Brennan Benson
d9de1fad1d
* feat(native-chat): record which agent run wrote each journal item Each journal item row, subagent roster entry and background-task entry now records ownerFence: the lease fence of the agent run whose output produced it. Optional, persisted, no row version bump and no migration. The journal's itemFence() returns it, so the turn-verdict rules and per-run provider activity read the producing run rather than the writer's fence. * feat(native-chat): one current-work projection for every host reader; record death first The host decides what work is current in one place (structured-agent-session-current-work.ts) from the lease, the exit this host saw, the runtimes it replaced, its live child and each item's provenance. Every host reader (queue, Stop, prompt answers, commands, status feed, idle sweep, teardown snapshot, history pages and frames, orchestration mailbox) reads it, so a dead agent's leftovers stop reading Working or holding the queue even when their cleanup write failed. The journal's activeTurnId()/liveTurnScope() become the raw runningTurn(). On exit the host records the child's end first and signals generationEnded, which republishes frames, the status feed and settlement waits and wakes the queue drain with no journal row. Pages and frames carry optional working and actionablePromptIds fields. * feat(native-chat): clients read the host's working answer; refuse answers to a stopped agent plainly Desktop and mobile prefer the host's working and actionablePromptIds fields when present (merged across batches like latestTurn) and fall back to today's row derivation against an older host. A prompt an ended agent raised stops looking active; answering it is refused before any provider sees it, with "<Agent> has stopped, so your answer was not sent. Send a message to continue." Cancelling it only dismisses it in the journal: it no longer triggers the chat's Stop, pauses the queue or withdraws queued cards. * refactor(native-chat): keep structuredAgentSessionHandsOver file-local until a caller needs it Nothing outside the projection calls it in this part; Part 5 exports it for the start-failure row. * test(native-chat): fewer provenance tests: fold reopen and unstated-owner checks into the main case Drops the epoch-replacement case (Part 2 rewind test reads the same values through the same rebuild) and the corrupt-value case (no version writes one). * test(native-chat): drop current-work mirrors: the viewKey unit case and the still-live rewind case The flow cases keep every outcome: dead leftovers read as nothing, Stop has nothing to stop, a waiting card drains, a live owner publishes as before, and a rewind never promotes dead work. * test(native-chat): fewer client tests: one flow per client, one fallback each Keeps desktop and phone Working from the host (with the older-host fallback), the reducer merge contract, the ended question Cancel that only dismisses, the agent-named refusal and the resolution receipt. Drops per-helper prompt tests, the transcript-placement test, the stop-note client reduction, the Steer cards that match main, and per-reason refusal rows. * test(native-chat): an unstamped roster entry from an older build reads as its row provenance Moved here from Part 4 so it sits beside stampJournalEntryProvenance. * test(native-chat): build the older-build roster row inline, after main removed its body helper Main #27947 writes one row per subagent and deleted journal-subagent-group-body; a roster row from an older build is still what this case reads. * refactor(native-chat): provenance is per item only; drop per-entry stamping Main's #27947 writes one saved row per subagent, and each background task already has its own row, so an item's own ownerFence names the run of every entry a producer still writes. Per-entry stamps inside a row mattered only for the shared roster rows saved before #27947, and no run writes into those any more, so the row's own provenance settles them correctly. Removes the entry stamping, the optional ownerFence on roster entries and background tasks, and their tests. * fix(native-chat): an item's provenance is set when it is created; revisions keep it A newer run's provider can revise an item an older run created: Pi's start and an ACP session/load both report context usage onto the newest saved turn. Restamping that turn with the newer run let the newer run's exit settle the older run's unverifiable turn as interrupted. Only creation states an owner now, as main's itemFences rule did. * test(native-chat): keep the provenance test below the production lines it covers * fix(native-chat): an ended agent's card Cancel commits with its receipt, through dismissPrompt The ended-generation dismissal wrote the cancelled resolution without the Cancel's operation receipt and without the dismissal's failure handling, so a receipt write failing after it would answer "outcome unknown" over a card already closed. It now goes through dismissPrompt, which carries the uncommitted receipt in the same append and answers dismissalNotSaved on failure; a null `answer` skips the adapter, since no live provider holds an ended generation's card (Pi's adapter refuses a fence with no live session outright).
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