feat: send messages while sync --follow is running (IPC delegation) by najibninaba · Pull Request #92 · steipete/wacli

najibninaba · 2026-03-11T07:37:12Z

Summary

Fixes #70.

wacli send text and wacli send file now work while sync --follow is running. When the store lock is held, the send command automatically delegates to the running sync process via a Unix-domain socket (<store>/.send.sock). This is fully transparent — output is identical to a direct send.

# Terminal 1
wacli sync --follow

# Terminal 2 — just works now
wacli send text --to 6591234567 --message "hello"
wacli send file --to 6591234567 --file ./report.pdf --caption "Q3 report"

Design

The fallback chain in each send command:

Try to acquire the store lock and send directly (unchanged behavior)
If ErrLocked → attempt IPC delegation via .send.sock
If socket unavailable (e.g. sync --once) → return the original lock error
If the sync process returns an app error (e.g. not authenticated) → surface it
If delegation succeeds → format output identically to a direct send

Only sync --follow hosts the IPC server. sync --once and auth do not.

Architecture

Lock sentinel (internal/lock): ErrLocked with errors.Is support for clean branching
Send refactor (internal/app/send.go): App.SendText/SendFile extracted from CLI layer
IPC transport (internal/app/send_ipc.go): JSON-over-UDS protocol (version 1), client + server
Sync hosting (internal/app/sync.go): follow-mode starts/stops the IPC server
CLI fallback (cmd/wacli/send.go, send_file_cmd.go): lock → IPC → original error
Concurrency safety: connectMu serializes Connect; IPC server serializes delegated sends; file paths normalized to absolute before delegation

Robustness

Server-side 1s read deadline prevents stalled clients from blocking future sends
Active connection tracking + force-close in Close() ensures prompt shutdown
Stale socket cleanup on next startup (crash recovery)
Socket permissions hardened to 0600
File send responses validated for File != nil (prevents nil-pointer on malformed peers)

Commits

Commit	Description
`2d8e812`	`ErrLocked` sentinel + shared `resolveStoreDir`
`48e0dc3`	Extract `App.SendText`/`SendFile` into `internal/app/send.go`
`056a78c`	IPC transport layer (client + server)
`f6e7a57`	Follow-mode sync hosts IPC server + `connectMu` serialization
`7ad832a`	CLI send commands: lock → IPC fallback
`1958319`	README + spec documentation
`cfa8c7c`	Server read deadline + active-conn tracking for robust shutdown
`8c3f535`	File response validation + socket permissions `0600`
`7a559f3`	Concurrent delegated sends test

Test coverage

Lock contention detection (lock_test.go)
Send behavior: text/file classification, persistence, best-effort DB failures (send_test.go)
IPC round-trip, missing socket, version mismatch, timeout encoding, stale socket cleanup (send_ipc_test.go)
Stalled client does not block shutdown (send_ipc_test.go)
Malformed file response rejected with protocol error (send_ipc_test.go)
Socket permissions = 0600 (send_ipc_test.go)
Follow-mode hosts socket, delegated send succeeds, socket removed on exit (sync_test.go)
Once-mode does not host socket (sync_test.go)
3 concurrent delegated sends all succeed (sync_test.go)
AST regression: connectMu lock discipline in Connect (locking_regression_test.go)

All tests pass with -race.

Breaking changes

None. Existing behavior is unchanged when the lock is free.

- Add lock.ErrLocked sentinel and ContentionError typed error - Acquire() returns *ContentionError wrapping ErrLocked on flock contention - Non-contention flock errors return distinct 'flock lock file' error - Add resolveStoreDir() helper in root.go, used by newApp and doctor - Doctor only reports LockHeld=true on actual contention (errors.Is) - Non-contention lock probe errors in doctor are surfaced, not mislabeled - Tests verify errors.Is(err, ErrLocked) and errors.As(*ContentionError) Task 1 of IPC send delegation plan.

- Add SendTextParams, SendFileParams, SendFileMetadata, SendResult types - Implement App.SendText() and App.SendFile() as canonical send entry points - Move MIME detection, upload, proto construction, DB persistence to app layer - Consolidate chatKindFromJID (send_file.go) with chatKind (sync.go) - Extend fakeWA with send/upload recording and configurable responses - CLI commands now only do flag parsing + output formatting - Delete cmd/wacli/send_file.go (all logic moved to internal/app) - Tests cover text send, file classification, and best-effort persistence - Best-effort DB persistence: post-send DB errors don't fail the command Task 2 of IPC send delegation plan.

- Add SendSocketPath(storeDir) for canonical socket location - Add ErrSendDelegateUnavailable sentinel for transport failures - Add SendDelegateRemoteError for server-side application errors - Add SendDelegateProtocolError for version mismatch - Add DelegateSendText/DelegateSendFile client functions - Add sendDelegateServer with sequential accept loop - JSON-over-Unix-socket, one req/resp per connection - Stale socket cleanup on server start (only removes actual sockets) - Socket file removed on server close and serve loop exit - Timeout propagation via TimeoutMS derived from context deadline - Tests cover: round trips, missing/refused socket, remote errors, protocol version mismatch, stale cleanup, close cleanup, timeout Task 3 of IPC send delegation plan.

- Start send delegate server in App.Sync for SyncModeFollow only - Server starts after event handler registration, before Connect - Server shutdown deferred on all sync exit paths - Socket startup failure in follow mode is fatal (prevents partial state) - SyncModeOnce and SyncModeBootstrap do not host the socket - Add connectMu sync.Mutex to wa.Client for connect serialization - Connect() serialized end-to-end with connectMu.Lock/defer Unlock - ReconnectWithBackoff inherits serialization via Connect - Integration test: delegated send succeeds during follow-mode sync - Integration test: once mode does not create socket - AST structural test verifies connectMu lock discipline in Connect - All tests pass with -race flag Task 4 of IPC send delegation plan.

- On newApp lock contention (ErrLocked), attempt IPC delegation - If IPC unavailable (no socket), return original lock error unchanged - If IPC returns remote error, surface that error directly - If IPC succeeds, format output identically to direct send - Non-lock newApp failures return unchanged (no delegation attempt) - Normalize --file to absolute path before delegation or direct send - JSON/human output format is identical for direct and delegated sends Fallback chain: ErrLocked → try socket → ErrUnavailable → lock error Task 5 of IPC send delegation plan.

- Add 0.3.0 release notes for automatic IPC delegation - Add 'Send while syncing' section with usage examples - Add 'Send delegation (IPC)' section to spec with fallback chain - Document .send.sock in storage layout - Describe protocol versioning, serialization, and cleanup Task 6 of IPC send delegation plan.

…t shutdown - Add 1s sendDelegateReadTimeout so stalled clients cannot block future sends - Track activeConn in sendDelegateServer with activeConnMu guard - handleConn registers/deregisters active conn and sets read deadline before Decode - Close() force-closes active connection before waiting for serve() to exit - Add TestSendDelegateServer_CloseReturnsPromptlyWithStalledClient regression test - Existing IPC tests and sync tests continue to pass with -race Fixes review MF1 (head-of-line blocking) and S3 (missing stalled client test).

…ions - delegateSend rejects send_file responses where Result.File is nil with SendDelegateProtocolError (prevents nil-pointer panic in CLI) - startSendDelegateServer chmod's socket to 0600 after ListenUnix - On chmod failure, listener is closed and socket removed before error - Add TestDelegateSendFile_RejectsNilFileMetadata regression test - Add TestSendDelegateServer_SocketPermissions regression test Fixes review S1 (response shape validation) and S2 (socket permissions).

- Fire 3 concurrent DelegateSendText calls during follow-mode sync - Verify all 3 succeed and all 3 reach the WA send call - Validates server serialization handles queued concurrent clients - Passes with -race flag Fixes review S4 (missing concurrent delegation test).

nsfilho · 2026-03-20T15:57:16Z

Thank you so much for taking the initiative to try and solve this issue! However, it seems there might still be a bug in the code. After running wacli --follow, when I try to send a message, it just hangs indefinitely.

I hope the attached image helps shed some light on it. Thanks in advance if you have any ideas about what might be going on!

Final error message:

remote send error: failed to get device list: failed to send usync query: info query timed out

sserrano44 · 2026-03-25T12:59:06Z

Tested on macOS with a locally built wacli 0.5.0.

Build:
go build -tags sqlite_fts5 -o ./dist/wacli ./cmd/wacli

Repro before this change:

Terminal 1: ./dist/wacli sync --follow
Terminal 2: ./dist/wacli send text --to "12036340724.....@g.us" --message "Test"
Previous behavior: store is locked (another wacli is running?)

Result with current build:

Same two-terminal flow now works
Message sent successfully while sync --follow remained running
Output:
Sent to 1203634072....@g.us (id ...)

Notes:

I used ./dist/wacli explicitly in both terminals to avoid mixing with any older brew-installed binary.
In my case this fixes the original lock-contention workflow from Store lock prevents sending while sync is running #70.
I did not hit the hanging/timeout issue another commenter mentioned.

Umair444 · 2026-04-10T18:02:59Z

I have tested it on Arch and this patch is working. @steipete, please merge it into main.

najibninaba added 9 commits March 11, 2026 13:52

This was referenced Mar 22, 2026

fix: normalize phone numbers with leading plus #98

Closed

feat: reliable sync/send architecture LevyDeSales/wacli#1

Merged

steipete requested a review from dinakars777 as a code owner April 21, 2026 03:54

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feat: send messages while sync --follow is running (IPC delegation)#92

feat: send messages while sync --follow is running (IPC delegation)#92
najibninaba wants to merge 9 commits intosteipete:mainfrom
najibninaba:feat/ipc-send-delegation

najibninaba commented Mar 11, 2026

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nsfilho commented Mar 20, 2026 •

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najibninaba commented Mar 11, 2026

Summary

Design

Architecture

Robustness

Commits

Test coverage

Breaking changes

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nsfilho commented Mar 20, 2026 •

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