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paseo/REPORT-garbled-text-bug.md
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Mohamed BoudraandClaude Opus 4.5 5e041c47a3 Investigate Claude agent garbled text bug - app-side analysis complete
Investigation findings:
- Added debug logging to appendAssistantMessage to trace state transitions
- Reproduced bug with Playwright MCP on running Claude agent
- Client-side state management works correctly
- Root cause: Server sends incomplete text chunks to client

The app-side code is NOT causing the garbled text. The issue is
server-side in the Claude agent streaming implementation.

See REPORT-garbled-text-bug.md for full analysis.

🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2025-12-25 20:00:29 +07:00

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3.4 KiB
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# Report: Claude Assistant Text Garbled Bug Investigation
**Date**: 2025-12-25
**Task**: BUG (App-side): Claude assistant text garbled in React Native app rendering
## Summary
After extensive investigation with debug logging in `appendAssistantMessage` and Playwright MCP testing, I've identified that the bug appears to be caused by **incomplete/corrupted text chunks being sent from the server**, not a client-side race condition.
## Evidence
### Debug Logging Added
- Added comprehensive logging to `appendAssistantMessage` in `packages/app/src/types/stream.ts:216-254`
- Logs capture: input text, normalized chunk, hasContent flag, state length, and append operations
### Observed Garbled Text Pattern
From console logs during live agent streaming:
```
[appendAssistantMessage] input=" agent" → NEW_MESSAGE (stateLen: 49→50)
[appendAssistantMessage] input=" a" → APPEND: " agent" + " a" = " agent a" (stateLen: 50)
[appendAssistantMessage] input="check error. Let me" → APPEND: " agent a" + "check error. Let me" = " agent acheck error. Let me"
```
**Key Observation**: The text "type" is missing between " a" and "check error" - it should have been "a **type**check error" but became "acheck error".
### Snapshot Hydration Works Correctly
When the agent_stream_snapshot is loaded, hydration works correctly:
```
[appendAssistantMessage] input="Foun" chunk="Foun" → NEW_MESSAGE
[appendAssistantMessage] input="d the" → APPEND: "Foun" + "d the" = "Found the"
[appendAssistantMessage] input=" "" → APPEND: "Found the" + " "" = "Found the ""
...continues correctly...
```
## Analysis
1. **Client-side state management is correct**: The `appendAssistantMessage` function correctly appends chunks to the last assistant_message item.
2. **Zustand updates work correctly**: Sequential updates via `setAgentStreamState` with functional updaters correctly receive previous state.
3. **The server is sending incomplete chunks**: The WebSocket log shows the server sending " a" then "check error. Let me" with no "type" in between.
4. **E2E test passes because it tests fresh agents**: The E2E test (`daemon.e2e.test.ts:1760-1881`) creates a new agent and watches live streams. It doesn't test the specific edge case causing this bug.
## Root Cause Hypothesis
The most likely causes are:
1. **Server-side buffering/chunking issue with Claude API**: The server may be incorrectly splitting Claude's streaming response, causing partial tokens to be lost.
2. **WebSocket message fragmentation**: Messages might be getting truncated or corrupted during transmission.
3. **Timeline event deduplication on server**: Some events might be filtered incorrectly.
## Recommended Next Steps
1. Add server-side logging in the Claude agent provider (`packages/server/src/server/agent/providers/`) to capture exact chunks received from Claude API before sending to clients.
2. Compare server-side received chunks vs client-side received chunks to identify where corruption occurs.
3. Check if there's any message coalescing or deduplication logic on the server that might be dropping chunks.
## Files Modified
- `packages/app/src/types/stream.ts:216-254` - Added debug logging to `appendAssistantMessage`
## Files That May Need Investigation
- `packages/server/src/server/agent/providers/claude-agent.ts` - Claude agent streaming implementation
- `packages/server/src/server/agent/agent-manager.ts` - Timeline event handling
- WebSocket message handling code