[Bug]: "This T3 home is unavailable" after reboot with no T3 server running; fixed by moving server-owner.sqlite-journal and server-runtime.json

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Assessment

Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Newbie friendliness
52/100
Issue type
Bug
Clarity
Mostly clear
Activity status
Active
Tech stack
sqlite, typescript
Domain
databases, desktop

Research direction

Start in the apps/desktop area and trace startup checks for server-owner.sqlite, server-owner.sqlite-journal, and server-runtime.json. Reproduce or inspect how an abrupt exit leaves these files when no server is running, then identify why startup reports a live owner. Done when a stale ownership state no longer blocks launch while a genuinely running server still prevents conflicting access.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

bug needs-triage
Before submitting
  • I searched existing issues and did not find a duplicate.
  • I included enough detail to reproduce or investigate the problem.
Area

apps/desktop

Steps to reproduce

Not reliably reproducible. Sequence that led to it:

  1. T3 Code desktop app running normally on macOS.
  2. fseventsd started using ~15 GB of RAM and high CPU.
  3. The T3 Code process ended abruptly (it crashed, was force-quit, or was killed by the system under memory pressure). The server had no chance to shut down cleanly.
  4. Reboot the Mac. No T3 Code server or background service is running afterwards.
  5. Open T3 Code. The "This T3 home is unavailable" dialog appears (generic version, no PID or port) and the app quits.
  6. Confirm nothing holds the home: lsof ~/.t3/userdata/server-owner.sqlite prints nothing, ps aux shows no T3 processes, and there is no com.t3tools.t3code.service in launchctl or ~/Library/LaunchAgents.
  7. ~/.t3/userdata still contains server-owner.sqlite-journal (512 bytes) and a stale server-runtime.json, both left over from the abrupt exit.
  8. Quit T3 Code, move those two files out of ~/.t3/userdata, and reopen T3 Code. It starts normally.

Suspected cause: the abrupt termination in step 3 left stale ownership files that the next launch treats as a live owner.

Expected behavior

With no server holding the ownership lock and no live PID in server-runtime.json, T3 Code should start normally and ignore or clean up the stale files.

Actual behavior

The app shows "This T3 home is unavailable" with the generic message ("Another T3 Code server, such as the background service, is using this data directory...") and quits. Rebooting and running npx t3@latest service uninstall --base-dir ~/.t3 did not help. Moving the two stale files out of ~/.t3/userdata fixed it.

Impact

Blocks work completely

Version or commit

Version 0.1.7 (322f6544dfad)

Environment

MacOS 27.2.1

Logs or stack traces
State of ~/.t3/userdata while the error occurred (no T3 process running, lsof empty):

server-owner.sqlite            0 bytes
server-owner.sqlite-journal    512 bytes
server-runtime.json            269 bytes (its PID was not running)

No server log was captured from a failing launch.
Screenshots, recordings, or supporting files

No response

Workaround
  1. Quit T3 Code completely.
  2. Confirm nothing holds the home: lsof ~/.t3/userdata/server-owner.sqlite should print nothing, and ps aux should show no T3 processes.
  3. Move the stale files out of the data directory (keep a backup rather than deleting):
    mkdir -p ~/Desktop/t3-backup && mv ~/.t3/userdata/server-owner.sqlite-journal ~/.t3/userdata/server-runtime.json ~/Desktop/t3-backup/
  4. Reopen T3 Code.

Leave server-owner.sqlite itself in place. Only do this when no T3 server is running.

Note: rebooting and running npx t3@latest service uninstall --base-dir ~/.t3 did not fix it on their own. Reinstalling the background service on the same T3 home makes the dialog come back, since the service then holds the lock.

Dominant language
TypeScript
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