stablyai/orca · error

Failed to create terminal

Error message

Failed to create terminal

What it means

Thrown by the PR AI triage launcher when `session.tabs.createTerminal` returns a failure. This is step one of the create-terminal-then-send-prompt launch used by 'Fix checks with AI' / 'Resolve conflicts with AI'. The host's error.message is preferred; the literal string is the fallback when the host gave no message.

Source

Thrown at mobile/src/session/pr-ai-triage-launch.ts:25

// Pure launch path for the PR triage actions ("Fix checks with AI" / "Resolve
// conflicts with AI"). Reuses the same two RPCs the diff-review send flow uses —
// session.tabs.createTerminal then terminal.send — so the prompt is dropped into a
// fresh agent terminal in the worktree. There is no higher-level agent-composer RPC
// on mobile, so this createTerminal+send pair is the launch mechanism. Kept free of
// react-native imports so it stays unit-testable in the node test environment.
export async function createTerminalAndSendPrompt(
  client: Pick<RpcClient, 'sendRequest'>,
  worktreeId: string,
  prompt: string
): Promise<void> {
  const created = await client.sendRequest('session.tabs.createTerminal', {
    worktree: `id:${worktreeId}`,
    activate: false,
    select: true,
    navigation: 'caller'
  })
  if (!created.ok) {
    throw new Error(created.error?.message || 'Failed to create terminal')
  }
  const terminalTab = readMobileReviewCreatedTerminal(created.result)
  if (!terminalTab) {
    throw new Error('Created terminal response was invalid')
  }
  const sent = await client.sendRequest('terminal.send', {
    terminal: terminalTab.terminal,
    text: prompt,
    enter: true
  })
  if (!sent.ok) {
    throw new Error(sent.error?.message || 'Failed to send prompt')
  }
  if (!readMobileReviewTerminalSendAccepted(sent.result)) {
    throw new Error('Terminal input is locked')
  }
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 1136503c6a)

Solutions

1. Retry after reconnecting.
2. Verify the worktree still exists on the host.
3. Check the host terminal count / quota.
4. Update client and host to compatible versions.

Example fix

// before
if (!created.ok) {
  throw new Error(created.error?.message || 'Failed to create terminal')
}
// after - carry the host error code so callers can branch
if (!created.ok) {
  throw new RpcMethodError('session.tabs.createTerminal', created.error)
}

if (!client || connState !== 'connected') throw new Error('Waiting for desktop...')

function isRpcFailure(r: RpcResponse): r is RpcFailure {
  return r.ok === false
}

try {
  await createTerminalAndSendPrompt(client, worktreeId, prompt)
} catch (err) {
  setTriageError(err instanceof Error ? err.message : 'Could not start AI triage')
}

When it happens

Trigger: The host refuses to create a terminal in the target worktree - worktree missing/disposed, terminal quota reached, the worktree id no longer resolves; or a transport/relay failure on the one-shot.

Common situations: The worktree was deleted on the host while the mobile review screen was open; host terminal limit hit; relay cutover mid-launch; version skew where the host does not accept navigation:'caller'.

Related errors

• Failed to create terminal
• Failed to send notes
• Created terminal response was invalid
• Failed to send prompt
• Created terminal response was invalid

AI-assisted analysis of stablyai/orca@1136503c6a (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/91ea3a70252db00a. Report an issue: GitHub.