Streamlit blocks on onboarding email prompt when running as Windows service (NSSM)

[NadeemAkhtar1947]

Hi Streamlit team,

I am running a Streamlit app on an on-prem Windows Server as a Windows service using NSSM.

Problem:
When started as a service, Streamlit always blocks on the onboarding email prompt, and the app never opens its port.

stdout shows:

Welcome to Streamlit!
If you'd like to receive helpful onboarding emails...
Email:

stderr shows:

input(): lost sys.stdin

As a result:

• Service shows RUNNING / START_PENDING

• netstat shows no listener

• Browser gets “connection refused”

What I have already tried (all of these):

• headless = true in .streamlit/config.toml

• [browser] gatherUsageStats = false

• Setting env vars via NSSM:

  • STREAMLIT_BROWSER_GATHER_USAGE_STATS=false

  • STREAMLIT_CONFIG_DIR=...

  • STREAMLIT_EMAIL=

• Running with stdin detached (NUL) in NSSM

• Running without stdin (still triggers onboarding)

Running streamlit run app.py manually works fine.
The issue only occurs when running as a Windows service (no interactive stdin).

Questions:

1. Is there an official way to completely disable the onboarding / email prompt for non-interactive service environments?

2. Is this a known issue on Windows services?

3. Is upgrading Streamlit the only supported workaround?

Any guidance for production Windows service deployments would be appreciated.

Thanks!