kovidgoyal/kitty · error · StreamError

Too much data being sent

Error message

Too much data being sent

What it means

StreamError raised by kitty's remote-control streaming mechanism when an incoming data stream exceeds 128 MiB. Remote control commands that transfer data (e.g. @ send-file, @ kitten payloads) buffer into a BytesIO; once the buffered size would pass the hard cap the stream is aborted to protect memory.

Source

Thrown at kitty/rc/base.py:319

        from ..remote_control import close_active_stream

        def abort_stream() -> None:
            close_active_stream(self.stream_id)
            self.stream_id = ''
            if self.tempfile is not None:
                self.tempfile.close()
                self.tempfile = None

        if stream_id != self.stream_id:
            abort_stream()
            self.stream_id = stream_id
        if self.tempfile is None:
            self.tempfile = BytesIO()
        t = self.tempfile
        if data:
            if (t.tell() + len(data)) > 128 * 1024 * 1024:
                abort_stream()
                raise StreamError('Too much data being sent')
            t.write(data)
            return AsyncResponse()
        close_active_stream(self.stream_id)
        self.stream_id = ''
        self.tempfile = None
        t.flush()
        return t


class RemoteCommand:
    Args = ArgsHandling
    CompletionSpec = CompletionSpec

    name: str = ''
    short_desc: str = ''
    desc: str = ''
    args: ArgsHandling = ArgsHandling()
    options_spec: str | None = None

View on GitHub (pinned to 6d5d0c4406)

Solutions

1. Split the payload into chunks under 128 MiB and send multiple streams
2. Compress the data before streaming
3. For large file transfer, write to a temp file on disk and pass a path instead of streaming the bytes

Example fix

# before
kitten @ send-file huge_video.mkv   # > 128 MiB in-stream

# after
# stream in parts or reference by path
gzip -c huge.bin | split -b 100m - part_  # then send parts
kitten @ send-file --transfer-source part_aa

MAX = 128 * 1024 * 1024
import os
if os.path.getsize(path) > MAX:
    # split or compress instead of streaming
    send_in_chunks(path, chunk=100 * 1024 * 1024)
else:
    stream_file(path)

def is_streamable_size(size_bytes: int) -> bool:
    return size_bytes < 128 * 1024 * 1024

from kitty.rc.base import StreamError
try:
    stream.send(data)
except StreamError as e:
    if 'Too much data' in str(e):
        abort_and_chunk()  # restart with smaller chunks
    else:
        raise

When it happens

Trigger: Streaming a payload larger than 128 MiB (134217728 bytes) to a remote-control command, cumulatively across chunks, e.g. sending a very large file via 'kitten @ send-file' or a custom streamed rc command.

Common situations: Sending large log dumps, binaries, or base64 blobs through remote control; scripts that retry and append to a stream causing double-buffering.

Related errors

• No stream_id in rc payload
• This should be run as kitten icat
• This should be run as `kitten notify ...`
• Remote control not enabled, this kitten should be run via a
• The remote control password was invalid: {data!r}

AI-assisted analysis of kovidgoyal/kitty@6d5d0c4406 (2026-08-27). Data as JSON: /api/errors/1447982272695f4b. Report an issue: GitHub.