted suite 16/16; broader watch suite checked, only the known pre-existing cold-start timeout
• tsc --noEmit clean
• eslint — 0 errors, pre-existing warning categories only

Changeset

• Changeset added (cli patch)

Docs

• N/A — internal behavior fix, no public CLI surface changed

Exports

• N/A — no new modules or exports

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Breaking Changes

None. matchesTrackedIdentity is additive and private; the only externally visible change is that a kill can now be skipped (with a logged warning) in the specific case where the live process contradicts the tracked record.

Waivers

None.

[github-actions]

🛫 PR Readiness Check

ℹ️ This comment updates on each push. Last checked: commit a9323df

PR Scope: 📦🔧 Mixed (product + infrastructure)

⚠️ 3 item(s) to address before review

Status	Check	Details
❌	Single commit	2 commits — consider squashing before review
✅	Not in draft	Ready for review
✅	Branch up to date	Up to date with dev
❌	Copilot review	No Copilot review yet — it may still be processing
✅	Changeset present	Changeset file found
✅	Scope clean	No .squad/ or docs/proposals/ files
✅	No merge conflicts	No merge conflicts
✅	Copilot threads resolved	No Copilot review threads
❌	CI passing	9 check(s) still running

Files Changed (3 files, +176 −0)

File	+/−
.changeset/1641-pid-tracker-identity-check.md	+5 −0
packages/squad-cli/src/cli/commands/watch/pid-tracker.ts	+62 −0
test/cli/watch-pid-tracker.test.ts	+109 −0

Total: +176 −0

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This check runs automatically on every push. Fix any ❌ items and push again.
See CONTRIBUTING.md and PR Requirements for details.

[github-actions]

🟡 Impact Analysis — PR #1665

Risk tier: 🟡 MEDIUM

📊 Summary

Metric	Count
Files changed	3
Files added	1
Files modified	2
Files deleted	0
Modules touched	3

🎯 Risk Factors

• 3 files changed (≤5 → LOW)
• 3 modules touched (2-4 → MEDIUM)

📦 Modules Affected

root (1 file)

• .changeset/1641-pid-tracker-identity-check.md

squad-cli (1 file)

• packages/squad-cli/src/cli/commands/watch/pid-tracker.ts

tests (1 file)

• test/cli/watch-pid-tracker.test.ts

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This report is generated automatically for every PR. See #733 for details.

[omercangumus]

the one CI test failure is pre-existing, unrelated to this PR — test/cli/upgrade.test.ts > ensureCastingDefaults scaffolds registry.json, policy.json, history.json expects casting_policy_version: '1.1' but the template's on 1.2 now (bumped in #1643). that's #1661, already filed. this branch's diff is 3 files (pid-tracker.ts, its test, changeset) — nothing touches casting templates, and the version bump predates this branch on dev.

[github-actions]

👋 Friendly nudge — this PR has had no activity for 8 days.

What needs attention:

• 🔴 1 CI check(s) failing: test. Fix these first.
• 👀 No approving reviews yet. Request a review from a teammate.
• ⬇️ 83 commits behind dev. Rebase to pick up latest changes.

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If this PR is abandoned, please close it. If it's blocked on something external, leave a comment so the team knows.
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