What causes "terminal restore request was rejected" in Hmbown/CodeWhale?

Retry toggle_pin; transient ShowWindowAsync failures often succeed on a second attempt.

terminal restore request was rejected

Error message

terminal restore request was rejected

What it means

During toggle_pin's un-maximize (restore) step, ShowWindowAsync(hwnd, SW_RESTORE) returned false, meaning Windows rejected the async restore request for the host window. The code bails instead of continuing to move/resize a window that could not be restored.

Solutions

Retry toggle_pin; transient ShowWindowAsync failures often succeed on a second attempt.
Un-maximize the terminal manually before toggling pin, avoiding the restore path.
Check for elevated (admin) vs non-elevated process mismatch — UIPI can block window manipulation of an elevated window.
Verify the host window still exists (hwnd() succeeded here, so re-capture if owner changed).

Defensive patterns

Strategy: retry

Try / catch

match toggle_pin() {
    Err(e) if e.to_string().contains("restore request was rejected") => retry_with_backoff(2),
    other => other?,
}

Prevention

Retry ShowWindowAsync once before failing; rejections are often transient.
Check process integrity levels (elevated vs non-elevated) before manipulating the window.
Avoid toggling while the user is actively resizing/maximizing the terminal.
Offer a manual 'un-maximize first' hint when restore is rejected.

When it happens

Trigger: toggle_pin restoring a maximized window when the Win32 ShowWindowAsync(SW_RESTORE) call returns FALSE — e.g. the window is in a state that cannot be restored or is owned/protected by another process.

Common situations: The terminal is maximized in a way the window manager refuses to undo (fullscreen/secure desktop, elevated vs non-elevated process mismatch); another application holds the window; a race with the user's own window actions.

Understand the failure class

Background: UnsupportedOperationException and "is not supported" errors: when a library deliberately refuses a call — this error's family across 30 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of Hmbown/CodeWhale@73e0f67d83 (2026-09-22). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d8588c94f3f390b3. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at crates/tui/src/tui/window_control.rs:405

        // An unconfirmed request keeps its original target and restore data.
        // The next request restores that window, even if focus has changed.
        let restoring = state.host.is_some();
        let host = state.host.unwrap_or(captured_host);
        if let Err(error) = host.hwnd() {
            // Retire geometry only when the original owner is gone. A failed
            // observation must preserve it for the next restore attempt.
            *state = State::new();
            PINNED.store(false, Ordering::Release);
            return Err(error);
        }
        let before = observe(host)?;
        if !restoring {
            state.host = Some(host);
            state.was_maximized = before.maximized;
            state.saved_rect = Some(before.rect);
            if before.maximized {
                if !unsafe { ShowWindowAsync(host.hwnd()?, SW_RESTORE) }.as_bool() {
                    bail!("terminal restore request was rejected");
                }
                if !wait_for(host, Duration::from_millis(800), |observed| {
                    !observed.maximized
                })? {
                    bail!("terminal restore was not observed before the deadline");
                }
                state.saved_rect = Some(observe(host)?.rect);
            }
        }

        let saved = state
            .saved_rect
            .context("terminal restore geometry is unavailable")?;
        let target = Observation {
            topmost: !restoring,
            maximized: restoring && state.was_maximized,
            rect: if restoring {
                saved

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