Brennan Benson
8be17ddf3a
* feat(chat): read one saved row per subagent Adds the singular `subagent` journal block (one row per child, revised in place, with a plain-text twin for older clients) and teaches every reader to draw it: desktop and phone fold a turn's sibling rows into the existing "Ran N subagents" row, the client and off-page rosters name children from their own rows, the reopen pass settles a row a dead host left working, and the phone and worker-transcript wires bound it. No producer writes the block yet; that switch lands in the follow-up. * feat(chat): host writes one saved row per subagent Claude, Codex and Grok now only report child-work evidence. The host writes each subagent's row from its child record, so the chat row, strip and sidebar read one lifecycle. Deletes the shared subagent tracker, the per-agent rosters and their caps. An accepted Stop settles only the run it was sent to, provisionally, until that run reports its own ending. Work the host store has no room to record keeps the running-tasks strip and its Stop instead of reading as idle. * fix(chat): open subagent background flag, separate nested group ids, page window skips subagent rows - background is an open boolean so a later build's value never fails a chat load - a helper's own helpers fold under a groupId of their own, so the phone opens them apart - each subagent's own row rides along with the page window instead of counting as conversation * fix(chat): subagent row writer reads the live turn once, stop acks survive a failed batch - the row writer reads the journal's live turn at most once per change and only for a subagent with no saved, queued or in-flight row; a revision keeps its first scope - a background stop names each accepted task as its answer lands, so a stop-all batch that times out or fails part way still ends the runs it was answered for (Claude and Grok) - the strip's untargeted Stop rule lives in the shared view (offersStopAll); both strips inline it again; incomplete tracking no longer holds commands or rewind - clients admit a frame whose only change is incomplete tracking - drop the Claude stop's dead publish; the real-CLI stop test asserts the run's own ending - list the writer test with the real SQLite tests * fix(chat): a late Grok report never revives an ended helper; Codex keeps announced helpers - Grok: once a helper's run ended, a later progress or repeated spawn sends no live evidence, so its record and saved row stay ended after the next send retires the record; the test rig now retires finished records on each turn open, as the host does - Codex: past the bound, only a child that ran and ended is evicted, so an announced helper that has not started keeps its record, row, Stop and parent - cut: Codex parentTurnId (written, never read), the Claude identities' turn-end forwarding (call the corrections directly), the duplicate Grok outcome map - update stale comments that described the deleted producers * test(chat): Claude frames to saved row, kept Codex path and usage rules, agent ingestion exemption - a captured background Claude helper keeps its saved row working past its spawn result and the parent turn's end, through the real adapter, host and child records, until its own end - restore focused tests for the Codex root path, label trim and placeholder, usage before announcement and parent usage - the per-session live limit test uses tasks: subagents are exempt from it * fix(chat): incomplete tracking follows the refused children, and the strip's Stop reaches them - the host remembers which children the store refused for room, by handle; each leaves when a later report of it is admitted or it reports its own end, so incomplete clears on a truthful signal; the provider session's end still clears all, and past 512 a flag holds until then - a parent row the store refused counts every live child it reports as refused - with work no record lists, an untargeted strip Stop while no turn runs ends the agent through the idle sweep's stop; under a running turn it leaves the agent alone - the background Stop moves into its own module * fix(chat): the incomplete Stop is offered for every agent and decides inside its step - the strip offers the untargeted Stop for work no row lists whenever no turn runs, whatever untargeted stop the provider has (ACP agents, Codex before it proves terminal stops), since the host reaches it by ending the agent; never under a running turn - the Stop reads whether work is unlisted and whether a turn runs inside its own step, after the listed stops land, so a wake-up turn opened meanwhile is never ended - Codex executions past the bound evict the oldest ended child, else the oldest never started - test the writer's unnamed-subagent label; qualify the writer's retry comment * refactor(chat): the subagent row writer joins the views with their records Drops the shared host-only row projection and its hook-server read: the writer's wiring reads the views every surface reads and the records they come from, and takes residency and the ending's basis from the record. * refactor(chat): Grok subagent evidence reads its ending through the one outcome map * refactor(chat): a subagent's group entry as one object * fix(chat): a background Stop with nothing listed asks the agent for no task stops So an agent with no stop route (an ACP agent the probe found none for) never refuses before the Stop ends the work no row lists. Tests: the unlisted case is untargeted and reads unlisted work inside the step; the repeat-press rig lists the task its Stops reach; reflow the writer header. * test(chat): a nested helper's saved parent; describe how incomplete tracking clears * fix(chat): a closed session claims no Stop; a helper's row follows its own running work - a session close Orca proves is loss of contact, not a Stop the CLI accepted: Claude no longer ends what still ran as stopped, so the host settles it unknown and its row reads unverifiable, as before this stack; stop-acknowledged comes only from a Stop the CLI accepted - a helper that finished while work it started still runs is written working, by the strip's own rule; once that work ends, or the session ends, it reads its own ending again - the CLI starting a completed helper again under the same spawn call is the helper waking when its work ends: the decoder reports it as a restart, so its one row revises in place and ends with its real duration; after any other ending such a start is still read as late - tests from a captured 2.1.280 frame order; item 4 Stops pin their stop-acknowledged basis * refactor(chat): drop the unused Stop basis on a child's own ending Only the acknowledged-Stop edge writes that basis now; reflow the decoder header. * fix(chat): an older history page keeps a turn's subagent ordinals and row A page now reaches back to the first sibling of each subagent group it holds part of, at most one more page of conversation, so loading the older page no longer renumbers same-named helpers or moves (and closes) their folded row.
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.
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 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