Brennan Benson
c7995a66ae
* fix(mobile-native-chat): reland glued pending retirement without the two revert causes Relands #14665 (reverted by #14819). #14665 retired mobile pending bubbles when two fast sends landed as one transcript row, but shipped two regressions; both are fixed here rather than re-applied and hoped for. 1. A rejected send restored a TRIMMED composer. #14665 reassigned `text` to `text.trimEnd()` at the top of `sendMessage` and then used that one value for both the bytes on the wire and the composer restore, so a rejection put back less than the user typed. The draft and the payload are now separate values: `draftText` is what the user typed and is what `clearDraftForSend` / `restoreRejectedDraft` see; only the transported `text` is trimmed. 2. Sends issued during hydration were stranded forever. #14665 persisted `glueBaselineTrusted: false` on any send captured while the transcript was still loading and never cleared it, so that send could never retire and stood as a permanent glue barrier for its neighbours. A hydration-time baseline is now a placeholder (`baselineResolved: false`) that the first authoritative read rebases onto real rows, ordinals included, instead of a permanent disqualification. That is STA-4492. The intended behavior is unchanged: one transcript user turn retires a run of 2+ adjacent text-only pending sends only when it exactly spells their normalized concatenation, every send is bounded by its OWN transcript tail, and exact landings, image echoes and unresolved tails stay barriers. No wire change: `baselineResolved` and the baseline tail are client-local React state in `pendingBySession` and are never exchanged with a host. The only client->host difference is trailing whitespace no longer being written onto the agent's input line, over the existing `terminal.send` params. Refs STA-4482, STA-4492. Original PR #14665, revert #14819. * fix(mobile-native-chat): let the untrimmed draft reach the send seam The composer sent `value.trimEnd()`, so the raw draft never reached `sendMessage` and a rejected send still handed back a trimmed composer — the split of `draftText` from the transported `text` had nothing to restore. Pass the draft through; the seam already owns the wire trim. Also pins the array-identity contract of `retireLandedMobileNativeChatPending`: the drafts effect early-outs on `next === current`, and nothing tested it. * docs(mobile-native-chat): name the hydration rebase's residual ambiguity * fix(mobile-native-chat): stop the hydration rebase stranding a send on its own echo Rebasing recounted the send's ordinal against the first authoritative read. That read can already carry the send's own echo — a re-subscribe after a tab switch or reconnect returns whatever exists now — so the ordinal landed one past anything the transcript could supply. The bubble never cleared, it stayed a live segment at the head of its run so no later pair could glue either, and `earlierOutstanding` carried the inflation onto the next send of the same text. Only the tail needs recovering; the ordinal was already counted against an empty transcript, which is right for "no history was known". A caption-less image echo keeps its captured tail, since it counts turns after it. `baselineResolved` also has to mean "captured against a settled read", not merely "not loading": a read that failed hands back an empty list that reads as an empty conversation, and the null tail then let any row the successful read finally brought glue-retire those sends. * test(mobile-native-chat): pin that a resolved hydration send leaves its run glue-capable A held send sits as a live segment at the head of its run, so the cursor can never reach a later pair — the stuck bubble takes the whole feature down with it. Goes red against the ordinal recount. * fix(mobile-native-chat): pin an image echo that captured no tail, and require the settled flag A caption-less image echo keeps its captured tail because it counts image turns after it — but a send issued before any history was known captured null, which counts from the top of the transcript. An old image turn then claimed the send and bound the user's fresh photo to it, leaving the just-sent turn with no preview. A null tail is not a boundary worth preserving, so pin those too. `transcriptSettled` was optional and defaulted to the gate it replaced, so any caller that omitted it silently got the pre-fix behaviour. Required now, and threaded through every harness. * fix(mobile-native-chat): stop an unbounded send claiming an image turn already in the read The image-preview pass runs before the rebase, so a send captured with no boundary matched any image turn the settled read carried — binding the user's freshly attached photo to an old one and retiring the bubble through landedImagePendingIds, which short-circuits the retirement path entirely. Pinning the tail in the rebase could not help: the claim was already made. Such an entry now waits one tick and claims against a real tail. * fix(mobile-native-chat): never move a boundary the send already captured An unsettled read still shows this session's own retained history — a reconnect or a failed read keeps the conversation on screen rather than blanking it — so sends made across one already own a correct tail. The rebase overwrote it with the tail of the read that followed, which sits at or after their own glued row, so `turn.index <= segment.tail` rejected every turn and the pair stayed queued for the session, blocking every later pair in the run. Pin only a send that captured no tail at all. A captioned image echo is now left alone entirely: it binds its preview by an ordinal counted over the whole transcript, so supplying a tail without recounting left it matching nothing, forever. * fix(mobile-native-chat): supply a boundary only to a text-bearing send An image echo reconciles by counting turns AFTER its tail and has no other retirement path, so the tail supplied from a read that already carried its own echo excluded the very row it was waiting for: the "Queued" photo bubble stuck for the life of the session and the transcript row rendered as bare marker text with no photo. A regression against main, and against the earlier revision of this fix that pinned only captioned echoes. The glue matcher is the only consumer a supplied tail helps. Everything that reconciles relative to its own tail keeps whatever it captured. * fix(mobile-native-chat): stop one unmatchable send freezing glue for the session The match cursor only advanced on a hit, so a head that could never match — a pair whose glued row arrived with the read, or a send the count pass claimed against an older row — froze the run behind it and every later rapid pair became permanently unretirable. Two cases previously disclosed as bounded were not bounded at all. Slide past a non-matching head, keeping the cursor monotonic so a later turn can never take a send an earlier one claimed. The slide widens the search, so a span cap keeps the work linear in the run length instead of quadratic; the existing budget test now asserts that bound rather than the old one it silently broke. Re-fuzzed at 250k seeds: the boundary guarantee still holds. Also corrects a comment that claimed the preview-pass filter made a photo claim against a real tail. It does not — an image echo keeps whatever tail it captured, so a caption-less photo can still bind to an older photo turn, as on main. * fix(mobile-native-chat): stop the span cap stranding a long glued run Capping each match attempt at 8 segments did not truncate a longer glue, it rejected it outright: a row spelling 9+ sends exhausted the loop without reaching the end of the text and returned zero, so none of the nine retired — and each stuck send then inflated `earlierOutstanding` for the next send of the same text. Nothing bounds how many sends pile onto the agent's input line; accumulation ends when the agent accepts input again, not at any fixed count. One inspection budget now covers the whole slide instead. The first attempt spans the entire run and always fits, so a genuine glue is never truncated; only a run of identical prefix-matching sends can exhaust the budget, which is exactly the case that should be cheap. The in-flight attempt may overshoot the remainder — that is what makes the guarantee hold — so the budget test asserts the real ceiling. Re-fuzzed at 250k seeds with runs past the budget.
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 lint
cd ..
pnpm typecheck:node
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 either the App Store (mobile too old) or GitHub Releases (desktop too old).
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_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