From 88ad13ee7ba7957a6d1756e994b707d6f7402e2a Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Tam Nhu Tran <kaitran.ntt@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2026 07:17:03 +0700
Subject: [PATCH] fix(cursor): kill orphaned daemon on timeout and fix exit
 codes
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MEDIUM fixes:
- Kill orphaned process when health check times out after 30s
- Prevents zombie processes from consuming resources

LOW fixes:
- Return exit code 1 for unknown cursor subcommands (was 0)
- Simplify exit handler dead code branch (else if code !== null → else)
---
 src/commands/cursor-command.ts |  3 ++-
 src/cursor/cursor-daemon.ts    | 10 +++++++++-
 2 files changed, 11 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/src/commands/cursor-command.ts b/src/commands/cursor-command.ts
index 2385a3be..99cd7551 100644
--- a/src/commands/cursor-command.ts
+++ b/src/commands/cursor-command.ts
@@ -48,7 +48,8 @@ export async function handleCursorCommand(args: string[]): Promise<number> {
     default:
       console.error(fail(`Unknown subcommand: ${subcommand}`));
       console.error('');
-      return handleHelp();
+      handleHelp();
+      return 1;
   }
 }
 
diff --git a/src/cursor/cursor-daemon.ts b/src/cursor/cursor-daemon.ts
index 0f016677..07243a4d 100644
--- a/src/cursor/cursor-daemon.ts
+++ b/src/cursor/cursor-daemon.ts
@@ -205,6 +205,14 @@ export async function startDaemon(
         if (await isDaemonRunning(config.port)) {
           safeResolve({ success: true, pid: proc.pid });
         } else if (attempts >= maxAttempts) {
+          // Kill orphaned process
+          if (proc.pid) {
+            try {
+              process.kill(proc.pid, 'SIGTERM');
+            } catch {
+              /* already dead */
+            }
+          }
           safeResolve({
             success: false,
             error: 'Daemon did not start within 30 seconds',
@@ -230,7 +238,7 @@ export async function startDaemon(
             success: false,
             error: 'Daemon process exited unexpectedly with code 0',
           });
-        } else if (code !== null) {
+        } else {
           safeResolve({
             success: false,
             error: `Daemon process exited with code ${code}`,