Annotate feedback can be lost when submit auto-closes localhost session after CLI timeout on Windows/Codex #678

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1. 0okay commented on May 7, 2026

   

   0okay

   on May 7, 2026

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   Additional source-code finding after checking main (71492ec, v0.19.10): this is not a complete absence of persistence. There is draft persistence, but the submit path appears to delete the draft before handing feedback only to the waiting decision promise.

   Relevant code paths:

   • packages/shared/draft.ts: drafts are saved under ~/.plannotator/drafts/<contentHash>.json.
   • packages/ui/hooks/useAnnotationDraft.ts: annotation changes auto-save to /api/draft when in API mode and not submitted.
   • packages/server/annotate.ts: /api/draft routes to handleDraftSave/Load/Delete.
   • packages/server/annotate.ts: /api/feedback does:
     1. deleteDraft(draftKey)
     2. resolveDecision({ feedback, annotations })
     3. returns { ok: true }

   Unlike plan review (packages/server/index.ts) or Pi plan flow (apps/pi-extension/server/serverPlan.ts), the generic annotate server's feedback handler does not call saveAnnotations or saveFinalSnapshot before deleting the draft. So if the CLI/agent caller already timed out or no longer receives the decision, the previously auto-saved draft is removed and there is no final .annotations.md/snapshot recovery artifact.

   That matches the observed user failure: the user clicked submit, the UI considered feedback sent and auto-closed, but the CLI result was not captured and the draft had already disappeared.
2. 0okay commented on May 27, 2026

   

   0okay

   on May 27, 2026

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   Additional reproduction on Windows/Codex with plannotator 0.19.23.

   Scenario:

   • OS/shell: Windows 11 + PowerShell 7.6.1
   • Plannotator: C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Local\plannotator\plannotator.exe, plannotator --version => plannotator 0.19.23
   • Command shape: plannotator annotate "<absolute Windows folder path>"
   • Mode from /api/plan: annotate-folder
   • Target: a local folder containing multiple Markdown patent-drafting files; path contains spaces, Chinese characters, and parentheses.

   What happened:

   1. The annotate command was launched from the Codex shell with a long timeout.
   2. The browser opened correctly on http://localhost:61803.
   3. /api/plan showed the correct target folder path, not annotate-last.
   4. The Codex shell command timed out after about 10 minutes while the user was still reviewing.
   5. The user later submitted annotations from the browser UI.
   6. After submission, the Plannotator process/session disappeared.
   7. The annotation payload was not available to Codex and could not be recovered.

   Recovery checks performed after the lost submission:

   • ~/.plannotator/sessions no longer contained the 61803 session; the previous session JSON was gone.
   • No active plannotator process remained for that session.
   • Search under ~/.plannotator for the target folder name, localhost:61803, 61803, annotation, feedback, and Chinese annotation keywords did not find the submitted feedback.
   • Existing draft file under ~/.plannotator/drafts was old/unrelated.
   • Search in Edge local storage / LevelDB / History for localhost:61803, 61803, annotation/feedback terms did not reveal recoverable annotation content.

   User-facing impact:

   The user spent time annotating several Markdown files, clicked submit, and the feedback was lost because the waiting CLI side had already timed out. This still reproduces on 0.19.23 and with annotate-folder, not only single-file annotate.

   Workaround being used locally:

   Run plannotator annotate <path> in a separate long-lived PowerShell/Windows Terminal process and keep that process alive until after submit. Running it inside an agent shell command with a timeout is unsafe because the submit path appears to depend on the original waiting process receiving the final payload.

   Suggested behavior remains the same: submitted annotations should be durably written before draft deletion / session teardown, and the UI should not silently close if the CLI/agent receiver is no longer connected.
3. backnotprop

   added a commit that references this issue on Aug 9, 2026

   fix(annotate): persist submitted feedback before deleting the draft (#…

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   e24bd84
4. backnotprop

   closed this as completedin #1237on Aug 9, 2026
5. backnotprop commented on Aug 9, 2026

   

   backnotprop

   on Aug 9, 2026

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   Thanks for the detailed report, and for the patience here. This is confirmed and fixed by #1237, just merged.

   What ships: the server now writes the submitted feedback to a durable record under your data directory before it deletes the auto-saved draft, so a CLI-side timeout can no longer leave the feedback existing nowhere. If the record cannot be written, the draft is kept as the recovery copy instead. Sessions with annotate history disabled keep their fully stateless behavior.

   This will be in the next release. Thanks again @0okay.
6. backnotprop

   added a commit that references this issue on Sep 1, 2026

   feat(server): durable feedback archive for every submitted review (#1438

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   990f3e8