My first two open-source PRs, on Windows, in four days: what broke when I set up Switch and what I learned

Setting up Switch, an open-source platform designed to embed AI coding agents like Claude Code and OpenCode into team chat, presented distinct challenges for a developer working on Windows 11. While the initial setup times were manageable, two minutes for `just up` and 30 seconds for `just run` on Windows, compared to about a minute on Debian, several core functionalities required workarounds specific to the Windows environment.

Key obstacles included `just` recipes, which are bash scripts, failing in PowerShell and necessitating the use of Git Bash. Furthermore, Git for Windows' default `core.autocrlf=true` setting caused CRLF line endings, conflicting with Switch's connector catalog loader that expected LF endings. This required manual Git configuration adjustments or a specific `.gitattributes` fix to ensure proper file parsing.

The agent controller's `npm` package initially lacked `win32` in its platform support list, preventing installation without a `--force` flag. Although this was addressed with a proposed fix and a documented workaround, a persistent issue remained: the Switch Console identified OpenCode as installed, yet its embedded controller reported the CLI as absent, preventing agents from functioning on the Windows machine. This unresolved problem was openly acknowledged in the resulting quickstart guide, underscoring the practical complexities of cross-platform compatibility.