windows-testing

name	windows-testing
description	SSH into the Windows 11 ARM64 test VM for PowerShell-based checks (e.g. gitlab-lsp Windows regression tests). Manual-invoke only.
disable-model-invocation	true

Windows VM testing

Personal skill for driving the Windows 11 ARM64 test VM (UTM/Parallels) from macOS over SSH. The VM runs OpenSSH Server with PowerShell as the default remote shell. It's typically used for gitlab-lsp Windows regression checks (e.g. the MCP SDK upgrade windowsHide test in ~/workspace/test/test-mcp/windows/).

Connect

ssh <vm-user>@<vm-ip>          # interactive PowerShell
ssh -t <vm-user>@<vm-ip>       # allocate TTY (required for TUIs like duo)
ssh <vm-user>@<vm-ip> 'powershell-command'   # one-shot command

Check reachability with ssh or Test-NetConnection -Port 22 — not ping: Windows Firewall blocks ICMP by default even when TCP/22 is open.

If the VM's IP/hostname or user isn't known, ask the user — it varies per machine and isn't stored in this skill.

Typical flow

1. SSH in, cd to the checkout (e.g. C:\Users\<user>\workspace\test-mcp).
2. Run the automated PowerShell script (e.g. .\windows\mcp-test.ps1).
3. For interactive TUI checks, reconnect with ssh -t and run duo's non-interactive one-shot mode (PowerShell stdin into a TUI is unreliable — prefer duo run -g "..." over interactive sessions).

Copying build artifacts

Native Windows builds often fail on unrelated toolchain issues. The standard workaround is to build on macOS and scp the artifacts in:

scp <files> <vm-user>@<vm-ip>:C:/Users/<vm-user>/AppData/Local/Temp/...

Forward slashes work in scp destinations even on Windows.

Quirks

• Default remote shell is PowerShell (set via HKLM:\SOFTWARE\OpenSSH\DefaultShell).
• .ps1 files need a UTF-8 BOM or they're read as ANSI by PowerShell 5.1.
• .gitattributes in test repos forces CRLF for *.ps1 — run git add --renormalize . if a script suddenly fails to parse.
• ICMP is blocked by the Windows Firewall; use TCP-based reachability checks.

Setting up SSH on a fresh VM

See references/windows-ssh-setup.md for the one-time OpenSSH Server + key-auth + default-shell configuration on the Windows VM, plus the matching macOS ~/.ssh/config entry.