Files
reverse-engineering-anything/docs/desktop-application-export.md
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df2d018b30 feat(desktop): read gzip documents as the document inside (#9111)
* fix(desktop): release a capture when its start is cancelled after launch

Cancelling start_build_capture during the opened app's screenshot left
the capture running, so the next start was refused. The capture is now
kept for the owner's cleanup, and the next start stops it first.

* fix(desktop): keep a published witness error and tag an app data refusal

A second failure to close a published witness returns the original error,
so its record and cleanup lease stay bound. A reset the app itself
refuses is an AppDataRefusal; only a reply that is not that refusal stays
unsettled. A missing child of a cut view is undecided with the same
description in both evaluators, and the shared cases cover it.

* fix(desktop): align a cut view's missing text with the Python check

A missing child of a truncated view is undecided for the same sentence in both evaluators, including the pointer the view does not contain.

* fix(desktop): keep one published witness cleanup across retries

A published record and its bound cleanup error stay together. A later close failure returns that error, and the unused path that built a fresh adapter error is gone.

* fix(desktop): keep a bundle task read inside the witness result

A cancelled, refused, or failed read of the bundle's task files returns the witness's Result, including a cleanup lease when a handle would not close.

* test(desktop): pass the settle timing when reading a witness bundle

The witness takes the settle timing before the bundle path, so the bundle-read tests keep the path in its own argument.

* fix(desktop): bound a guest file answer and split a long controller argument

A data/get whose base64 answer would exceed a quarter of the V8 heap is refused before it is read. Controller JSON that exceeds Linux's single-argument limit travels as several arguments the controller joins.

* fix(desktop): keep an underreported guest file from raising its read

A data/get answer is admitted only when its base64 body fits in the heap quarter after the copies held during parse. Decoded bytes larger than the computer reported are dropped.

* fix(desktop): grade shipped seeds and keep selected settings and sqlite logs

Seed checks follow the files the bundle ships, so an omitted lock is absent. An incomplete checkpoint is not reported as no change. A selected link keeps its spelling, and a database's wal and journal stay supporting state. Closing the fake computer stops a detached capture.

* fix(desktop): keep added-record checks off ids, dates, and joined timestamps

A position-named record's fields keep their paths, so an identifier, a stamped date, and text past the limit are not suggested checks. A whole-text check does not climb into an ancestor whose text joins a timestamp.

* fix(desktop): bound home fetches and keep unsettled edits readable

Split home-folder reads by the guest answer budget, keep a capacity error
from the capture output, and drop the superseded task-argument refusal.
Grade kept text per line, leave unretained dconf unread, and reserve
by-position notes for XML children. Map a linked database's sidecars
through the selected spelling and stop a detached capture only when its
start identity still owns the pid.

* fix(desktop): describe unretained dconf as unread

The key comparison treats a missing copy as unknown. The comment still
said that copy counted as an empty key list.

* test(desktop): keep a capture capacity error through endedCapture

An output past the guest answer ceiling stays the resource constraint,
with its heap recovery and non-retryable status, instead of a generic
capture-exit message.

* fix(desktop): keep nested save times and formatting runs out of checks

A field check drops save-time leaves before it joins the field, so a nested
timestamp is not part of the suggested text. A text check beside a save time
uses the paragraph when the diff names a formatting run.

* test(desktop): read paragraph pointers from checks that have them

* test(desktop): expect a large task to export intact

The 96 KiB refusal is gone. A prompt past that size reaches the computer
and comes back unchanged, instead of failing before export.

* fix(desktop): keep real edits that save-side heuristics were dropping

Repeated unnamed fields stay content checks. A formula that still has
text is not renumbered with its ExprID. One gained style attribute is
the edit; a repeated fill-in stays upkeep. Phone numbers and plain
clock times stay text, and a decimal is the element's whole text. An
older verifier matches on the task it states, not its evaluator source.

* fix(desktop): cover repeated records and keep timestamps out of checks

An added record whose words are already in the seed still gets the list's
text when that text fits. Readiness is a start reason, so a final check
names seed locks without matching the message. Field text split by a
timestamp stays separate, and a timestamp line is not offered as a guard.

* fix(desktop): compare a cell's joined decimal within tolerance

The whole-element check keeps numeric tolerance, so 437.80 and a long
float still match 437.8, including when a run splits the digits. A
different number or other text does not. Both evaluators read an
element's text for that comparison.

* fix(desktop): grade a number from a complete XML element only

A tolerance check joins an element's text only in an XML file or an XML
archive entry, and leaves that check undecided when the view is cut, so a
dropped descendant cannot turn the kept runs into a passing number. A JSON
object with the same shape stays the value itself. Equivalent decimals and a
split run on a whole cell still match.

* fix(desktop): accept an older grader only when its index helper agrees

The witness still matches a bundle whose evaluator is this REA's, or the older
index expression alone when no path segment is a leading-zero number. A
truncated verifier, a changed grader, or that older helper beside a segment
such as 01 no longer counts as the same task.

* fix(desktop): require the added record and leave save times out of list checks

A record a selector names is checked itself, so its words have to be in that
record. When an unnamed record only repeats words the seed already has, a
list that holds a save time is checked by the text around that time. A later
save of the same records still passes, and a missing or rewritten record fails.

* fix(desktop): judge the older index helper by pointer segments only

A leading zero in a file name or a URL does not change how the older index
helper reads a pointer. The witness still rejects that helper when a pointer
segment is a number such as 01.

* fix(desktop): do not suggest list text the seed already passes

A repeated record is shown by text the seed does not hold. The seed's own
text is not a check. A pointer inside a check value is not a pointer segment
for the older index helper.

* fix(desktop): keep a linked settings file in the folder the link points at

A selected ~/.config alias no longer moves MuseScore settings to that alias.
The seed keeps settings/MuseScore or Documents, which is the path the export
opens the note from.

* fix(desktop): split home fetches by answer size and keep a size refusal

A batch of tiny files stops before each path's envelope exceeds the host
answer budget. A capture output past that ceiling stays a resource error
instead of becoming a generic exit.

* fix(desktop): seed a selected link under the path the app uses

The selected spelling wins, so ~/.config/MuseScore is not rewritten to the
folder it points at and the note stays the one launched document. A database
wal and journal follow that database. A launch argument is respelled the same
way. Teardown signals a detached PID only when its start identity still matches.

* fix(desktop): keep a witness's actions and an incomplete checkpoint

A failed witness save retries the action log it first recorded. A deletion
left unconfirmed between the seed and the end is not reported as no change.
Windows packs npm through a shell, which can start npm.cmd.

* fix(desktop): read verifier pointers from the parsed checks

A brace inside a check value is not an object boundary. A leading-zero
pointer after that value still rejects the older index helper.

* fix(desktop): prefer the most specific home spelling and retarget launch files

A selected parent directory no longer hides a settings folder walked through
a link. A launch filename under that folder is replaced with the seeded
file's absolute path.

* fix(desktop): pack the build runtime through npm's JavaScript entry

npm pack and npm ci no longer spawn npm.cmd through a shell, so a temporary
directory whose path contains spaces stays one argument.

* fix(desktop): spell launch settings and keep a database log exact

A database log matches only that file, so a neighboring folder is not moved.
A launch option and the working directory use the same home spelling as the seed.

* fix(desktop): move a state database's logs with the database

The write-ahead log and journal follow the spelling the database received,
including a walked state link. A neighboring folder stays put. A separate
--config argument uses that spelling too.

* fix(desktop): keep a selected file ahead of a database-log guess

A file selected as itself keeps that spelling even when its name ends in
-journal. Relative launch arguments are resolved in the captured working
directory before that directory moves.

* fix(desktop): keep outside-home database logs and option values

A selected database outside the home keeps its write-ahead log. Launch
options are rewritten only when they name a captured file or settings path.

* fix(desktop): follow a database mapping and own limitation text

A selected database keeps its log when a parent folder moves or the file
sits outside the home. Trash and seed-lock tests compare the owning notice
with the paths, and launch options that are not captured paths stay as written.

* fix(desktop): retarget a settings folder that holds captured files

A nested profile directory is a captured path when a seeded file is inside
it. An option value that only resolves under the home stays as written.

* fix(desktop): keep a program word and a directory's neighbor

The program after env stays the program even when a captured file sits in a
folder of that name. A selected directory is not a database, so a neighboring
file keeps the parent folder's spelling.

* fix(desktop): record whether a selected path is a directory

Capture stores the walked path's kind. A neighboring file of a selected
directory keeps the parent folder's spelling even when that directory never
changes and its children are not content roots.

* fix(desktop): mark containing paths without a pairwise scan

A recorded path marks its known ancestors as directories in one walk up
the path, instead of comparing every recorded path with every other.

* fix(desktop): keep a selected folder that is named like a database log

A folder the caller selected stays a selected root when its name ends in
-journal or -wal. A generated log beside a database file still does not.

* fix(desktop): refuse a build command that exceeds the argument vector

Splitting one argument still leaves the whole command under Linux's E2BIG
limit. A request past that budget is refused before the process starts.

* fix(desktop): remap a captured path in an env assignment

The program word stays the program. A NAME=value assignment keeps its name
and follows a captured path value when that path's spelling moves.

* fix(desktop): keep oversized text out of draft guards

A value or line longer than the draft's text bound is not copied into a
guard, so one large frame cannot fill the task by itself.

* fix(desktop): keep an empty env value empty

An empty assignment is not a path. Resolving it named the working directory
and rewrote the value when that directory's spelling moved.

* fix(desktop): check build runtime export capability

* fix(desktop): provide complete runtime repack command

* fix(desktop): retain runtime probe failures

* test(desktop): identify capture independently of schema preflight

* fix(desktop): preserve document URLs and value formats

* fix(desktop): bound added checks and omit noisy text guards

* fix(desktop): preserve launch URLs and JSON draft values

* fix(desktop): recognize captured file URL documents

* fix(desktop): render captured file URLs for runtime home

* fix(desktop): distinguish phone numbers from save metadata

* fix(desktop): preserve launch URLs and user text

* fix(desktop): preserve local file URL authority

* fix(desktop): preserve local file URL authority

* fix(desktop): render captured file URLs at launch

* fix(desktop): classify numeric timestamps using field context

* fix(desktop): classify numeric timestamps using field context

* fix(desktop): retain context for generated draft values

* fix(desktop): retain context for generated draft values

* test(desktop): cover generated IDs in text guards

* test(desktop): cover generated IDs in text guards

* fix(desktop): isolate launcher URL encoding

* fix(desktop): isolate launcher URL encoding

* fix(desktop): isolate launcher URL encoding

* fix(desktop): retain clean text in noisy record fields

* style(desktop): format the noisy-record draft files with the pinned oxfmt

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* test(desktop): move launch execution to boundary suite

* fix(desktop): redact build schema failure output

* refactor(desktop): normalize schema failure once

* fix(desktop): omit unsafe schema parser snippets

* fix(desktop): preserve draft change and selected path evidence

* test(desktop): group retained dconf note regressions

* fix(desktop): respect archive entry format in draft checks

* test(desktop): separate unowned-file draft note cases

* docs(desktop): clarify task checks before scratch export

* fix(desktop): respell selected paths in file URLs

* test(desktop): group captured document spelling cases

* fix(desktop): bound draft preview serialization

* fix(desktop): restore selected state aliases

* fix(desktop): respect entry format in draft noise

* test(desktop): match exported alias evidence at its JSON boundary

* style: fix desktop launch test formatting

* style: format native command path schema

* fix(desktop): map selected external launch paths

* style(desktop): format seed document regressions

* test(desktop): group launch URL regressions

* fix(desktop): omit redundant nested state aliases

* fix(desktop): compare added free text as a whole

* fix(desktop): check recompressed seeds as shipped

* fix(desktop): map captured launch paths once

* refactor: remove unused whole-text guard state

* refactor: stop passing unused text children

* test: align free-text checks with whole-note policy

* fix: validate recompressed desktop archive seeds

* style(desktop): format archive seed regression

* fix(desktop): redact runtime schema errors

* fix(desktop): normalize captured file URLs

* fix(desktop): report seeded files by capture path

* fix(desktop): retain startup readiness failure stage

* fix(desktop): retain JSON date checks

* fix(desktop): preserve archive formatting checks

* fix(desktop): preserve explicitly selected journal files

* fix(desktop): report build command transport limits

* style(desktop): format capture review fixes

---------

Co-authored-by: Cursor Agent <cursoragent@cursor.com>
Co-authored-by: morluto <76467478+morluto@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-11-09 20:48:08 +08:00

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Markdown

# Desktop application export
`rea export-desktop-application <capture-folder> <directory>` turns a folder
written by [desktop application capture](desktop-application-capture.md) into an
agentenv bundle holding one computer app environment: the real application,
installed from the distribution archive, its vendor's apt repository or the
`.deb` file it was installed from on the `ubuntu-24.04` computer base, launched
at boot, seeded with the user's state and serving that state through agentenv's
data operations.
```sh
rea export-desktop-application ./mousepad-capture ./mousepad-bundle
agent-env run ./mousepad-bundle --dry-run
```
The export reads the capture and its [state view](desktop-application-state.md);
it does not run the application. `--name` sets the environment name; otherwise
it comes from the desktop entry id or the program, with an `app-` prefix when
that name would not be a portable bundle name (for example all digits). The
output directory must be new or empty. `--task` adds a task an agent wrote for
the capture, once REA has validated it against the capture; see
[desktop application tasks](desktop-application-tasks.md). `--package-url`
says where the computer downloads the package of an application installed from
a `.deb` file; see [Applications from a .deb file](#applications-from-a-deb-file).
`--seed-checkpoint` names the checkpoint whose state seeds the bundle, the
baseline by default, and `--end-checkpoint` the one a task must pass on, the
capture's last by default; see [The seed checkpoint](#the-seed-checkpoint).
`--synthetic-seed` says the seed was made for the task, as a build agent makes
it in a [build computer](desktop-build-witness.md), rather than taken from the
user's own data; see [A seed made for the task](#a-seed-made-for-the-task).
The command returns Evidence with operation `export_desktop_application` and
predicate type `rea.desktop-application-export`, listing the environment name,
the seed and end `checkpoints`, owned paths, seed files, the seeds it
rewrote to remove the capture host's name and user (`scrubbed_files`), the
gzip seeds it compressed again only to clear their headers
(`recompressed_files`), the bundle files that still hold them
(`unscrubbed_files`), and written files, the last four by their path in the
bundle. A failed export, cancellation
included, removes the bundle it had not yet published, so no partial copy of the
user's data remains. If the bundle was published but its output handles could
not be closed, the command reports a cleanup error that carries the export
Evidence; the bundle itself is complete.
## The bundle
| Path | Contents |
| -------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `envs/<name>/env.toml` | `type = "computer_app"`, the module and class, `computer = "ubuntu-24.04"`, `driver = "reference"` |
| `envs/<name>/<file>.py` | The `ComputerAppEnvironment` class |
| `envs/<name>/SKILL.md` | What the app is, its window class and where its files live |
| `envs/<name>/seed/` | The application's files at the seed checkpoint, by home-relative path |
| `envs/<name>/apt-keys/` | The signing key of each vendor apt repository the app installs from |
| `envs/<name>/install-package.sh` | With `--package-url`: the run script that installs the downloaded package with dpkg |
| `tasks/smoke.json` | A task that deploys the app |
| `tasks/<task>.json` | With `--task`: the agent's task, its verifier in `artifacts/` and the eval in `evals/` |
| `README.md` | What was exported, from which capture, and what to keep in mind |
The class file is `<name>_app.py` with hyphens as underscores, for example
`mousepad_app.py`: agentenv imports it under its stem, so a plain `<name>.py`
could shadow a standard library module such as `calendar`. A class name that
would collide with a name the module imports or defines, such as `Path`, takes
an `App` suffix.
The class declares:
- `Packages(apt=[...])` with the package the capture found. A vendor package
is named `<package>/<release>`, its repository's release (the Suite apt
reports as `a=`, or else its Codename), so apt takes it from that repository
even when the Ubuntu archive offers a higher version or epoch, as noble's
transitional `firefox` does over packages.mozilla.org's; it is named alone
when the release names neither, or when the capture was written before
releases were recorded. Its library packages follow, so a package that
leaves out dependencies on the libraries it loads, as Typora's Electron
package does, still starts; library packages the capture found neither the
Ubuntu 24.04 archive nor a declared repository offers are left out, with a
limitation, and so are those only repositories the export leaves out supply
(a repository's `supplies`), such as one whose key the capture could not
retain. An archive package's declared dependencies are trusted as they
are. When the desktop entry's package is not the one that owns the program
it runs, as `vim-common`'s entry runs `vim`'s program, the program's package
(`executable_package`) follows the app's by name, since the entry's package
need not depend on it; a capture that found no archive or declared
repository offering it records why, and the export refuses it with that
reason, as it does when only repositories it leaves out supply it, or when
no package owns the program at all (`executable_package_reason` without
`executable_package`). The package must come from the Ubuntu 24.04 archive
or a mirror of it,
or from a vendor apt repository whose signing key the capture verified and
retained. A source counts as the archive when apt reports its origin as
`Ubuntu` for a noble suite; a capture made before origins were recorded
counts only Canonical's own archive hosts.
- For a vendor repository, `sources=[AptSource(apt=..., suite=...,
components=[...], key="apt-keys/<name>.gpg")]`, with the retained key copied
to that path (`.asc` when it is armored, which agentenv tells by its
content). A PPA added with `add-apt-repository`, whose sources entry holds its
key in `Signed-By`, exports that key as `apt-keys/<name>.asc`. apt takes one
key per URI and suite, so sources that share them, such as one repository
listed for two architectures, are declared once, with their components
merged; one with a different key is left out. A repository
whose key the capture did not verify, an Ubuntu Pro (ESM) repository, one
whose sources entry's URI held a user name or password (which the capture
did not record and the export never writes; the reason names neither them
nor the URI), one not reached over http or https, or one whose `arch=`
restriction leaves out the capture host's architecture is refused with its
reason (a capture
written before restrictions were recorded counts as unrestricted); when
another usable repository lists the same version it is left out instead,
with a limitation. The export also refuses snaps, flatpaks, AppImages, and a
package no recorded repository lists unless it was installed from a `.deb`
file the capture recorded and `--package-url` is given, since the computer
could not install them by name, and a capture written before credentials
were removed whose repository URI still holds them, since it counted that
repository's libraries as installable; capture it again.
- `@computer_app(supports=...)` with both `amd64` and `arm64` for an archive
package, which the archive serves for both, and only the capture host's
architecture for a vendor package, since its repository may serve no other.
A vendor package captured on any other architecture is refused. A package
installed from its `.deb` file supports only that file's architecture.
- A launch at boot with the captured command, ready when a window of the
captured class appears and one of them is listed in the taskbar and is not
typed as a splash: a splash screen or a dialog of the class skips the
taskbar or says it is a splash, and an app whose splash shows first would
otherwise count as ready before its own window opens. Arguments that are the captured home or under it, and
`<option>=<path>` values under it, are respelled under the computer user's
`$HOME`. agentenv starts the app in its own folder, where an open or save
dialog would show the framework's files, so the command first changes to the
captured working directory (`"$HOME"` when that was the home, as for a
desktop entry without `Path`), which a relative argument or program path
such as `./app` also needs, and still starts if that folder is missing. The
export refuses a capture that saw no application window.
- The seed's document, opened at launch, so the app shows it rather than its
start screen: when the seed holds exactly one file the state view gives the
`document` role, and the desktop entry's `Exec` takes files (a `%f`, `%F`,
`%u` or `%U` field code), its path under `$HOME` is appended to the command.
A command that already names a document, absolute or from its working
directory, as one captured with `--argument <file>` does, is kept as it is;
a settings path under the home does not count. A seed with no document launches
as captured. With several, no desktop entry or an `Exec` that takes no file,
the app launches as captured and the README and the result's limitations say
why. A reset
relaunches the app, so it opens the document again.
- For an Electron application (the capture found its fuse sentinel or a
`resources/app.asar`), `--no-sandbox` right after the program unless the
command already has it: Chromium's sandbox needs user namespaces the
computer's container does not grant, and Electron exits without them. The
README and the result's limitations say the sandbox is off.
- `paths`: the state directories holding the application's state files and the
folders holding its documents, nested folders collapsed. A folder beside a
state directory whose name differs from it only in letter case is owned
whole in the files' spelling, so a `~/.config/GIMP` profile GIMP created
during the capture beside the candidate `~/.config/gimp` is owned as
`.config/GIMP`, not as the folder of its first file. The home itself and
the shared `.config`, `.local`, `.local/share`, `.local/state` and `.cache`
folders are never owned whole: a file directly in one is owned as itself.
Files the capture recorded under a symlinked state directory's physical
spelling are mapped back to the innermost such directory's home spelling,
unless that spelling is outside the captured home, as when the home itself is
a symbolic link. When a selected link names an application state directory,
the bundle seeds the application's state path and restores the selected
alias at boot. Selections nested under that alias are seeded under the same
state path. An existing incompatible alias stops setup without replacing it. When two files map to one home path, the export uses the one present
before the capture, else the first by path, and a limitation names the other.
- Data hooks, because declaring any hook switches off agentenv's default data
plane: the class seeds the home once per boot and keeps it as the initial
state with `keep_initial`, `data/add` and `data/reset` call agentenv's `add`
and `reset`, and `data/get` returns the files under `paths` plus a data part
with a typed JSON view of each, read in a worker thread. An application with
no observed state declares no paths and no hooks.
A file under the owned paths whose bytes at the seed the capture did not
retain is not seeded: one in the state view without retained content at that
checkpoint, or one the capture omitted (for example too large or past the
content budget). The result lists them in `unseeded_files` and the README
names them. When the application held files open in folders whose starting
content the capture did not retain, a limitation names those folders, spelled
from `~/` under the home: a file there is seeded only when the capture
retained it, as it does one written during the capture, and the limitation
names the seed files there or says there are none. The desktop Trash,
`~/.local/share/Trash`, is never the application's, so a file the user moved
there is neither owned nor seeded, even when a window title names it; a
limitation lists the files the Trash held at the seed.
Files that changed during the capture outside the owned paths are neither
owned nor seeded, so the app starts without what it saved there: MuseScore
keeps its settings in `~/.config/MuseScore`, which its name rules miss, and
showed its first-run wizard on every boot. A limitation and the README name
those folders, leaving out desktop services' files, each collapsed to its
folder in `~/.config`, `~/.local/share`, `~/.local/state` or `~/.local`, the
hidden folder of the home it lies in, or else its own folder, up to eight and
a count of the rest. Capture again naming them with `--state-path`, or
`state_paths` on a build computer, to own them.
Lock files the app holds while it runs are left out of the seed: a copied one
makes the app find its profile or document in use, and a LibreOffice Calc
bundle whose seed held its profile's `.lock` showed no window at boot. They
are `lockfile`, `lock`, `.lock`, `.parentlock`, `parent.lock` and
`SingletonLock` anywhere, LibreOffice's document lock `.~lock.<name>#`, and
`*.lock` or `*.lck` directly in one of the application's state directories.
Elsewhere such a file may be a project's own, such as `Cargo.lock` or
`yarn.lock`, which pin dependencies, and is seeded, even under a folder whose
name starts with a dot. A file the state view makes a document, or one named
itself by `--state-path` or an absolute `--argument`, is never left out,
whatever its name. A limitation and the README list them, up to
eight and a count, after "Left out of the seed". They stay under the owned
paths, so `data/get` returns the lock the running app holds, and `data/reset`
restores the seed without them. Other seed files the app keeps for its own
running are seeded as captured and named, collapsed to the folder that holds
them: WebKit or Chromium storage (such as `hsts-storage.sqlite`, `storage/`,
`mediakeys/`, `Local Storage/`, `IndexedDB/`, `Cookies`), which may hold the
app's own data, and caches (a folder whose name ends in `cache`); a stale one
can change how the app starts.
The application's dconf keys at the seed, if any, are written once when the
app first starts, also for an application that owns no files, and the class adds
`dconf-cli` to its apt packages for that. The server starts before the
desktop's D-Bus session, so the class does not use `dconf load`: it dumps any
existing user database through a `file-db:` profile, then runs `dconf compile`
on that dump and the captured keys, in that name order so the captured keys
win, and replaces `~/.config/dconf/user`. If that fails, the server prints a
one-line warning and the app starts without the captured keys. `data/reset` does
not restore them. No file of the bundle holds them, so `data/get` does not
return them and no task check reads them; a draft whose only change between
its checkpoints is to the application's dconf keys says so with
`uncheckable_changes`, and one whose dconf database changed but could not be
read says so with `unreadable_changes`.
## The seed checkpoint
By default the seed is the state before the capture, its `baseline`, and a
task's end state is the capture's last checkpoint. `--seed-checkpoint` and
`--end-checkpoint` name others, so one capture can make a seed and then a
change: the user creates and saves a document and takes `checkpoint seed`,
then edits and saves it and takes `checkpoint end`. Exported with
`--seed-checkpoint seed --end-checkpoint end`, the bundle seeds the document
as it was saved at `seed`, owned paths, dconf keys and unseeded files
included, and a task must fail on that seed and pass on the state at `end`.
A file's state at a checkpoint is its last version recorded at or before it.
The export refuses a name the capture does not hold exactly once, and an end
checkpoint taken before the seed checkpoint; `inspect-desktop-application-state`
lists the names in `capture.checkpoints`.
## A seed made for the task
By default the seed is the user's real data: the README and the result's
limitations say to keep the bundle local and not publish it. With
`--synthetic-seed` they say instead that the seed was made for the task, and
to read `envs/<name>/seed/` before publishing the bundle; the export cannot
tell the two apart, so the flag is the caller's word. `export_build_environment`
passes it, since the building agent makes the seed in the build computer. The
Evidence records it as `synthetic_seed`.
## Host name and user
A seed can hold the capture host's name and the user's: Geany saved its mail
template as `pref_template_mail=ada@e81232be457d`, the user `ada` on a
container named `e81232be457d`, and many files hold the home path
`/home/ada`. The capture records `host.hostname` and `host.user`, and the
export removes them from what the bundle ships:
- In seeded text files (text, JSON, key files and XML in the state view), in
UTF-16 files that start with a byte-order mark (keeping the mark, byte order
and a following U+FEFF content character), and in the dconf keys,
`user@host` becomes `user@localhost`, the
host name standing alone becomes `localhost`, and the captured home becomes
`/home/user` wherever it is followed by `/`, the end of the text, or a
character that cannot continue a file name. The host name counts only as a
whole name: not inside a longer word, before a `-`, or as a label of a
domain such as `e81232be457d.local`, so a host named `ubuntu` leaves
`ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports` alone. A host named `localhost` is left
alone, but its `user@localhost` still takes the computer's user. The user
name alone is never replaced, since a short one such as `ada` or `user` is
also ordinary text. A rewritten seed is written with its own SHA-256, and
`scrubbed_files` and the README list it.
- JSON and XML keep their syntax. In JSON only string values change, each
read as its decoded value, so `\u0065` escapes cannot hide the host, and is
written back as JSON only when it changed; numbers and `true`, `false` and
`null` stay as they are even for a host named `true`. Member names are never
rewritten, since `{"ubuntu": 1, "localhost": 2}` on a host named `ubuntu`
would get two `localhost` keys and lose a setting; a file whose names hold
the host is listed in `unscrubbed_files` instead. In XML only character
data, attribute values, comments and CDATA change, character references
decoded the same way; element and attribute names and processing
instructions stay. A UTF-16 file is scrubbed by the format its text would
have in UTF-8, so JSON or XML in UTF-16 follows these rules too.
- In the dconf keys only GVariant strings change, each read as its decoded
value and written back in its own quotes only when it changed. Group names,
keys, dictionary keys, bytestrings and everything outside quotes stay, so a
host named `true` leaves `wrap=true` alone. A value whose string does not
parse, or that holds an object path or signature, ships as captured.
- `SEED_HOME` in the class is `/home/user`, the home the seed spells, which
the class respells to the computer's own home when it seeds the home at
boot, as it did the captured home before. The replacements read as the
computer's own: its user is `user`, with its home in `/home/user`, and
`localhost` is the name every host has for itself.
- A gzip-compressed seed, such as a Gnumeric workbook, is decompressed, up to
256 MiB, scrubbed as the format the state view read its document as, and
compressed again whether or not its document changed, so no file name,
comment or time its header held ships: with no file name, comment or extra
field, modification time 0 and the operating system unknown, so the same
document gives the same bytes on every host. It is deflated at the fastest
level, or stored when deflating would make it expand more than the 100 times
a view reads, so a seed that read still reads. It is listed in
`scrubbed_files` when its document changed, and otherwise in
`recompressed_files`, which the README counts rather than lists, so the
example and template files an app copies on first run do not bury the
document scrubbed; one already in that form ships as captured. The class copies it at
boot as it is, so the home it holds stays `/home/user`. One that does not
decompress ships as captured, its bytes searched, and one the state view did
not read is only searched. One whose document needs no edit but a member of
which has an extra field, where BGZF (`.vcf.gz`, `.bam`) and dictzip
(`.dict.dz`) files index their blocks, also ships as captured, its bytes
searched, so its blocks stay where its index says; one whose document
changed is still compressed again as one member, losing them, as the
export's limitation says.
- Binary files, SQLite databases among them, and text files over 256 MiB are
copied as captured. Then every file the bundle ships, the class module with
its dconf keys and the README included, is searched by a looser rule than
the replacement's: the host name and `user@host` anywhere, as in
`e81232be457d.local` or a seed named `e81232be457d-notes.txt`, and the
captured home as a whole path, in its path and its content, JSON and dconf
strings and XML references decoded and the replacements themselves set
aside. Each one found is listed in `unscrubbed_files`, and in the README
unless it is the README, to check before sharing the bundle. Bytes that are not text are
searched as they are, so a binary file that holds the host in another
encoding is not listed.
- A task check whose values name `user@host` or the host name anywhere, by
that rule, is refused, as one naming the captured home is: the bundle does
not hold them. Its field names, kind and id are not values, so a host named
`file` or `kind` refuses no check. A task's checks must fail on the seed as
the bundle ships it, scrubbed, so a check the scrub itself satisfies, such
as a mail setting the user changed from `ada@e81232be457d` to
`user@localhost`, does not count as failing there.
A capture written before the host's name and user were recorded has only its
home removed, with a limitation saying so; capture again to remove the rest.
## Applications from a .deb file
A closed-source application you installed from a `.deb` file you downloaded,
such as VariCAD from varicad.com, is not in any apt repository the computer can
use. Capture it with `--package-file` naming that file (see
[desktop application capture](desktop-application-capture.md)), then pass
`--package-url` to the export with an `http://` or `https://` URL the computer
can download that same file from:
```sh
rea capture-desktop-application --executable varicad --package-file ~/Downloads/varicad2026-en_2.03_amd64.deb --output ./varicad-capture
rea export-desktop-application ./varicad-capture ./varicad-bundle --package-url https://files.example.com/varicad2026-en_2.03_amd64.deb
```
The class then declares, beside `Packages`:
- `downloads=[Download(url=..., sha256=..., to="vendor/<file>", arch=...)]`
with the captured file's SHA-256. agentenv downloads the URL once, when the
bundle is put, and refuses the file unless its SHA-256 matches, so the
computer installs exactly the captured version. The bundle does not contain
the package.
- `Packages(apt=[...])` with the first alternative of each of the file's
Depends and Pre-Depends entries, without version constraints or `:any`
qualifiers, then the library packages the capture found, since a vendor's
binary may load libraries its Depends leaves out.
- `run=[RunScript(script="install-package.sh")]`, a script the export writes
into the environment folder. agentenv runs it as root from the app's folder
once the apt packages are installed and the download is in place, with the
network off: it runs `dpkg -i` on the download and then removes it.
The bundle supports only the file's architecture. Vendor sites often refuse
automated downloads, as varicad.com does, so the URL may need to point at a
copy you keep, such as a private mirror; you must be allowed to use that copy,
and the package's licence, such as a 30-day trial's terms, is yours to check.
The README and the result's limitations say so.
The export refuses a package no recorded repository lists when `--package-url`
is missing, saying to capture with `--package-file` if the capture lacks it. It
also refuses `--package-url` when the capture recorded no package file, giving
the capture's `package_file_reason` when there is one; when the archive or a
declared vendor repository installs the package already; when the URL is not
written as `http://` or `https://` or holds a user name or password; and when
the file is built for an architecture other than `amd64`, `arm64` or `all`.
## Grading once the app has saved
A task's verifier, `artifacts/<task>-check/verify.py`, grades the app's files
only once they have settled, because an app can save on its own timer after the
last change. Gnote saves a note 4 s after the last key, so a read taken as
soon as the agent stops finds the text on screen but not yet in the file. The
verifier reads the app's `data/get` every 0.5 s. It compares each file's bytes
between reads by their SHA-256, as `data/get` returns them, and grades once
every file has held for 3 s. The 3 s count from when a read returned the
current bytes, not when it began, so a slow read that brings a change late
does not count its own run as quiet. 15 s after the first read began, the
bound, the verifier grades the last completed read: no read starts at or
after the bound, and a read still running then is cut. Each result records
whether the files settled in `settled`, and whether the bound cut a read in
`read_cut`.
The window has a cost and a limit:
- An app whose files do not change during the check, such as one that saved
at once, is graded 3 s after the first read returns.
- A save that lands more than 3 s after the first read returns is still
missed. An app that saves 4 s after the last key is caught only when the
agent stops at least a second after that key.
- Files the app rewrites more often than every 3 s, such as a log, never
settle, so every check waits until the bound.
- The bound counts the reads too, so a slow `data/get` ends the check at
15 s. Only the first read, which every grade needs, runs to its own
timeout.
The bound and window are `SETTLE_BOUND_S` and `SETTLE_WINDOW_S` in the
verifier. `check_build_task` waits the same way before it grades each
witness stage; see [witnessing](desktop-build-witness.md#witness).
## Typed views
The views follow the [state view](desktop-application-state.md)'s formats and
shapes: SQLite tables (at most 64 ordinary tables, `tables_truncated` past
that, and per table `columns`, `primary_key`, at most 500 `rows` and
`truncated`, with blobs, unsafe integers and text that is not UTF-8 tagged as
REA tags them), JSON, XML as `{root, truncated}` with REA's node, depth and
whitespace rules and its `doctype` when the document declares one, key file
groups, text as
`{lines, line_count, truncated}` split on `\n` and `\r\n`, and zip archives
as their entries, read with Python's `zipfile` from the file in place, with
REA's entry, size, compression ratio and archive limits and its wording for an
entry it does not read. The module reads the central directory itself, as REA
does, and shows `zipfile` only the records it lists, reading each entry in
bounded chunks no further than a byte past its declared size. A gzip file is
the view of the document inside it, with `"compression": "gzip"` beside its
format, decompressed with Python's `zlib` within the same entry size and ratio
limits, its members joined as REA joins them. A JSON file
holding a number JavaScript cannot read exactly, such as an integer above 2^53,
or whose retained value nests more than 500 levels deep, gets an `error` instead of a view, as in
REA. Duplicate keys keep their last value before the depth check. Text that is not one JSON
document, such as JSON Lines, stays text. Format detection follows REA's
rules. Files larger than 64 MiB get an `error` instead of a view
and are not read. XML is read with Python's `expat` twice: with namespace
processing, which refuses what REA's parser refuses, such as an undeclared
prefix, then without it, so element and attribute names keep the prefixes the
document spells and namespace declarations stay attributes, as in REA's view;
text splits into nodes where REA's splits it, at CDATA sections, comments and
processing instructions. Both passes read a DOCTYPE as REA does: with
parameter entity parsing off, so the DTD it names is never read, and handlers
that refuse an internal subset, an external entity and an entity expat would
skip; the first pass also checks each start tag for a reference to an
undeclared entity, which expat drops from an attribute value without a word
when a DOCTYPE names a DTD. Known differences remain:
- dconf databases are reported as binary, since REA reads them with `dconf`;
inside an archive, one is `dconf` with an error, as in REA.
- Zip entry names: a name in an Info-ZIP Unicode Path extra field is used only
where Python's `zipfile` reads it (3.12 and later), and an entry whose local
header names it differently from the central directory is damaged rather
than read.
- SQLite databases are read in place, read-only, rather than from a staged copy;
a write lock the running app holds is waited out for a quarter of a second
and then gives the file an `error`, and so does a table or column name that
is not UTF-8.
Unless it was [made for the task](#a-seed-made-for-the-task), the seed is the
user's real data. Keep the bundle local and do not publish it.
The class was checked against agentenv-framework 0.9.1431 with
`python -m agentenv_protocol.computer._declare` and `agent-env run --dry-run`.