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fix(server): persist terminal output without rewriting all history - #24019
Append only the output since the last successful flush. Compact back to the existing bounded history when the file would exceed twice the byte limit, when pending output was evicted, after clear, or when a split surrogate changes already-encoded text. Immediate lifecycle flushes still write the exact capped history. A failed append invalidates its cursor so the next flush repairs the file from a full snapshot.
The file remains plain text; replay limits, debounce, live output, and client/provider contracts are unchanged. While a terminal is active, its file can temporarily reach 16 MiB with the default 8 MiB replay limit. No new format or migration is required.
Scope and approval: maintainer triage and runtime reproduction establish the existing failure. This PR only changes terminal-history persistence for that defect. That triage is not approval of this particular compaction design: the temporary 2× disk bound and recovery algorithm still require human review, as Macroscope noted. No explicit approval of that design is claimed.
Added a failing regression using the real TerminalManager and filesystem, with a fake PTY emitting deterministic output. At 64 KiB retained history plus sixteen 1 KiB updates, old code wrote 1,114,112 bytes and failed the <131,072-byte assertion; the new code passes and restores the exact expected history.
Runtime trace: open -> fill -> 16 acknowledged writes -> close -> reopen; retained history is 49,152 a bytes followed by 16,384 b bytes. No sleeps/polling in the test; it awaits filesystem write acknowledgments.
Covered repeated compaction, line/byte trimming, clears, split Unicode, output exceeding the retained window, and a real filesystem error after a partial append followed by recovery.
vp test run apps/server/src/terminal/Manager.test.ts: 45 passed.
vp run check:changed: format, lint, knip, generated GraphQL, affected typechecks, and focused tests passed. Existing unrelated lint warning remains.
Maria's Linux runtime verification on unchanged head 9923e5b measured the actual terminal log after an 8 MiB workload and sixteen 1 KiB updates: 134,217,728 bytes written on main versus 16,453 bytes on this PR for those final flushes. It also verified repeated compaction, abrupt server restart/reconnect, clear, Unicode output and browser reload; all 46 terminal-manager tests passed in that environment. The linked report includes the command transcript and client recordings.
This is a server-only fix shared by web, desktop, mobile and remote clients. The runtime evidence measures terminal-log writes, not whole-app CPU/throughput. Native Electron/mobile, Windows/macOS live workloads, relay/tunnel and real disk-full/power-loss conditions remain unverified. The persistence design still requires human approval.
Macroscope's review found this PR approvable — Terminal output is persisted incrementally, with bounded snapshot compaction and unchanged visible history limits. The change reduces repeated writes while retaining snapshot fallback and safer read-time compaction.
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Walkthrough
Terminal history persistence now uses cursor-based updates. The worker appends new data when the cursor is valid and the file stays within the configured size bound. Otherwise, it replaces the file with a full history snapshot. History repair writes to a temporary file and renames it into place.
Changes: Terminal history persistence
Layer / File(s)
Summary
Track bounded history updates apps/server/src/terminal/Manager.ts, apps/server/src/terminal/Manager.test.ts
BoundedTerminalHistory tracks generations and cumulative appended text. Its persistenceUpdate method returns new text when the cursor remains valid, or a full history snapshot otherwise. Tests cover compaction, clearing, split-surrogate recovery, and output beyond the retained window.
Persist history incrementally apps/server/src/terminal/Manager.ts, apps/server/src/terminal/Manager.test.ts
The worker appends valid updates and replaces the file when required. It saves the cursor only after a successful write. History repair writes to a temporary file and renames it. Tests check persisted content, write volume, and recovery after write, rename, or partial append failures.
pingdotgg/t3code#31752: Both PRs change terminal-history persistence during clear. This PR invalidates the persistence cursor when history is cleared; #31752 changes when clear is queued and whether it waits for the persistence worker.
Suggested labels:bugfix
Suggested reviewers:marcodotio, adamulek123
Merge Risk: Minimal · up to a7353
The change reduces terminal-log disk writes by appending new output instead of rewriting the full history, with fallback to a full rewrite when needed. No actionable merge-blocking risk is evident; the active log can temporarily grow to twice the replay limit, which is an intended tradeoff.
Pre-merge checks: 4
Check name
Status
Explanation
Title check
The title "fix(server): persist terminal output without rewriting all history" matches the main change. The changeset makes terminal-history persistence append only new output since the last successfu…
Description check
The description follows the template's main sections and gives a clear problem statement, change summary, scope, and detailed verification. It links issue #20535 and explains the design, its limits, a…
Linked Issues check
[#20535] The whole-PR diff of apps/server/src/terminal/Manager.ts implements the requested append-based persistence. BoundedTerminalHistory.persistenceUpdate returns only output appended since the s…
Out of Scope Changes check
[#20535] The whole-PR changes to Manager.ts address terminal-history persistence only. These are the cursor and generation tracking, the append path, compaction triggers, and load-time compaction with…
Full details: Title check
Explanation
The title "fix(server): persist terminal output without rewriting all history" matches the main change. The changeset makes terminal-history persistence append only new output since the last successful flush, and falls back to full snapshots in defined cases. The title uses a conventional commit prefix and names the server component. It is specific and does not list files.
Full details: Description check
Explanation
The description follows the template's main sections and gives a clear problem statement, change summary, scope, and detailed verification. It links issue #20535 and explains the design, its limits, and the unverified areas. Two template items are weak. The Scope section does not state a plain bug-fix rationale beyond the linked issue, which is acceptable. The template asks for a model and harness line, and the description provides one (GPT-5-based Codex, Codex desktop). The Problem section is a single paragraph that does not state expected behavior explicitly, but the expected behavior is implied by the issue link. Overall the description is mostly complete.
Full details: Linked Issues check
Explanation
[#20535] The whole-PR diff of apps/server/src/terminal/Manager.ts implements the requested append-based persistence. BoundedTerminalHistory.persistenceUpdate returns only output appended since the stored cursor when the cursor generation matches and the tail is still retained. It returns a full snapshot otherwise. The worker writes with flag "a" for eligible updates. It compacts with a full w write when the file would exceed maxBytes * 2. Generation bumps cover clear() and split-surrogate joins. Immediate lifecycle flushes pass no cursor and write the capped history. The worker deletes the cursor before each write, so a failed or partial append restarts from a full snapshot. Load-time compaction now writes through a temporary file and rename. Non-migration compaction failures log a warning and keep the existing file. The #20535 objective is to avoid rewriting unchanged history while keeping existing caps. The implementation meets it. Test coverage was assessed from the previous review and the PR summary. The test file was not re-read in this pass.
Full details: Out of Scope Changes check
Explanation
[#20535] The whole-PR changes to Manager.ts address terminal-history persistence only. These are the cursor and generation tracking, the append path, compaction triggers, and load-time compaction with temp-file recovery. Load-time compaction supports reading the larger append-based file and is tied to the same objective. No unrelated terminal, client, provider, or replay-contract change appears in the whole-PR Manager.ts diff. The incremental diff between reviewed heads was too large to read in full. The whole-PR file diff was used as the scope evidence. Human approval of the persistence design is a process item, not a coding requirement.
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Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 110bb0d and a7353ca.
Files selected for processing: 2
apps/server/src/terminal/Manager.test.ts
apps/server/src/terminal/Manager.ts
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kept @nateEc's implementation and commits, merged current main (53896aea76), removed three non-null assertions from the persistence result, and strengthened the existing regression to restore an un-compacted 80 kib log through a fresh manager with a 64 kib replay cap. no new test files or unrelated changes. the full diff remains two terminal manager files.
verification at 9923e5b2e6fea248828bc08554acb0628eb01b50:
reproduced on current main: the original regression fails with 1,114,112 bytes written against a 131,072-byte ceiling.
blacksmith: all 46 manager tests pass, including partial-append failure recovery, clears, unicode, compaction, and cold replay. vp run check:changed passes format, lint, both knip checks, graphql, affected typechecks, and focused tests. one existing lint warning remains.
github checks settled successfully, with expected skips. coderabbit reports no actionable findings; macroscope correctness passes. two independent read-only reviews approve this exact head.
unverified: live pty/client/provider interaction, desktop/mobile, relay/tunnel, crash/power-loss durability, and whole-app performance. this is server-only persistence work, with no ui change or visual evidence.
review decision: active logs can reach 2× the replay cap, 16 mib per terminal at the default 8 mib cap. another append beyond that bound rewrites the capped snapshot; lifecycle flushes also compact. cold reads cap the tail. compaction retains the existing non-atomic truncate/write behavior, and failed append recovery requires a later flush. macroscope still requests human approval of this persistence design. that approval is not claimed here.
verified unchanged head 9923e5b2e6fea248828bc08554acb0628eb01b50 on a disposable linux vm, after reproducing on github/main at 9bc4138923. ran one dev server at a time with isolated state, repo playwright, and /usr/bin/google-chrome. created the project and threads through the app against a real git repo. real codex gpt-6.1-sol turns completed on both revisions.
typed an 8 mib terminal workload followed by sixteen 1 kib updates through the web terminal drawer. syscall traces of the actual terminal log showed 134,217,728 bytes written on main versus 16,453 bytes on this head for the final sixteen flushes. main used truncate/write; the pr used append. the final update includes the completion marker and shell prompt. this measures log writes, with no cpu or whole-app throughput claim.
streamed another 16 mib through the same terminal. compaction occurred twice; the largest completed file was 16,270,004 bytes, below the 16 mib bound, and the final snapshot was 8 mib.
abruptly stopped and restarted the server with an 8,405,330-byte append log. the reconnected client restored an exact 524,160-byte suffix plus the existing input-reset sequence, preserving the completion marker within the existing 512 kib cold replay window.
authenticated terminal.clear returned success and persisted zero bytes. subsequent unicode output survived a browser reload without bringing old history back. the rocket's utf-8 bytes persisted correctly; this vm's terminal font shows a missing glyph.
reran the existing terminal-manager suite through blacksmith: 46 tests passed. github checks on this head have no failures or pending runs, with expected skips and a neutral design-approval check. no source changes, commits, or pushes were needed.
terminal output and drawer reopen, recorded in the real client:
Not verified
native electron, ios/android, macos/windows, relay/tunnel, other providers, real disk-full/permission-error/power-loss conditions, and whole-app performance. partial-append failure recovery was covered by the existing focused tests, not a live disk failure. the persistence design still needs the human approval already requested in the discussion; this verification does not claim that approval.
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merged current main (6d4633647694) into the existing head without rebasing. resolved the test conflict by keeping both append-persistence regressions and main's process-queue retention regression. the diff against main remains two files, 175 additions and one deletion. no algorithm changes or new test files.
verified e8a8678d5a5b56bee2117abba2e07904ead7c607 through blacksmith: all 82 terminal-manager tests pass; vp run check:changed github/main passes format, lint, both knip checks, graphql, three package typechecks, and 83 tests. two independent read-only reviews approve this head with no findings. ci is running after the non-force push.
the live client/provider verification already in this discussion was on the prior head; it was not repeated for this merge-only update. human approval of the persistence design remains outstanding.
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Actionable comments posted: 1
Fix comments: Fix CodeRabbit comments on this PR
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Inline comments:
Review comments at @apps/server/src/terminal/Manager.ts:
- Around line 1068-1074: Update readHistory so failures while writing
non-migration compaction are best-effort: keep the original history file intact
and return the decoded, capped history so openWithWorkspaceLease can continue
creating the session. Preserve existing migration error handling.
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Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 9923e5b and e8a8678.
Files selected for processing: 2
apps/server/src/terminal/Manager.test.ts
apps/server/src/terminal/Manager.ts
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Emit 4,300 lines of 1,999 characters in a real integrated-terminal PTY, then 80 approximately 1 KiB updates at 100 ms intervals. Monitor actual history-file syscalls. Follow with a separate 9 MiB burst to exercise compaction, then close/reopen, check recent Unicode replay, clear, and reopen again. Both sides use real Linux development servers with fresh synthetic project/thread state.
Recordings render the captured server syscall timeline, not the web UI. Head's supplemental burst caused one compaction and 60 append opens; its maximum active file was 16,755,239 bytes, below 16 MiB. Both sides restored 524,278 bytes of recent replay including the Unicode marker and excluding oldest output. Clear persisted zero bytes and old output remained absent after reopening.
AI-assisted; verified with the tests and tools listed above.
Not shown:
Web, desktop and mobile rendering were not exercised; this proof directly observes the server persistence behavior through the app's terminal RPCs and real PTYs.
Split Unicode code-unit boundaries, partial disk-write/rename failures and abrupt server crashes were not exercised; ordinary multibyte output, normal close/reopen and clear were captured.
Compaction was observed during a separately identified faster burst, not during a long-duration 1 KiB-per-100-ms run.
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Terminal output currently rewrites all retained history on every debounced flush. At the cap, even a 1 KiB update rewrites 8 MiB. This is the disk-write amplification reproduced by maintainers in https://git.cafe/pingdotgg/t3code/issues/20535.
Append only the output since the last successful flush. Compact back to the existing bounded history when the file would exceed twice the byte limit, when pending output was evicted, after clear, or when a split surrogate changes already-encoded text. Immediate lifecycle flushes still write the exact capped history. A failed append invalidates its cursor so the next flush repairs the file from a full snapshot.
The file remains plain text; replay limits, debounce, live output, and client/provider contracts are unchanged. While a terminal is active, its file can temporarily reach 16 MiB with the default 8 MiB replay limit. No new format or migration is required.
Scope and approval: maintainer triage and runtime reproduction establish the existing failure. This PR only changes terminal-history persistence for that defect. That triage is not approval of this particular compaction design: the temporary 2× disk bound and recovery algorithm still require human review, as Macroscope noted. No explicit approval of that design is claimed.
Verification (macOS arm64, Node 26.12.1, isolated temporary state):
open -> fill -> 16 acknowledged writes -> close -> reopen; retained history is 49,152abytes followed by 16,384bbytes. No sleeps/polling in the test; it awaits filesystem write acknowledgments.vp test run apps/server/src/terminal/Manager.test.ts: 45 passed.vp run check:changed: format, lint, knip, generated GraphQL, affected typechecks, and focused tests passed. Existing unrelated lint warning remains.Maria's Linux runtime verification on unchanged head 9923e5b measured the actual terminal log after an 8 MiB workload and sixteen 1 KiB updates: 134,217,728 bytes written on main versus 16,453 bytes on this PR for those final flushes. It also verified repeated compaction, abrupt server restart/reconnect, clear, Unicode output and browser reload; all 46 terminal-manager tests passed in that environment. The linked report includes the command transcript and client recordings.
This is a server-only fix shared by web, desktop, mobile and remote clients. The runtime evidence measures terminal-log writes, not whole-app CPU/throughput. Native Electron/mobile, Windows/macOS live workloads, relay/tunnel and real disk-full/power-loss conditions remain unverified. The persistence design still requires human approval.
Fixes https://git.cafe/pingdotgg/t3code/issues/20535.
Model: GPT-5-based Codex. Harness: Codex desktop.
Fixes #20535