feat(ipcclient): Add clientOnly mode to prevent clients from auto-starting servers and improve registration/reconnect behavior

ts/classes.transports.ts

@@ -18,6 +18,12 @@ export interface IIpcMessageEnvelope<T = any> {
 export interface IIpcTransportOptions {
   /** Unique identifier for this transport */
   id: string;
+  /**
+   * When true, a client transport will NOT auto-start a server when connect()
+   * encounters ECONNREFUSED/ENOENT. Useful for strict client/daemon setups.
+   * Default: false. Can also be overridden by env SMARTIPC_CLIENT_ONLY=1.
+   */
+  clientOnly?: boolean;
   /** Socket path for Unix domain sockets or pipe name for Windows */
   socketPath?: string;
   /** TCP host for network transport */
@@ -195,7 +201,21 @@ export class UnixSocketTransport extends IpcTransport {
 
       this.socket.on('error', (error: any) => {
         if (error.code === 'ECONNREFUSED' || error.code === 'ENOENT') {
-          // No server exists, we should become the server
+          // Determine if we must NOT auto-start server
+          const envVal = process.env.SMARTIPC_CLIENT_ONLY;
+          const envClientOnly = !!envVal && (envVal === '1' || envVal === 'true' || envVal === 'TRUE');
+          const clientOnly = this.options.clientOnly === true || envClientOnly;
+
+          if (clientOnly) {
+            // Reject instead of starting a server to avoid races
+            const reason = error.code || 'UNKNOWN';
+            const err = new Error(`Server not available (${reason}); clientOnly prevents auto-start`);
+            (err as any).code = reason;
+            reject(err);
+            return;
+          }
+
+          // No server exists and clientOnly is false: become the server (back-compat)
           this.socket = null;
           this.startServer(socketPath).then(resolve).catch(reject);
         } else {
@@ -718,4 +738,4 @@ export function createTransport(options: IIpcTransportOptions): IpcTransport {
   } else {
     return new UnixSocketTransport(options);
   }
-}
+}