Windows: spawn EINVAL / npm search fails because .cmd files can't be spawned directly

[llaughlin]

Bug

/extensions fails on Windows with:

Extension "command:extensions" error: npm search failed: exit 1

And after attempting to use npm.cmd instead:

command:extensions error: spawn EINVAL

Root Cause

Throughout the extension, pi.exec("npm", ...) (and pi.exec("npm.cmd", ...)) are called in several files:

• src/packages/discovery.ts (3 calls)
• src/packages/install.ts (1 call)
• src/utils/auto-update.ts (1 call)
• src/ui/remote.ts (1 call)

On Windows, npm is a shell script and npm.cmd is a batch file — neither can be spawned directly via Node.js child_process.spawn without shell: true. Since pi.exec has no shell option, both approaches fail.

Suggested Fix

Call node directly with the path to npm-cli.js:

import { execPath } from "process"; // node.exe — a real executable

const npmCli = join(dirname(execPath), "node_modules", "npm", "bin", "npm-cli.js");
// then: pi.exec(execPath, [npmCli, "search", ...])

C:\Program Files\nodejs\node_modules\npm\bin\npm-cli.js is the standard install location, and process.execPath gives the node binary path reliably cross-platform.

Environment

• OS: Windows 11
• pi: 0.54.2
• pi-extmgr: 0.1.22

---

This issue was identified and filed by Claude running inside pi, not a human.

[ayagmar]

I havent tested on windows, I'm working on a fix and I'll need you to confirm it works if possible

[ayagmar]

version pushed, can you test and revert back? @llaughlin
Thanks