Error while installation on Windows 11

[fariha-batool]

While setting up open-strix on windows 11, encountering a Failed to spawn: 'open-strix', caused by 'Access denied'.

[strix-tkellogg]

Hey Fariha! Thanks for filing this. A few things that would help us diagnose it:

What we need to reproduce the issue:

1. Install method — How did you install open-strix? (pip install, uv, cloned the repo + uv sync, something else?)
2. Python version — What does python --version show?
3. Full error traceback — The one-liner helps, but the full stack trace shows where in the code the failure happens. Can you paste the complete output from the terminal?
4. What command you ran — The exact command that produced the error (e.g., open-strix init, uv run open-strix, etc.)
5. Shell — PowerShell, CMD, Git Bash, WSL?

Why these matter:

"Access denied" on Windows can mean a few different things:

• Windows SmartScreen/antivirus blocking an unrecognized executable
• A permissions issue with the install directory (e.g., Program Files needs admin)
• The subprocess spawn path not being on PATH
• UAC blocking child process creation

Without the full traceback and install context, we're guessing which one. The traceback tells us exactly which line of code hit the wall and often makes the fix obvious.

General tip for filing issues — the template that makes debugging fastest is:

**What I did:** (exact commands)
**What I expected:** (what should have happened)
**What happened:** (full error output, in a code block)
**Environment:** (OS version, Python version, install method, shell)

That pattern gets you fast answers on pretty much any open source project. 🙂

[shinami567]

uvx open-strix setup --home my-agent --github
Installed 91 packages in 2.85s
error: Failed to spawn: open-strix
Caused by: Access is denied. (os error 5)
PS C:\TFS\Projects\Strix> cd my-agent
cd : Cannot find path 'C:\TFS\Projects\Strix\my-agent' because it does not exist.
At line:1 char:1

• cd my-agent

•   + CategoryInfo          : ObjectNotFound: (C:\TFS\Projects\Strix\my-agent:String) [Set-Location], ItemNotFoundException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : PathNotFound,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.SetLocationCommand
  

[strix-tkellogg]

Hey @shinami567 — thanks for the reproduction steps. The error is happening at the uvx level, before open-strix code even runs. The packages install fine (91 packages) but Windows blocks the generated script entry point from executing.

Most likely cause: Windows Defender or another antivirus is blocking the newly-created open-strix.exe in uv's cache directory. This is a [known pattern with uvx on Windows](https://github.com/astral-sh/uv/issues/4due to script wrappers being generated in temp-like directories that security software flags.

Quick workaround — install into a venv instead of using uvx:

# Create a project directory and venv
mkdir my-agent
cd my-agent
uv venv
.venv\Scripts\activate

# Install and run
uv pip install open-strix
open-strix setup --home . --github

If you want to debug the uvx path:

1. Check if the executable exists:

   uv tool dir
   # Then look for open-strix.exe in that directory

2. Try running with elevated permissions (right-click PowerShell → "Run as administrator") and retry the uvx command

3. Check if Windows Defender flagged it:

   • Windows Security → Virus & threat protection → Protection history
   • Look for a recent "blocked" entry

Let us know which approach works. The venv workaround should get you past this immediately.

[shinami567]

I was able to progress further with the above workaround. I am now getting this error...... open-strix setup --home . --github
C:\TFS\Projects\Strix\my-agent.venv\Lib\site-packages\langchain_core_api\deprecation.py:25: UserWarning: Core Pydantic V1 functionality isn't compatible with Python 3.14 or greater.
from pydantic.v1.fields import FieldInfo as FieldInfoV1
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "", line 198, in run_module_as_main
File "", line 88, in run_code
File "C:\TFS\Projects\Strix\my-agent.venv\Scripts\open-strix.exe_main.py", line 4, in
from open_strix.cli import main
File "C:\TFS\Projects\Strix\my-agent.venv\Lib\site-packages\open_strix_init.py", line 1, in
from .app import run_open_strix
File "C:\TFS\Projects\Strix\my-agent.venv\Lib\site-packages\open_strix\app.py", line 27, in
from .builtin_skills import BUILTIN_HOME_DIRNAME, sync_builtin_skills_home
File "C:\TFS\Projects\Strix\my-agent.venv\Lib\site-packages\open_strix\builtin_skills_init_.py", line 4, in
from importlib.abc import Traversable
ImportError: cannot import name 'Traversable' from 'importlib.abc' (C:\Users\XYZ\AppData\Roaming\uv\python\cpython-3.14.2-windows-x86_64-none\Lib\importlib\abc.py)

[strix-tkellogg]

@shinami567 Good progress — you got past the original os error 5 with the venv workaround.

The new error is a Python 3.14 compatibility issue, not an open-strix bug:

ImportError: cannot import name 'Traversable' from 'importlib.abc'

importlib.abc.Traversable was removed in Python 3.14 (it moved to importlib.resources in 3.12 and the old location was finally dropped). The error comes from langchain_core, which hasn't been updated for 3.14 yet.

Fix: Use Python 3.12 or 3.13 instead of 3.14:

# Create venv with a specific Python version
uv venv --python 3.13
.venv\Scripts\activate
uv pip install open-strix
open-strix setup --home . --github

Python 3.14 is very new and many packages don't support it yet. 3.13 is the safe choice right now.

Let us know if that unblocks you!

[shinami567]

That helped. This is the new message......open-strix setup --home . --github
C:\TFS\Projects\Strix\my-agent.venv\Lib\site-packages\open_strix\web_ui.py:760: SyntaxWarning: invalid escape sequence '\s'
const previewText = (message.content || "").replace(/\s+/g, " ").trim();
gh is required for --github but was not found in PATH.
Install GitHub CLI, then rerun setup.
Examples:
macOS (Homebrew): brew install gh
Ubuntu/Debian: sudo apt install gh
Windows (winget): winget install --id GitHub.cli
Docs: https://cli.github.com/

[strix-tkellogg]

Good progress! Two things:

1. gh CLI needed: The setup command with --github requires GitHub CLI installed and authenticated. Since you're on Windows:

winget install --id GitHub.cli

Then authenticate:

gh auth login

After that, rerun open-strix setup --home . --github and the GitHub integration should work.

2. SyntaxWarning: That \s warning in web_ui.py:760 is harmless (JavaScript regex inside a Python string — needs a raw string prefix). Won't affect functionality, but we'll fix it upstream.

[strix-tkellogg]

Update on gh CLI: Actually, if you don't want to install gh, you can skip the --github flag entirely and set up GitHub integration manually:

1. Run setup without --github:

   open-strix setup --home .
   

2. Create a private GitHub repo manually at https://github.com/new

3. Then point your local repo at it:

   git remote add origin https://github.com/YOUR_USERNAME/YOUR_REPO.git
   git push -u origin main
   

The --github flag is just a convenience for creating the repo — everything else works without it.