crash on first usage

[aviadr1]

PS C:\Users\aviad\Documents\GitHub\gigaverse-ai> pipx install llm-context
  installed package llm-context 0.3.2, installed using Python 3.12.8
  These apps are now globally available
    - lc-changed.exe
    - lc-clip-files.exe
    - lc-clip-implementations.exe
    - lc-context.exe
    - lc-init.exe
    - lc-mcp.exe
    - lc-outlines.exe
    - lc-prompt.exe
    - lc-sel-files.exe
    - lc-sel-outlines.exe
    - lc-set-rule.exe
    - lc-version.exe
done! ✨ 🌟 ✨

PS C:\Users\aviad\Documents\GitHub\gigaverse-ai> lc-context
An unexpected error occurred: 'charmap' codec can't encode characters in position 168-169: character maps to <undefined>
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Users\aviad\AppData\Local\pipx\pipx\venvs\llm-context\Lib\site-packages\llm_context\cmd_pipeline.py", line 59, in wrapper
    func(*args, **kwargs)
  File "C:\Users\aviad\AppData\Local\pipx\pipx\venvs\llm-context\Lib\site-packages\llm_context\cmd_pipeline.py", line 47, in wrapper
    result = func(*args, **kwargs)
             ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "C:\Users\aviad\AppData\Local\pipx\pipx\venvs\llm-context\Lib\site-packages\llm_context\cmd_pipeline.py", line 34, in wrapper
    result = func(*args, **kwargs)
             ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "C:\Users\aviad\AppData\Local\pipx\pipx\venvs\llm-context\Lib\site-packages\llm_context\cmd_pipeline.py", line 24, in wrapper
    env = ExecutionEnvironment.create(Path.cwd())
          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "C:\Users\aviad\AppData\Local\pipx\pipx\venvs\llm-context\Lib\site-packages\llm_context\exec_env.py", line 102, in create
    config = ContextSpec.create(project_root, state.file_selection.rule_name, constants)
             ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "C:\Users\aviad\AppData\Local\pipx\pipx\venvs\llm-context\Lib\site-packages\llm_context\context_spec.py", line 22, in create
    ProjectSetup.create(project_layout).initialize()
  File "C:\Users\aviad\AppData\Local\pipx\pipx\venvs\llm-context\Lib\site-packages\llm_context\project_setup.py", line 63, in initialize
    self._update_templates_if_needed()
  File "C:\Users\aviad\AppData\Local\pipx\pipx\venvs\llm-context\Lib\site-packages\llm_context\project_setup.py", line 91, in _update_templates_if_needed
    self._copy_template(template_name, template_path)
  File "C:\Users\aviad\AppData\Local\pipx\pipx\venvs\llm-context\Lib\site-packages\llm_context\project_setup.py", line 129, in _copy_template
    dest_path.write_text(template_content)
  File "C:\Users\aviad\AppData\Roaming\uv\python\cpython-3.12.8-windows-x86_64-none\Lib\pathlib.py", line 1048, in write_text
    return f.write(data)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "C:\Users\aviad\AppData\Roaming\uv\python\cpython-3.12.8-windows-x86_64-none\Lib\encodings\cp1252.py", line 19, in encode
    return codecs.charmap_encode(input,self.errors,encoding_table)[0]
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
UnicodeEncodeError: 'charmap' codec can't encode characters in position 168-169: character maps to <undefined>
PS C:\Users\aviad\Documents\GitHub\gigaverse-ai>

[restlessronin]

@aviadr1 Hmm. I've never seen this before. I notice you installed with pipx instead of uv (as recommended). Offhand that doesn't seem like it should cause a problem. I assume you ran 'lc-init' and 'lc-sel-files' before calling 'lc-context'.

The first thing I would check is if the selected files include non-text (binary) files. many standard binary files (such as image / spreadsheets, etc) are removed by the default gitignore patterns, but by no means all. Look in the '.llm-context/curr_ctx.yaml' file for the actual list of selected files to see if there might be non text files.

[StephanRich]

This worked for me in windows powershell:

$env:PYTHONIOENCODING = "utf-8"
$env:PYTHONUTF8 = "1"

[restlessronin]

@aviadr1 @StephanRich I have incorporated this solution into the repo.

Please let me know if this works for you.

[restlessronin]

@aviadr1 @StephanRich - Another (better) fix for this issue. This is now on pypi as v0.3.4

Please let me know if this works for you. If it does, we can close the issue.

I'm never on windows, so have never seen this issue.