[juliusmarminge]

Problem

When the desktop's renderer and local backend are killed together while the Electron main process survives, the window reloads after 500 ms and lands on a fatal "Primary environment request failed during fetch-session-state (HTTP 500)" screen. It stays there until the user clicks Reload, even though the backend is back a few seconds later. On macOS this happens when the user force-quits an app an agent launched. To reproduce on Linux, send SIGTERM to the renderer, GPU and network helpers and the backend child. The window is still on the error screen 30 s later, and the backend was ready again after 3.5 s.

Change

The auth bootstrap already retries for 15 s, and isTransientBootstrapError already meant to retry fetch failures through its TypeError branch. That branch never fires: fetchSessionState and exchangeBootstrapCredential wrap every failure in a PrimaryEnvironmentRequestError inside the retried operation, and fromCause maps a transport failure with no response to status 500. 500 is not in {502, 503, 504}, so the first refused connection was fatal.

isTransientBootstrapError now also treats a PrimaryEnvironmentRequestError as transient when its cause is an HttpClientError whose reason is TransportError (no HTTP response). A real HTTP 500 response still fails at once. The retry budget, the status reported by fromCause and the other callers do not change.

Scope and approval

Fixes #26604

This PR fixes the second half of the issue: the reloaded window never retries. The first half is macOS attributing an agent-launched app to T3 Code's process coalition, so force-quitting that app kills the renderer and backend. That needs native spawn changes and is not part of this PR.

Verification

• vp test run src/authBootstrap.test.ts src/environments/primary/ (apps/web): 3 files, 17 tests pass. The new test resolveInitialServerAuthGateState > retries the desktop bootstrap while the backend is still unreachable fails on main with the reported chain: PrimaryEnvironmentRequestError … fetch-session-state (HTTP 500), caused by HttpClientError: Transport error, caused by TypeError: Failed to fetch.
• vp run check:changed: format, lint, knip, typecheck and tests all pass.
• Built Linux desktop (vp run build:desktop) under Xvfb, fresh T3 home, the same driver on both sides. The driver sends SIGTERM to the renderer, GPU and network helpers and the backend child, which are all descendants of the Electron main PID captured at spawn. Main survives. It records snapshots and DOM text over CDP at +2, +8, +20 and +30 s.
  • Before (886d8f6): fatal screen at +1.4 s. The backend was ready again at +3.5 s, and the window was still on the fatal screen at +30 s.
  • After (3866aa3, same code as the head): the T3 splash shows while the bootstrap retries. The window is back on the app at +8 s and still there at +30 s.
  • Variants on main: a renderer-only kill and a backend-only kill both recover. The failure needs the renderer to reload while the backend is down.

Before 886d8f6, +30 s after kill	After 3866aa3, +30 s after kill

Timelines: before-886d8f6812-timeline.txt, after-3866aa31f3-timeline.txt. Driver: drive.sh, cdp-text.mjs.

Not checked: macOS itself. The coalition kill that triggers this cannot run on Linux. The fixed code path is platform-independent, and this run reproduced it with the same set of killed processes.

Model and harness: Claude Opus 5.5 (claude-opus-5-5) in Claude Code via T3 Code, with Codex gpt-6.1-sol reviewers.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

[macroscopeapp]

Approvability

Verdict: Approved at 9176df7

Macroscope's review found this PR approvable — Wrapped transport failures now use the existing bounded bootstrap retry mechanism, allowing recovery when the backend restarts. Authentication requirements and retry limits remain unchanged.

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[coderabbitai]

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Recent review info

Run configuration

• Source mode: Auto
• Repository: pingdotgg/t3code
• Branch: fix/issue-26604
• File: .coderabbit.config.ts
• Commit: 9176df7
• Layers: Repository TS config
• Review profile: CHILL
• Plan: Team
• Run ID: c842bc22-1933-4d81-9599-09e5aa94fda2

Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between 9e09926 and 9176df7.

Files selected for processing: 3

• apps/web/src/authBootstrap.test.ts
• apps/web/src/environments/primary/auth.ts
• apps/web/test/environmentHttpTest.ts

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Walkthrough

The primary bootstrap retry check now treats wrapped HTTP transport errors as transient. A regression test simulates a failed first desktop bootstrap request, then verifies that a later attempt authenticates and exchanges the desktop bootstrap credential once.

Changes: Desktop bootstrap retry

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Classify and test transport retries apps/web/src/environments/primary/auth.ts, apps/web/test/environmentHttpTest.ts, apps/web/src/authBootstrap.test.ts	The transient-error check recognizes wrapped HttpClientError transport failures. The HTTP test helper returns its runtime-backed runner, and the regression test verifies authentication after an initial transport failure.

Priority: Normal

Estimated code review effort: 2 (Simple) | ~10 minutes

Change: Bug fix · Severity of issue fixed: Medium

Possibly related issues

• pingdotgg/t3code#23378 — Reports a similar bootstrap failure when the backend is unavailable. This change adds retry handling for wrapped transport errors.
• pingdotgg/t3code#26162 — Reports a first-open bootstrap failure during backend startup. This change addresses a related retry path, though the issue describes a different IPC error wrapper.

Possibly related PRs

• pingdotgg/t3code#25526 — Both changes add retry handling to authentication-related requests during temporary unavailability.
• pingdotgg/t3code#21780 — Both changes address desktop startup while the local backend is unavailable.

Suggested labels: bugfix, size:S

Suggested reviewers: t3dotgg, maria-rcks

Merge Risk: Minimal · up to 9176d

Desktop bootstrap retries transport failures; no merge-blocking risk is evident.

Pre-merge checks: 4

Check name	Status	Explanation
Title check		The title clearly and concisely describes the primary change: desktop recovery when the backend restarts during a renderer reload.
Description check		The description includes complete Problem, Change, Scope and approval, and Verification sections. It explains the failure, the retry logic change, issue scope, focused tests, desktop validation, limit…
Linked Issues check		For directly linked issue #26604, the change makes a wrapped PrimaryEnvironmentRequestError transient when its cause is an HttpClientError with TransportError. It preserves immediate failure for…
Out of Scope Changes check		The changes are limited to bootstrap retry classification and supporting test infrastructure. The added test helper return value supports the new retry test. No unrelated product behavior or native pr…

Full details: Description check

Explanation

The description includes complete Problem, Change, Scope and approval, and Verification sections. It explains the failure, the retry logic change, issue scope, focused tests, desktop validation, limitations, and agent details.

Full details: Linked Issues check

Explanation

For directly linked issue #26604, the change makes a wrapped PrimaryEnvironmentRequestError transient when its cause is an HttpClientError with TransportError. It preserves immediate failure for real HTTP 500 responses because the new condition checks the cause type and reason. The added authBootstrap.test.ts test covers an unreachable backend followed by recovery and verifies authenticated bootstrap. The separate macOS process-coalition problem is explicitly outside this PR's stated scope.

Full details: Out of Scope Changes check

Explanation

The changes are limited to bootstrap retry classification and supporting test infrastructure. The added test helper return value supports the new retry test. No unrelated product behavior or native process-spawn changes are included.

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