# NousResearch/hermes-agent · Windows MCP child process orphan leak fix

## Open now

- Nothing open on GitHub.

On Windows, the parent-death watchdog that kills MCP stdio child processes was a POSIX-only no-op, causing orphaned node.exe processes to accumulate across session restarts. A fix extends the watchdog mechanism to cover Windows.

## TL;DR

- 5 member(s): 0 open issue(s), 2 closed issue(s), 0 open PR(s), 2 merged PR(s), 1 PR(s) closed without merging.
- A fix was merged to main in PR #101598. Verify it addresses your case.
- **Recommended:** read PR #101598 (and any competing PRs below) before filing. Confirm the merged change covers your symptom.

## Maintainer resolution verdict

- Internal-tracker verdict over this cluster's issue members: `partially_resolved` · deciding PR(s): `pr-123003`. This is distinct from the fix status above. Weigh it yourself.

## How this cluster was grouped

- Link evidence (`STRUCTURAL_PARTIAL`): some members are connected by structural evidence (shared changed files, or a closing/superseded reference); the rest are joined by an automated relevance judgement over their text.
- Members outside that structural core may belong to a different underlying problem.
- Pairwise link density `0.34`: the share of member pairs that carry a link, counting a structural link in full and a relevance-only link at 0.36. `1.00` means every pair is linked.

## Closed / duplicate issues

- #61059: Windows Desktop: MCP node.exe orphan accumulation across session restarts (40+ processes, 1.6GB, 228 event loop stalls)
- #63675: Windows: MCP stdio children (gbrain serve) leak across sessions — watchdog is POSIX-only no-op

## Prior & competing PRs

- **#101598: perf(mcp): one parent-death supervisor per process instead of one per stdio server (salvage #93517)**. merged to main · fix tier `verified`
  - maintainer direction: category `merged`; implication `superseded`
  - files: `tests/tools/test_mcp_death_supervisor.py`, `tests/tools/test_mcp_stdio_watchdog.py`, `tools/browser_tool.py`, `tools/mcp_death_supervisor.py`, `tools/mcp_stdio_watchdog.py`, `tools/mcp_tool.py`
- **#123003: fix(mcp): kill Windows stdio MCP orphan trees (Job Object + tree reaping)**. merged to main · fix tier `verified`
  - maintainer direction: category `merged`; implication `superseded`
  - files: `hermes_cli/process_identity.py`, `tests/tools/test_mcp_windows_orphan_fix.py`, `tools/mcp_tool_lifecycle.py`, `tools/mcp_tool_transport.py`
- **#61089: fix(mcp): extend parent-death watchdog to Windows (Fixes #61059)**. closed without merge
  - maintainer direction: category `superseded_by_pr`; implication `superseded`; refs `95fa814269`, `0cd93f0268`, `#101598`, `#61059`, `#61059`

## Fix status

- Merged to main in PR #101598 (cited above). No release data is tracked. Verify downstream.
- Fix last verified (merged) `2026-09-27`.
- Subsystem: `apps/desktop`