snapshot-debug

name	snapshot-debug
description	Investigate and debug Ghostty scrollback snapshot persistence issues. Use when scrollback restore fails after app restart, upgrade, or rebase+rebuild. Use when investigating missing manifests, FileNotFound errors, UUID mismatches, or cleanup race conditions. Also use to take pre/post restart inventory of snapshots for QA validation.

Snapshot Debug

Diagnostic toolkit for Ghostty's binary scrollback persistence feature. Covers the full save/load/cleanup lifecycle and known failure modes.

Quick Commands

Snapshot inventory

Decode all GSNP manifest headers and display session metadata:

uv run .claude/skills/snapshot-debug/scripts/snapshot_inventory.py

Save inventory for pre/post restart comparison:

uv run .claude/skills/snapshot-debug/scripts/snapshot_inventory.py --save /tmp/snap-before.json

JSON output for programmatic use:

uv run .claude/skills/snapshot-debug/scripts/snapshot_inventory.py --json

Restore logs

Check macOS unified logs for scrollback restore activity. Write the predicate via a temp script to avoid shell quoting issues with the Bash tool:

cat > /tmp/gl.sh << 'SCRIPT'
#!/bin/bash
log show --last "${1:-5m}" --info \
  --predicate 'subsystem == "com.mitchellh.ghostty"' \
  --style compact
SCRIPT
chmod +x /tmp/gl.sh

# Then filter for restore-related messages:
/tmp/gl.sh 10m 2>&1 | grep -i 'scrollback\|persist\|restore\|cleanup\|manifest'

The log show predicate requires specific quoting that the Bash tool mangles. Always use the script wrapper above.

Log levels in release builds

Level	Visibility	Examples
info	Release + Debug	persisted scrollback restore loaded, restore disabled, restore unavailable
warn	Release + Debug	persisted scrollback restore skipped path=... err=..., hydration failures
debug	Debug only	persisted scrollback save enabled/disabled, PersistedState.init details

QA Workflow: Pre/Post Restart Comparison

Before restart

uv run .claude/skills/snapshot-debug/scripts/snapshot_inventory.py --save /tmp/snap-before.json

Note the UUID count and key sessions (by pwd/title).

After restart

# Check what's on disk now
uv run .claude/skills/snapshot-debug/scripts/snapshot_inventory.py

# Check restore logs
/tmp/gl.sh 10m 2>&1 | grep -i 'scrollback\|persist\|restore'

# Compare UUIDs
python3 -c "
import json
before = {e['uuid'][:8]: e for e in json.load(open('/tmp/snap-before.json'))}
after_raw = $(uv run .claude/skills/snapshot-debug/scripts/snapshot_inventory.py --json)
# Or just visually compare the two inventory outputs
"

What to look for:

• All restore loaded: everything worked
• restore skipped err=error.FileNotFound: manifest deleted before load — check UUID mismatch or cleanup race
• restore skipped err=error.InvalidSnapshot: binary format mismatch (version or corrupt data)
• restore disabled reason=...: config prevents restore (snapshot-limit=0)
• restore unavailable reason=no-session-id: no session ID provided by apprt
• Missing UUIDs: compare before/after — if UUIDs changed entirely, macOS state restoration gave back different surface IDs (app upgrade scenario)
• error flushing persisted scrollback: save side failing — manifest path or directory missing

Architecture

Binary format (GSNP v1)

Offset  Size   Field
0       4      Magic: "GSNP"
4       2      Version: 1 (u16 LE)
6       2      Flags (bit 0: has_alternate)
8       8      Reserved (zeros)
16      8      Timestamp (i64 LE, unix seconds)
24      2      Cols (u16 LE)
26      2      Rows (u16 LE)
28      4+N    Session ID (u32 length + UTF-8)
...     4+N    PWD (u32 length + UTF-8)
...     4+N    Title (u32 length + UTF-8)
...     ...    Primary screen block (styles + rows + graphemes)
...     ...    Alternate screen block (if flagged)

Cells are serialized as @bitCast(u64) of the packed Cell struct. If Cell layout changes upstream, existing snapshots produce garbage. Check src/terminal/page.zig for Cell = packed struct(u64).

Save flow

terminal content changes
  → markPersistedScrollbackDirtyLocked() sets dirty=true
  → persistedScrollbackCallback (timer) or stopCallback (shutdown)
    → capturePersistedScrollback()
      → snapshot.write() serializes primary + alternate screens
      → verifies non-empty via snapshot.read() roundtrip
    → persisted_scrollback.publish()
      → writes to manifest.tmp (mode 0o600)
      → atomic rename to manifest path

Key files:

• src/termio/Termio.zig — orchestration, dirty tracking, capture
• src/termio/persisted_scrollback.zig — file I/O, atomic publish
• src/terminal/snapshot.zig — binary serialization

Load flow

Surface.init (macOS state restoration)
  → apprt passes surface UUID as surface_cfg.surfaceUUID
  → embedded.zig extracts surface_uuid directly (not via env map)
  → embedded.zig passes session_id to core Surface.init opts
  → Surface.zig forwards opts.session_id to termio.Options
  → Termio.init receives session_id directly
    → maybeLoadPersistedScrollback(alloc, config, session_id)
      → persisted_scrollback.manifestPath(alloc, session_id) derives path
      → persisted_scrollback.load() reads file
      → snapshot.read() deserializes binary data
    → hydrateRestoredTerminal() populates terminal screen
    → restoredSessionMarker() appends "[Restored ...]" label

Key files:

• src/apprt/embedded.zig — extracts surface_uuid, passes as session_id
• src/Surface.zig — forwards opts.session_id to termio Options
• src/termio/Termio.zig — maybeLoadPersistedScrollback, hydration
• src/termio/persisted_scrollback.zig — manifestPath, load

Cleanup flow

ghostty_app_new (app startup)
  → persisted_scrollback.cleanupStaleSessions(alloc, 7 days)
    → scans $XDG_STATE_HOME/ghostty/session/*/
    → checks manifest mtime for each session directory
    → deletes directories whose manifest is older than retention period
    → active sessions stay fresh via the 300ms save timer

Key files:

• src/apprt/embedded.zig — calls cleanupStaleSessions during app init
• src/termio/persisted_scrollback.zig — cleanupStaleSessions, sessionBaseDir

UUID lifecycle

Surface creation:
  SurfaceView.init() → self.id = uuid ?? UUID()  (new or restored)

Encoding (app quit / state save):
  encode(to:) → saves id.uuidString to NSCoder

Decoding (app restore):
  init(from decoder:) → reads uuidString → UUID(uuidString:)

Session ID plumbing (direct, no env map):
  Swift: surface_cfg.surfaceUUID = self.id.uuidString
  → C config: ghostty_surface_config_s.surface_uuid
  → embedded.zig: extracts uuid, passes as session_id to Surface.init opts
  → Surface.zig: forwards opts.session_id to termio.Options.session_id
  → Termio: persisted_scrollback.manifestPath(alloc, session_id)
    → $XDG_STATE_HOME/ghostty/session/{uuid}/manifest

Known Bugs

Bug 1: Env var lost via changeConditionalState (FIXED — eliminated)

Status: Root cause eliminated by refactor. The session ID now flows as a direct parameter on termio.Options, bypassing the config env map entirely. The manifest path env var no longer exists.

Historical context: Surface.zig:init calls changeConditionalState which rebuilds config from replay steps. Programmatic env vars were lost in the rebuild. This affected any theme-conditional config like theme = light:X,dark:Y. The TERM_SESSION_ID env var is still preserved via c.env = config_original.env in Surface.zig for child process use.

Bug 2: UUID mismatch on app upgrade (MITIGATED)

Status: Mitigated by time-based cleanup (7-day retention). Orphaned manifests are no longer deleted immediately — they survive until their mtime exceeds the retention period.

Remaining risk: If macOS assigns new UUIDs after an app upgrade, the old manifests exist on disk but the restored surfaces have different UUIDs. The restore will fail with error.FileNotFound for those sessions. The old manifests will be cleaned up after 7 days.

Diagnosis:

1. Run inventory before and after restart — UUIDs will be different
2. Logs show restore skipped err=error.FileNotFound for every surface
3. Old manifests still exist on disk (check inventory — they'll have old modification times and non-matching UUIDs)

Potential further fixes:

• Match manifests by content (pwd + session_id) rather than only by UUID
• Provide a manual recovery tool that remaps orphaned manifests to new UUIDs

Bug 3: Cleanup race condition (FIXED — eliminated)

Status: Root cause eliminated by refactor. The complex Swift registration/settlement/fallback state machine was replaced with a simple time-based mtime scan in the Zig core. No coordination with restoration timing is needed — active sessions keep their manifests fresh via the 300ms save timer, and stale sessions are cleaned up after 7 days.