Brennan BensonandMerge Sim
2626e2eca4
* Make the structured turn lifecycle row durable so completed durations survive A structured-chat turn used to end by tombstoning its running lifecycle item, which threw away the only durable record of when the turn ended. Completed "Worked for" labels therefore depended on the renderer having observed the turn finish, and vanished on reopen. The lifecycle item is now revised in place, never tombstoned: - running, with startedAt, at the provider's turn start - completed or interrupted, with completedAt, at the provider's terminal frame, a user stop, or a child exit the host observed - unverifiable, with no end, when a cold acquire finds a running row from a generation whose exit nobody observed Both timestamps are the execution host's clock at receipt, captured before the deferred sink, so the completed value is identical on every client and needs no client clock. Codex history restore uses the provider's own second-granular endpoints for turns that predate this change. Desktop and mobile read settled durations off the journal through one shared selector, and anchor the live counter on the host start with the client's local receipt so a skewed client clock never leaks into the label. Locally observed durations remain the fallback for hosts that still tombstone. Timestamps live inside the existing turnLifecycle field, which old clients strip, and every working-state consumer keys on state === 'running', so no capability negotiation is needed. * native-chat: avoid stale working status on settled turns * test: align settled turn status expectations * Name settled lifecycle rows by their terminal state An interrupted or unverifiable turn must not read as completed for any consumer that renders status text raw. One shared helper builds the text for both providers from the lifecycle state. * test: deduplicate turn lifecycle suites Each behavior keeps one test; duplicated harnesses and restated cases go. * Key lifecycle rows to their user item and record the provider's measured duration A lifecycle row now names the user item that opened the turn by its provider key, so clients attribute timing explicitly and fall back to journal order only for rows from older hosts. A provider-initiated turn with no prompt can no longer claim the previous prompt's duration. When the provider measures the turn itself (Codex turn.durationMs, Claude result.duration_ms) the terminal row records it and clients prefer it over the host interval, so a turn shows the same number live and after a history restore. Host receipt times remain the live-counter anchor and the fallback. * Record a turn as a first-class journal item The turn record is now its own item kind rather than a status row carrying a lifecycle field: no text to misuse, and the fold matches the durable turn record other systems keep. Rows that carry it are stamped journal schema v3; every other row stays v2, so an older host keeps reading them and latches read-only at the first v3 row instead of truncating the epoch. Clients that predate the item would paint an unknown kind as a text bubble, so the host publishes the legacy status form to any client that does not advertise agent-session.turn-item.v1, through the same per-client seam background tasks use. The downgrade is transitional and goes once no supported release lacks the capability. The shared projection now renders unknown item kinds as nothing, so later kinds need no gate. One shared reader handles both forms for old journals and old hosts. * Preserve observed turn end across settlement retries * Retain turn attribution for loaded chat history * Preserve Codex exit receipt across close retries * Register completed turn duration reliability gate * Keep earlier turns through a Codex rewind and count a mid-turn attach from the real start Findings from an independent adversarial review of the typed turn record: - A Codex rewind adopted the provider's item list as the new epoch, and the provider never returns the host's own turn rows, so every duration before the rewind point vanished. The host's turn rows are now spliced back beside the item each followed, and recovery no longer expects the provider to prove rows it never owned. - The epoch row was stamped with the current schema version, so an older host latched read-only at row 1 of every new session, defeating the mixed version design. It carries no body and stays at v2; a stored-row test now reads SQLite directly, because the reader upcasts every row on read. - A send Codex folds into a running turn shares the opening prompt's provider key, and the alias map credited the duration to the later prompt. The earliest submission naming a key now wins. - The live counter anchored on first sight, so a client attaching mid-turn counted from zero. Published frames now carry the host's clock, the reducer keeps the last sample with its local receipt time, and both clients anchor on how long the host says the turn has run. * Correct turn duration gate assertion reference * Respect authoritative unknown native chat duration * Preserve unverifiable timing across older host upgrade * Record final completed turn duration reliability evidence * Fix the CI failures the merge left behind - A merged import list named the same module twice, which the native code quality plugin fails on. - A running turn is now reported by the host with no duration, so the settled map carries an explicit null for it; the hook test still expected the entry to be absent. - main gave the older-page action a cursor with a head-trim guard, so the retention test's epoch-only action no longer typechecks; it now passes an unbounded sequence, which is what the old shape meant. - The roster comparator moved into the extracted module, leaving its import unused in the reducer. * Split two files back under the line cap after the merge Merging main put both one effective line over 300, and the cap forbids a disable or a shave. The wire module's refusal vocabulary moves to its own file and is re-exported, so its consumers are untouched; the host's four thin mutation delegates move next to the functions they call. * Advertise the turn-item capability on every client transport Local IPC and mobile advertised it; the remote and web transports did not, so a desktop paired to a remote host, the CLI, and web silently ran on the legacy carrier forever and the canonical row was never exercised there. The renderer that paints it is the same build on every transport. * Update the web auth-frame expectation for the new capability --------- Co-authored-by: Merge Sim <sim@local>
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