Hmbown/CodeWhale · warning · Error

Archive this pet recording before accepting more telemetry.

Error message

Archive this pet recording before accepting more telemetry.

What it means

In segmented mode, acceptTelemetry stores one bucket per 400 ms sequence in tapeLog, which is hard-capped at 216,000 entries (~24 hours). When the tape log is full, further telemetry is refused and the caller must archive the recording first so replay history is never silently overwritten in the live segmented path. This is an explicit capacity guard, not a corruption error.

Solutions

  1. Archive the current pet recording (snapshot and reset the world/tape) before accepting more telemetry.
  2. Start a new PetWorld/session for continued live telemetry and keep the archived one for replay.
  3. If the session must run indefinitely, periodically rotate: persist the tapeLog, then construct a fresh world seeded from the latest checkpoint.

Example fix

// before
if (world.tapeLog.length >= 216000) world.acceptTelemetry(bucket); // throws
// after
if (world.tapeLog.length >= 216000) archivePetRecording(world); // persist & restart
world.acceptTelemetry(bucket);
Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Validate before calling

function canAcceptTelemetry(world) {
  return Array.isArray(world.tapeLog) && world.tapeLog.length < 216000;
}

Type guard

null

Try / catch

try {
  world.acceptTelemetry(bucket);
} catch (e) {
  if (e.message.startsWith('Archive this pet recording')) {
    await archivePetRecording(world);
    world = startFreshSegmentedWorld();
    world.acceptTelemetry(bucket);
  } else throw e;
}

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Calling world.acceptTelemetry(bucket) when this.tapeLog.length >= 216_000 in segmented (petCheckpointVersion 2) mode — i.e. the session has accumulated 216,000 telemetry buckets without being archived.

Common situations: A pet session left running for more than ~24 hours of continuous telemetry; a long-lived background watcher never archiving; repeated acceptTelemetry of distinct sequences filling the log in tests.

Understand the failure class

Background: "File too large" / "file size exceeds limit" errors: why libraries cap file sizes and how to fix them — this error's family across 46 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of Hmbown/CodeWhale@73e0f67d83 (2026-09-22). Data as JSON: /api/errors/fe6d318a1605f440. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at crates/tui/src/tui/pet_watch/pet-native.js:440

        this.voices = [];
    }
    /** Branch at the current playhead; input is journalled for the next fixed tick.
     * A live touch never needs to re-simulate the creature's entire lifetime. */
    interact(kind, x, y) {
        if (!['attention', 'food'].includes(kind) || !Number.isFinite(x) || !Number.isFinite(y) || Math.abs(x) > 1 || Math.abs(y) > 1)
            throw new Error('Invalid pet interaction.');
        if (this.branchTick !== this.tick)
            this.interactionLog.splice(this.interactionIndex);
        this.branchTick = this.tick;
        this.interactionLog.push({ timeMs: (this.tick + 1) * 1000 / HZ, kind, x, y });
    }
    /** Accept a live source packet at the next 400ms boundary. The accepted tape,
     * including any missing intervals, is the exact replay authority for this host. */
    acceptTelemetry(input) {
        (0, pet_telemetry_js_1.validatePetBucket)(input);
        const sequence = Math.floor(this.tick / 12) + 1;
        if (this.tapeLog.length >= 216_000)
            throw new Error('Archive this pet recording before accepting more telemetry.');
        this.hasTelemetry = true;
        if (this.segmented) {
            const at = this.tapeLog.findIndex(b => b.sequence >= sequence);
            const index = at < 0 ? this.tapeLog.length : at;
            this.tapeLog.splice(index, at >= 0 && this.tapeLog[at].sequence === sequence ? 1 : 0, { ...structuredClone(input), sequence, simTimeMs: sequence * 400 });
            this.hashTape(index);
            return;
        }
        if (sequence >= 216_000)
            throw new Error('Archive the legacy recording before accepting more telemetry.');
        const changedFrom = Math.min(sequence, this.tapeLog.length);
        while (this.tapeLog.length <= sequence) {
            const at = this.tapeLog.length;
            this.tapeLog.push({ version: 1, sequence: at, simTimeMs: at * 400, durationMs: 400,
                activity: .12, coherence: .25, attention: 0, channel: 'other', observed: 0, roamX: 0, roamY: 0, flip: 1, lit: 1,
                onsets: Array(13).fill(0), activeMs: Array(13).fill(0), errors: 0, agentIds: [], waiting: false });
        }
        this.tapeLog[sequence] = { ...structuredClone(input), sequence, simTimeMs: sequence * 400 };

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