orca/mobile

Orca Mobile

React Native companion app for Orca. Monitor worktrees, view terminal output, and send commands from your phone.

Local development uses two processes:

• Orca desktop/Electron from the repo root. This hosts the mobile WebSocket RPC server on port 6768.
• Expo Metro from mobile/. This serves the React Native app on port 8081.

Unless a command says otherwise, run mobile app commands from the mobile/ directory.

The Node commands pnpm rpc:diff and pnpm rpc:record use a development dependency linked to ../src/packages/process-host. Mobile's install supplies the link, and tsx runs its source with the orca-source condition, so these command wrappers do not require a desktop install or package build. Keep that source directory in sparse checkouts. The recording suites still need root dependencies when they exercise desktop modules. The React Native app does not import this host package.

Prerequisites

• Node.js 24+
• pnpm
• Xcode and/or Android Studio tooling for simulator or device builds
• Expo Go on your phone, or a development client build when native modules are needed
• Phone and desktop on the same LAN when testing a physical phone

Start Desktop Orca

From the repository root:

pnpm install
pnpm dev

Confirm the mobile RPC server is listening:

lsof -nP -iTCP:6768 -sTCP:LISTEN

Restart pnpm dev after changing Electron main-process code. Metro hot reload only applies to the mobile JavaScript bundle.

Start The Mobile App

cd mobile
pnpm install
pnpm start

Scan the Expo QR code with your phone's camera on iOS, or Expo Go on Android.

For a native dev-client build:

pnpm native ensure ios       # or: pnpm native ensure android [--device <name|udid|serial>]
pnpm start --dev-client

ensure computes the Expo fingerprint of the native inputs (native dependencies, config plugins, modules/, patches/, and the Expo config). On a HIT it installs the cached build on the booted simulator or the running emulator in a few seconds. On a MISS it regenerates ios/ or android/, runs expo run:<platform>, and caches the result. --rebuild forces a fresh build.

Builds are cached per fingerprint in the user cache directory (~/Library/Caches/orca-mobile/native-builds on macOS, $XDG_CACHE_HOME/orca-mobile/native-builds on Linux, %LOCALAPPDATA%\orca-mobile\native-builds on Windows, or ORCA_MOBILE_NATIVE_BUILD_CACHE_DIR), so every worktree reuses them. The newest three per platform are kept. app.config.js also registers the cache as Expo's buildCacheProvider, so a plain pnpm ios / pnpm android installs a cached build instead of compiling. Only ensure writes to the cache, because expo run reuses an existing ios/ or android/ directory even when it was generated from older inputs. Expo caches iOS Simulator builds only, not physical devices.

pnpm native fingerprint prints the current hashes. On pull requests, the Mobile native fingerprint job reports in its summary whether the PR changes them, which means dev clients need a native rebuild.

Pair With Desktop Orca

1. Open Orca desktop.
2. Go to Settings > Mobile.
3. Scan the pairing QR code from the mobile app.
4. Confirm the mobile host endpoint is ws://<desktop-ip>:6768.

For the Android emulator, use ws://10.0.2.2:6768. For a physical phone, use the desktop LAN IP, for example ws://192.168.0.179:6768.

If the phone has a stale host entry, remove it from the app and pair again.

Development Paths

Android Phone

1. Install Expo Go from Google Play
2. Run pnpm start, scan QR with Expo Go
3. For native modules: pnpm exec expo run:android
4. Run with pnpm start --dev-client

iOS Simulator

1. Install Xcode from the App Store
2. Run pnpm start --ios to open in iOS Simulator

Physical Phone Debugging

The phone can be inspected through the connected device tooling:

orca snapshot --json
orca click --element @e3 --json
orca fill --element @e1 --value "ls" --json
orca screenshot --json

Use snapshot first to find the current element refs, then click/fill those refs. After mobile file edits, Metro usually hot reloads automatically, but navigating out of and back into the session screen can be useful because it re-runs terminal.subscribe.

Terminal Streaming Repro Without A Phone

Use this when terminal output does not render on device and you need to split server streaming bugs from WebView/UI bugs:

cd mobile
ORCA_MOBILE_WS_URL=ws://127.0.0.1:6768 pnpm exec tsx scripts/test-subscribe.ts <deviceToken> <serverPublicKeyB64>

You can pass a worktree selector as the third argument:

pnpm exec tsx scripts/test-subscribe.ts <deviceToken> <serverPublicKeyB64> "id:<worktreeId>"
pnpm exec tsx scripts/test-subscribe.ts <deviceToken> <serverPublicKeyB64> "path:/absolute/worktree/path"
pnpm exec tsx scripts/test-subscribe.ts <deviceToken> <serverPublicKeyB64> "name:my-worktree"

The expected result includes:

streamSawMarker: true
readSawMarker: true

If this repro fails, debug the desktop runtime/PTY path before the mobile WebView. If it passes but the phone is blank, debug the session screen or TerminalWebView readiness/queueing path.

Terminal Color Repro Without A Phone

Use this when terminal colors disappear after switching tabs. Open a Claude Code terminal and at least one other terminal in the target worktree, then run:

cd mobile
ORCA_MOBILE_WS_URL=ws://127.0.0.1:6768 pnpm exec tsx scripts/repro-terminal-colors.ts \
  <deviceToken> <serverPublicKeyB64> "id:<worktreeId>"

The script captures terminal.subscribe snapshots in an A → B → A sequence and writes raw snapshots to mobile/terminal-color-repro/. If the two A snapshots have different sgrColor counts, the desktop snapshot changed during the switch. If they match, the ANSI color data is still present and the bug is in mobile replay/rendering.

Validation

Run these checks before committing mobile terminal changes:

cd mobile
pnpm exec tsc --noEmit
pnpm run check:tests-typecheck
pnpm lint
cd ..
pnpm typecheck:node

tsc --noEmit reads tsconfig.json, which excludes test files so Metro never bundles them. tsconfig.test.json puts them back, and pnpm run typecheck:tests shows their errors in full. check:tests-typecheck is the gate over it: a ratchet against tests-typecheck-baseline.txt, the 127 test files that do not typecheck yet. It fails when a file that checks today stops checking, and when a baseline entry starts checking (prune it with node scripts/check-tests-typecheck-ratchet.mjs --prune). The list may only shrink.

The same gate censuses the program first: every *.test.ts(x) on disk must be in it, or named in the script's TESTS_OUTSIDE_PROGRAM with a reason. Without that, a test excluded from tsconfig.test.json — or a Foo.test.tsx shadowed by a Foo.test.ts beside it, which a wildcard include drops for the higher-priority extension — would leave the ratchet silently.

Localization

UI copy goes through src/i18n, with the same call shape and languages as desktop:

• In components and hooks: const t = useMobileTranslation(), then t('area.thing.label', 'English text'). The function changes with the language, so list it in memo and callback dependencies.
• In helpers and imperative code (alerts, notifications): translate(key, fallback, options) from src/i18n/mobile-i18n, called when the text is shown, never at module scope.
• Counts: count === 1 ? t('x.files_one', '{{count}} file', { count }) : t('x.files_other', '{{count}} files', { count }).
• Dates and numbers: pass getUiIntlLocale() to Intl formatters instead of undefined.
• Keep identity separate from display text: never compare or key on a translated string.

Run pnpm sync:mobile-localization from the repo root to add new keys to src/i18n/locales/en.json; other catalogs may lag and fall back to English. pnpm verify:mobile-localization and pnpm verify:mobile-localization-coverage run in CI. iOS permission prompts live in locales/<lang>.json.

Android Release Signing

plugins/android-release-signing.js adds a release signing config to the generated android/app/build.gradle. It reads ORCA_ANDROID_KEYSTORE_PATH, ORCA_ANDROID_KEYSTORE_PASSWORD, ORCA_ANDROID_KEY_ALIAS and ORCA_ANDROID_KEY_PASSWORD at build time; nothing is written into the project. Without them, local release builds keep Expo's debug key.

.github/workflows/mobile-android-release.yml turns release signing on once the ORCA_ANDROID_RELEASE_CERT_SHA256 repository variable (or ORCA_ANDROID_REQUIRE_RELEASE_SIGNING=true) is set. Until then it signs with the debug key as before and adds a warning to the run. Once it is on, the workflow fails before building if any of these is missing:

Name	Kind	Value
ORCA_ANDROID_KEYSTORE_BASE64	secret	the release keystore, base64-encoded
ORCA_ANDROID_KEYSTORE_PASSWORD	secret	keystore password
ORCA_ANDROID_KEY_ALIAS	secret	key alias
ORCA_ANDROID_KEY_PASSWORD	secret	key password (same as the keystore password for PKCS12)
ORCA_ANDROID_RELEASE_CERT_SHA256	variable	the key's certificate SHA-256 fingerprint

After a release-signed build, the workflow checks that the APK's signing certificate matches ORCA_ANDROID_RELEASE_CERT_SHA256 and is not the debug key, and publishes the fingerprint in the release notes. Android only installs an update signed by the same key as the installed app, so the keystore must be backed up: losing it means no existing install can be updated in place.

Protocol Version Compatibility

Mobile and desktop talk over a versioned protocol. Because mobile updates lag desktop by 24-48h via the App Store, both sides exchange version numbers on status.get so a genuinely incompatible combo can hard-block instead of silently misbehaving.

Constants live in two files (Metro can't resolve outside mobile/):

• src/shared/protocol-version.ts — DESKTOP_PROTOCOL_VERSION, MIN_COMPATIBLE_MOBILE_VERSION
• mobile/src/transport/connection/protocol-version.ts — MOBILE_PROTOCOL_VERSION, MIN_COMPATIBLE_DESKTOP_VERSION

Today all four are set so evaluateCompat always returns { kind: 'ok' } — nothing blocks. The wire format is in place to flip a switch when needed.

When to bump

Bump DESKTOP_PROTOCOL_VERSION (and the mobile mirror MOBILE_PROTOCOL_VERSION when relevant) for breaking changes:

• Removed RPC method or required parameter that mobile uses
• Changed meaning (units, nullability) of an existing field mobile reads
• Changed encryption, framing, or auth handshake

Do not bump for additive changes:

• New RPC methods
• New optional fields on existing methods
• New event types in terminal.subscribe

Set MIN_COMPATIBLE_MOBILE_VERSION (kill-switch) when desktop ships a change that requires a minimum mobile version to function safely. Same for MIN_COMPATIBLE_DESKTOP_VERSION from the mobile side.

When a verdict is blocked, mobile/src/components/ProtocolBlockScreen.tsx renders a screen pointing the user at the update that clears it. When mobile is too old it opens the newest release if the installed app's update check knows one, otherwise the App Store (iOS) or GitHub Releases (Android). When desktop is too old it opens GitHub Releases.

To exercise the block screen locally: set MIN_COMPATIBLE_DESKTOP_VERSION = 999 in mobile/src/transport/connection/protocol-version.ts, rebuild, pair to any desktop. Revert before merging.

Mock Server

Develop the mobile app without a running Orca desktop instance:

pnpm mock-server           # starts mock WebSocket server on port 6768

Connect from the app using endpoint ws://localhost:6768 and token mock-device-token.

Environment variables

• MOCK_NATIVE_CHAT=1 — serve the native-chat scenario (one live agent tab, empty transcript, image upload) instead of the default terminal fixtures.
• MOCK_CHAT_AGENT=omp — with MOCK_NATIVE_CHAT=1, present an OMP tab and four decoded transcript messages, including a tool call and result, instead of the default Claude scenario. It deliberately omits transcriptPath to exercise legacy-hook readability discovery; current OMP hooks may report a path.
• MOCK_SERVER_KEY_FILE — persist the server keypair across restarts so a paired device keeps its public-key pin. A missing or invalid file is re-keyed with a warning, which forces a re-pair.

Scenario control files

Read on every request, so behaviour can be flipped mid-session without a restart (a restart would re-key E2EE and force a re-pair). Write the mode into the file, or delete it for the default.

• MOCK_SEND_MODE_FILE (default orca-mock-send-mode in the system temporary directory) — accept (default) accepts the send, error fails it with mobile_input_floor_unavailable, anything else reports the send as rejected.
• MOCK_TERMINAL_LIST_MODE_FILE (default orca-mock-terminal-list-mode in the system temporary directory) — omit returns an empty terminal list, other returns a list that omits the chat handle, anything else lists it.
• MOCK_TERMINAL_STREAM_MODE_FILE (default orca-mock-terminal-stream-mode in the system temporary directory) — dead answers a subscribe with subscribed then end (a gone PTY), which is what exercises the rearm bound and terminal prune; anything else streams normally.

Connecting to Real Orca

1. Start Orca desktop with WebSocket transport enabled
2. In Orca, go to Settings > Mobile and scan the QR code with this app
3. The QR encodes the connection endpoint, device token, and TLS fingerprint

Project Structure

mobile/
├── app/                   # Expo Router screens (file-based routing)
│   ├── _layout.tsx        # Root layout with navigation stack
│   ├── index.tsx          # Home screen — paired hosts list
│   └── pair-scan.tsx      # QR code scanning screen
├── src/
│   ├── terminal/          # Terminal WebView and xterm bridge
│   └── transport/         # WebSocket RPC client
├── scripts/
│   ├── test-subscribe.ts  # Desktop streaming repro without a phone
│   └── mock-server.ts     # Standalone mock WebSocket server
└── assets/                # App icons and splash screen