The blocker on this issue was whether BCC or the client does the expanding.
Answer, from Anthropic's docs: Claude Code expands ${VAR} and
${VAR:-default} itself, in command, args, env, url and headers, for both
project .mcp.json and user-scope ~/.claude.json. Claude Desktop has no
documented support.
So this is a per-client capability, not a global one, and BCC does NOT
expand on write: resolving a reference into the file would put the secret
back on disk -- the whole thing the user is avoiding -- and would defeat a
feature the client already implements correctly. BCC authors, validates and
warns; expand_env_refs exists to preview what the client will do.
Semantics mirror the documented ones exactly, including the unusual bit:
an unset variable with no default is left as literal ${VAR} text rather
than blanked, because that is what Claude Code passes through.
Gating uses the existing profile_targets_claude_desktop(), so a config that
is correct under Claude Code and broken under Desktop is reported against
whichever profile is actually loaded. The two warnings are worded
differently on purpose -- 'this client will never expand these' is a
different problem from 'this variable looks unset here'.
Two existing behaviours were backwards for this feature and are fixed:
- Secret masking hid placeholders. is_secret_key('API_KEY') is true, so
${API_KEY} rendered as dots -- making a reference indistinguishable from
a stored credential, which is the one distinction that makes the feature
worth adopting. should_mask_value() now skips references, in the table
delegate, _redact_server_data and redact_args alike.
- args_secret_warning fired on placeholders. Moving a token into ${VAR} is
the recommended fix for that warning; continuing to warn punished the
fix. It now skips references while still flagging a real secret that
follows one.
Real secrets are still masked everywhere they were before -- asserted, not
assumed.
Refs #76
Three conflicts, two of them semantic rather than textual:
- bcc.py QSS: this branch added the noticeBanner rules using the old
module-level constants ({MUTED}, {ACCENT}); main had since moved the
stylesheet onto palette slots ({p.muted}). Took main's form and
translated the notice rules into it -- picking either side wholesale
would have either dropped the banner styling or reintroduced globals
that test_stylesheet_builder_has_no_hardcoded_colours now forbids.
- bcc.py methods: both sides appended to MainWindow (update-notice
handlers vs theme handlers). Additive, kept both.
- tests/test_core.py: the usual EOF append. Kept both blocks.
_build_menu_bar auto-merged cleanly (View menu above, Help menu below);
verified both are present with their menu roles intact.
Verified: 272 test functions = 265 (main) + 7 (this branch), no
duplicates; 421 passed, ruff clean.
Union conflict at the end of tests/test_core.py -- both branches appended a
test block. Kept both, main's #72/#73 block first. Verified: 265 test
functions = 238 baseline + 15 (#77) + 12 (theming), no duplicates.
Reported from the field: running v1.2 against a repo with v1.3.0 published
gave no prompt, and there appeared to be no way to check manually. The
checker itself works; it was invisible, for two reasons.
#78 -- the notice was written to the shared status label, which 21 other
call sites rewrite. The check runs off-thread and lands a second or two
after launch, right as the user starts clicking, so the next selection or
refresh wiped it. Exactly the bug fixed for the MSIX warning in #35, which
got a persistent banner; that fix was never carried to the update notice.
Adds NoticeBanner: a persistent, dismissible notice carrying its own action
button. It's a shared widget rather than a second bespoke banner, so the
next thing needing the user's attention doesn't reach for the status bar
again. (The MSIX banner still uses its own QLabel -- migrating it is a
follow-up, deliberately not bundled with a bug fix.)
#79 -- the only 'Check for updates' affordance was a button inside the
About dialog, which is not where anyone looks. Worse, the About action was
created without a menu role, and Qt auto-assigns AboutRole to actions whose
text begins with 'About', relocating it into the macOS application menu --
so the notice's own hint, 'Help > About to view it', pointed at a menu that
on macOS doesn't contain the item.
Help now has its own 'Check for updates...' item with an explicit
ApplicationSpecificRole, and the About action states its AboutRole rather
than inheriting it invisibly. The menu-driven check is never throttled and
always reports back -- the user asked, so silence would read as broken.
The decision and the wording live in core.update_notice() because the test
suite has no PySide6 (CI installs pytest + cryptography only), so anything
in bcc.py is untestable. A test asserts the notice text names no menu path,
which is what went stale here in the first place.
Closes#78Closes#79
BCC has always been dark-only -- BG #1b1d23, hardcoded at import time, with
no light option and no awareness of the desktop's appearance. On a light
desktop it matches nothing else on screen and there was no way to change it.
Adds a Palette value type in bcc_core with DARK (byte-identical to the
colours v1.3.0 shipped) and a new LIGHT, plus resolve_theme(setting,
system_is_dark) so the decision is testable without a Qt app. View > Theme
offers Match system / Light / Dark, persisted in QSettings under ui/theme,
defaulting to following the system.
The light palette's semantic colours are deliberately not the dark ones
lightened: #4ade80 sits near 1.7:1 against white. They are darkened to clear
WCAG AA, and a contrast test enforces >= 4.5:1 for every text colour against
its surface in both palettes so nobody harmonises them back later.
Three near-black literals were baked into the stylesheet (#1a1205 on-accent
text, #202229 disabled table, #16181d diagnostics pane). Fine with one theme,
invisible breakage with two -- each now has a palette slot, and a test
asserts build_stylesheet contains no hex literals at all.
The ~20 inline setStyleSheet(f"color: {MUTED}") call sites are left alone:
apply_palette rebinds the module-level colour names, and an f-string resolves
its names when it runs, so each call site picks up the new colour on its next
render. Switching theme reapplies the global QSS and re-renders the
inline-styled widgets, so nothing is left dark-on-light.
Refs #75
Two silent-failure bugs found auditing the v1.3.0 features.
#72 -- extract_servers called dict() on every server value, so a config
that was valid JSON but held a non-object server ("foo": "oops", a
number, a list, null) raised on load. The strict parse succeeded, so the
repair path never saw it, and the call sat outside the load try/except:
an unhandled traceback with the window half-swapped to the new profile.
It also made the #54 schema lint unreachable for the most likely
hand-edit mistake -- the load died before the linter ran.
Malformed values are now preserved verbatim on ServerEntry.raw (behind a
NO_RAW sentinel, since a literal JSON null is itself a malformed entry
worth keeping) and written back untouched on Save, so nothing is silently
deleted. lint_servers names the offending entry instead.
#73 -- the stale-file "Merge & save" path reloaded the file from disk and
re-applied the user's servers, but apply_servers only writes mcpServers
and _disabledMcpServers. Named server sets live under _bccServerSets in
the same file, so a set saved that session was dropped from disk and then
from memory, with no warning, on the path the user picks because it
sounds like the safe one.
BCC-owned keys are now declared in BCC_OWNED_KEYS and carried across by
carry_owned_keys, which reports genuinely contested keys so the status
line can say so. Deliberately one-directional: a key absent locally is
left alone on disk, because 'user deleted their last set' and 'another
machine just added sets' are indistinguishable and deleting someone
else's data is the worse failure.
Closes#72Closes#73
Sets live in the config under _bccServerSets (bcc-owned, ignored by
Claude, travels with the file). Apply enables exactly the set's members
and parks the rest; vanished members are reported, not fatal. GUI row:
set combo + Apply + Save set… + delete.
Closes#52
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The status bar is rewritten on every action, so the appended MSIX
warning vanished on first interaction. A dedicated warn banner under
the top bar stays visible.
Closes#35
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
- Linux (and any non-desktop platform): refuse instead of 'pkill claude',
which substring-matched running Claude Code CLI sessions and relaunched
the CLI, not a desktop app. New restart_supported() gates the button.
- macOS: wait (<=5s) for the old instance to exit before 'open -a Claude'
so the relaunch can't re-activate the dying process. Runs off the UI
thread via a RestartWorker.
- Windows: verify the Start-menu shortcut exists BEFORE taskkill, so an
MSIX/Store install is never killed without a relaunch path.
Closes#33
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Closing the About dialog mid-check GC'd the dialog and the running
QThread with it -> 'QThread: Destroyed while thread is still running'.
A class-level keepalive set now holds each worker until finished;
stale results to a destroyed receiver are dropped by Qt.
Closes#32
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
- Add a real QMenuBar (Help -> About...).
- AboutDialog: app icon, name, version (core.__version__), and links to the
repo/issues/license opened via QDesktopServices.openUrl (system browser,
never in-app navigation). macOS unsigned-app note.
- "Check for updates" button + UpdateCheckWorker (QThread) runs
core.fetch_latest_release() off the UI thread; shows "up to date" or
"vX.Y.Z available" with a button to open the releases page. No binary
download, ever.
- Optional quiet startup auto-check, throttled to once/day via a QSettings
timestamp, off-thread, silent on failure, toggle lives in the About dialog.
MainWindow._loaded_mtime -> _loaded_stat (core.ConfigStat), populated
via core.config_fingerprint() at load/save time. The save-path stale
check now compares the full fingerprint (mtime AND size) instead of
bare mtime equality.
After a successful save, shows a 'Restart Claude Desktop' button next to
the status line. Only shown when the saved profile targets Claude Desktop
(core.profile_targets_claude_desktop) -- never for Claude Code, which has
no GUI process to bounce. Clicking it calls core.restart_claude_desktop()
and reports success/failure. The button hides again on further edits or
when switching/reloading profiles.
Adds `args_secret_warning(data)` to bcc_core — returns a warning string
when any arg positional value looks like a raw credential (token prefix,
value following a secret-named flag, or URL with embedded user:pass like
postgres://user:pass@host). `--flag=value` inline forms are intentionally
skipped (the flag name already labels the value).
Adds `secret_warn` QLabel in ServerEditor's stdio page; shown/hidden by
`_check_args()` on every field change, and cleared on deselect or
stdio→remote type switch. Non-blocking — save path is not touched.
Closes#1
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Records the file mtime at load time; before write_config() fires, re-checks
it. If it changed (e.g. `claude mcp add`, a second BCC window, or Claude
itself writing ~/.claude.json), StaleDialog prompts with the changed top-level
key names and a masked server-section diff. "Merge & save" applies the user's
in-memory server edits on top of the current on-disk file (preserving external
non-server changes); "Overwrite anyway" proceeds as before.
- bcc_core: config_mtime(), external_change_summary(), _server_sections()
helper extracted from backup_diff for reuse
- bcc.py: StaleDialog, MainWindow._loaded_mtime tracked through load/save
- tests: 7 new tests (config_mtime, external_change_summary variants, AC merge test)
Closes#4
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
The diff preview in RestoreDialog was serializing the full config dict,
exposing secret env values and token args in cleartext on a pasteable surface.
- Add _redact_server_data / _redact_servers_block helpers that apply
redact_args to args and mask env values for is_secret_key() keys
- Rewrite backup_diff to compare only {mcpServers, _disabledMcpServers}
sections (sanitized), not the whole file — also avoids double-serializing
multi-MB ~/.claude.json for a servers-only diff
- Add clarifying comment in _restore_from_backup about why full_config
is the right base after confirm-discard
- Add test: backup_diff with secret args/env → MASK in output, raw values absent
- Add test: restore_backup restores _disabledMcpServers correctly
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Add list_backups / backup_label / backup_diff / restore_backup to bcc_core,
RestoreDialog to bcc.py, and a "Restore…" button in the profile top bar.
Restore is selective: only mcpServers and _disabledMcpServers are replaced;
all other keys in the config (history, project state) are preserved verbatim.
Goes through write_config() so a pre-restore backup is always created first.
Closes#3
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Two bugs caught in supervisor review:
1. Stderr was silently dropped when the Details panel was closed during a
crash. _on_spawn_done appended to diag_text only when the panel was
already open, and refresh_dependency() clobbered that text on the next
field change anyway.
Fix: stash the result in self._last_spawn; _full_diag_text() appends
the stderr section whenever diag text is generated; _on_spawn_done
auto-opens the panel on non-ok outcomes (same pattern as the existing
auto_open for missing commands).
2. _drain stopped reading once _STDERR_CAP (4 KB) was reached. A process
that writes more than 4 KB then blocked on a full pipe buffer, never
exited, and was misclassified as "ok" instead of "crashed".
Fix: drain to EOF unconditionally; keep only the first _STDERR_CAP bytes.
Regression test: 64 KB stderr + exit(3) → outcome "crashed".
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Add spawn_test() to bcc_core — spawns a stdio server for up to 3 s,
captures stderr, and reports ok/exited/crashed/not_found. Key design
decisions driven by real MCP server behaviour:
- stdin=PIPE (never written): servers block on JSON-RPC input and stay
alive, so "still running after timeout" reliably signals a healthy
start. stdin=DEVNULL would send EOF, causing well-behaved servers to
exit 0 and be misclassified as "exited".
- Command resolved via shutil.which(augmented_path()) before Popen so
subprocess PATH resolution is unambiguous across platforms.
- start_new_session=True on POSIX + os.killpg on timeout: kills the
whole process group, not just the launcher (npx, uvx), which would
otherwise orphan the actual node/python grandchild process.
- stdout=DEVNULL: draining a PIPE we don't read would deadlock at ~64 KB.
- stderr drained in a daemon thread, capped at 4 KB.
GUI: SpawnTester(QThread) wraps spawn_test; "Test launch" button in
ServerEditor dep row (stdio only, visible when command resolves ok/warn).
Result colours match the existing dep-status palette (green/amber/red).
Stderr appended to the diagnostics panel if it is open.
7 new unit tests cover all outcomes and the stdin-open regression guard.
Ran python bcc.py locally: button appears for stdio servers whose command
resolves, is hidden for remote servers and missing-command servers.
Closes#2
Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
- Env/header values whose key looks secret (TOKEN, API_KEY, PASSWORD,
AUTH, ...) render as •••••••• via a display-only delegate; a
'Show secrets' toggle reveals them. Underlying data, editing, and
save are untouched.
- The Add dialog switches the value field to password echo when the
key name looks secret.
- Copy-diagnostics now redacts secrets from args (--token <v>,
--api-key=<v>, and well-known token prefixes like ghp_/sk-/xoxb-),
since those reports get pasted into public bug reports. Env and
header values were already omitted from diagnostics.
'-apple-system' is a web convention, not a real font family — Qt scans
every installed font trying to resolve it (the 'Populating font family
aliases' warning at startup). Qt already defaults to the native system
UI font on each platform, so don't name UI fonts at all. The diag
panel's 'SF Mono' (not system-installed on macOS) becomes Menlo.
- Label now explains the model with an example: a flag and its value go
on separate lines. Placeholder shows the common uv pattern.
- split_suspicious_args() flags lines that contain whitespace plus a
dash-prefixed token ('--directory /path') — legit single args with
spaces ('My Documents') are never touched. Quotes are respected.
- The editor shows a warning under the args box with a 'Fix: split onto
separate lines' button; the fix goes through the undo stack.
If a config file on disk fails strict JSON parsing, BCC now runs it
through the same repair pipeline as pasted snippets and shows a dialog
listing the parse error, each fix it would apply, and a preview of the
resulting file. The user chooses: Repair & load (marks the profile
dirty; the file is only rewritten on Save, after the broken original
is backed up) or Cancel. Unsalvageable files keep the old error path.
repair_config_file() in bcc_core never writes to disk itself.
The one-arg-per-line model read as odd text wrapping — a path on its
own line looked like a wrapped continuation of the previous argument.
A line-number gutter makes each argument visibly its own item.
ArgsEdit also owns the NoWrap setting now.
- Cell editors in env/header tables got the global QLineEdit style
(6px vertical padding, 7px radius) crammed into a short row, clipping
the text to an unreadable sliver. Give table editors a compact flat
style and bump default row height to 34px.
- Editor select-all now uses dim-orange/white selection colors inside
cells for contrast against the dark field.
- Arguments box no longer soft-wraps: one arg per line means a wrapped
path looks like two args. Long lines scroll horizontally instead.
Editing a table cell select-alls its text; without an explicit
selection-color the highlighted text rendered near-invisible against
the accent-orange selection background. Applies to all line edits,
text areas, and combo boxes.
the_og
Cowork Supervisor