Brennan Benson
a0a7535b63
* fix(native-chat): say each chat outcome once and drop internal-only surfaces After a restart, resuming a chat reported the same outcome in up to four places: a toast, the chat's own note, the status bar entry and the resume dialog. Success also toasted, and a lost answer or unconfirmed dismissal raised toasts of their own. The chat's note and the status bar entry (which opens the dialog listing every affected chat) now carry it alone, and the resume guidance no longer talks about which process "owns this session". Provider events Orca does not recognise and that carry no words of their own are logged instead of journaled as raw "codex · notification:foo" rows. Rows with the provider's own sentence, failures, and records of replies Orca already sent stay. The approval card no longer shows the matched ask rule, its settings source or a "Blocked path" line; it keeps the request, its detail and the reason. * fix(native-chat): store wordless provider events, hide them only when drawn Dropping text-less provider events on the host also dropped Codex's turn/plan/updated row, which the task list (checklist and composer progress panel) is built from. The host now journals these rows exactly as before, and desktop and mobile chats leave out a row whose only text is the host's "provider · kind" label. Failures, notices, rows with the provider's own sentence and records of requests Orca answered still show. A hidden legacy Codex collab-call row still counts as the agent acting for which subagent section stays open. Claude's local slash command output is read from `content` for that one event kind only, so it shows as the row's text instead of disappearing. * fix(native-chat): rows no client draws never fill the Codex cap or split a turn's work - Codex per-turn cap: a wordless provider row (decided by the same shared rule the clients use) has its own silent storage bound, so it no longer crowds out rows that draw and never produces a "N more provider notifications not shown" line about rows nobody sees. Plan updates are exempt from the cap, so the task list keeps updating after a noisy turn. - A Claude local command's row an older host stored with only its label (/usage output in the payload) stays drawn instead of disappearing. - A settled turn whose only extra row draws nothing offers no expand arrow, and a wordless row no longer splits one tool run into two. * fix(native-chat): a resume request that never reached the chats says so once, with Retry When the resume request fails before the host reserved anything (the host is not ready, or its recovery record cannot be written), the host has nothing to record, and the chats used to fall silently back to "N chats to resume". The status bar and dialog now show them as failed, with the existing guidance and Retry, until Retry, Dismiss, a host answer that no longer offers them, or a relaunch. Comments that still cited the removed toast are corrected. * fix(native-chat): keep mobile tool runs whole and a failed Dismiss's chat marked - Mobile draws no task list, so it now drops wordless provider rows, plan updates included, before folding tool runs; a mid-run plan update no longer leaves two run headers back to back. - A Dismiss the host never took keeps a lost resume request's chat shown as failed instead of turning it back into a plain offer. The lost request's real error now goes to the renderer log, since the row carries this side's own reason code. - Comments corrected: the Codex cap no longer claims dropped wordless rows stay countable, and the resume comments cover a chat a lost request never reached. * fix(native-chat): tell the user what their Resume click did, in one toast Clicking Resume in the dialog (or Retry on a row) closes the dialog and acts on chats that are mostly off-screen, and nothing said what happened. One toast now summarises that click: "Resumed N chats and asked them to continue", "N chats couldn't be resumed" with Show (opens the dialog), "Couldn't confirm N chats were resumed", or the mixed case in the same toast. A request lost before it reached the chats counts its chats as not resumed. An opted-in automatic resume at launch raises no toast; dismissal and other bookkeeping stay silent. * fix(native-chat): Show on the Resume toast re-reads before opening; fix toast translations Show could open nothing when the host retired the failure while the toast was up, because the dialog draws nothing without rows and the request stayed latched. Show now goes through the status bar entry's re-read-then-open path, moved into the store so both use it. The French, Japanese, Korean and Chinese "Resumed N chats and asked them to continue" strings are rewritten to match their sibling strings. Tests pin Show on the toast of a lost resume request whose chats the re-read still lists. * test(native-chat): click the Resume toast's Show through a typed helper The tests reached sonner's action handler with Reflect.apply, which the anti-slop lint rejects. One test-support helper now returns the last toast's Show as a typed click. * fix(native-chat): name the path an approval needs when the request doesn't show it The approval card dropped Claude's blocked path along with the ask rule, so a request like `git push` that needs access to `.git/config` no longer said what it touches. Bring the path back as "Needs access to: <path>", only when the description, reason or request detail doesn't already show it (verbatim or JSON-escaped). One shared rule serves desktop and mobile; the ask rule stays out. * fix(native-chat): count a blocked path as shown only when the text names the whole path '/srv/data' inside '/srv/data-old/x' hid the "Needs access to" line although the path itself was never shown. A match now needs the next character to end the path: end of text, whitespace, a quote or a separator. Also pin that the desktop approval mapping passes the blocked path through and drops the ask rule. * fix(native-chat): the automatic resume at launch gets the same one outcome toast as a click An opted-in launch resume now calls the same announce as a clicked Resume, with the same copy: how many resumed, how many couldn't (with Show), unconfirmed, or mixed, said once. Dismiss and bookkeeping stay silent; a launch whose chats all moved on raises nothing. * fix(native-chat): the resume success toast says "Resumed N chats" Each chat's own note already says Orca asked it to continue, so the toast drops "and asked it/them to continue" in every locale; the couldn't-resume and couldn't-confirm counts and Show are unchanged.
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 port8081.
Unless a command says otherwise, run mobile app commands from the mobile/ directory.
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 exec expo run:android
pnpm exec expo run:ios
pnpm start --dev-client
Pair With Desktop Orca
- Open Orca desktop.
- Go to Settings > Mobile.
- Scan the pairing QR code from the mobile app.
- 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
- Install Expo Go from Google Play
- Run
pnpm start, scan QR with Expo Go - For native modules:
pnpm exec expo run:android - Run with
pnpm start --dev-client
iOS Simulator
- Install Xcode from the App Store
- Run
pnpm start --iosto 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.
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_VERSIONmobile/src/transport/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/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— withMOCK_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 omitstranscriptPathto 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(defaultorca-mock-send-modein the system temporary directory) —accept(default) accepts the send,errorfails it withmobile_input_floor_unavailable, anything else reports the send as rejected.MOCK_TERMINAL_LIST_MODE_FILE(defaultorca-mock-terminal-list-modein the system temporary directory) —omitreturns an empty terminal list,otherreturns a list that omits the chat handle, anything else lists it.MOCK_TERMINAL_STREAM_MODE_FILE(defaultorca-mock-terminal-stream-modein the system temporary directory) —deadanswers a subscribe withsubscribedthenend(a gone PTY), which is what exercises the rearm bound and terminal prune; anything else streams normally.
Connecting to Real Orca
- Start Orca desktop with WebSocket transport enabled
- In Orca, go to Settings > Mobile and scan the QR code with this app
- 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