Without shell:true, execFileSync('npm', ...) on Windows fails with
ENOENT because npm is distributed as npm.cmd, not as a literal 'npm'
binary. The silent try/catch swallows the error, latest stays null,
update_available becomes null, and the statusline never shows
"⬆ /gsd-update" — Windows users miss every release.
Adding shell:true makes execFileSync route through cmd.exe which
resolves npm.cmd via PATHEXT, identical behavior on POSIX.
Repro on Windows:
$env:GSD_CACHE_FILE = "$env:USERPROFILE\.cache\gsd\gsd-update-check.json"
node ~\.claude\hooks\gsd-check-update-worker.js
Get-Content "$env:USERPROFILE\.cache\gsd\gsd-update-check.json"
Before: {"update_available":null,"installed":"1.40.0","latest":"unknown",...}
After: {"update_available":false,"installed":"1.40.0","latest":"1.40.0",...}