Better support for workflows that involve multiple source directories by hatton · Pull Request #7738 · BloomBooks/BloomDesktop

hatton · 2026-03-14T15:43:57Z

This change is

* an agent skill.md and scripts for starting, stopping, and connecting to Bloom.ex * api/common/instanceInfo now gives information like the path to the exe file so that agents and tests can check that they are talking to the right bloom (vs. one in another worktree entirely) Future: allow multiple Blooms to be running. e.g. Add startup arguments for HTTP port and CDP port. Bypass the single-instance token when given the ports. Update the helper scripts to launch Bloom with explicit ports. Make sure agents and tests kill the exact bloom they ran; they should be able to determine the pid.

Allows tests or agents to launch their own copies of bloom.exe on their own ports, lessoning the chance of stepping on other running versions running from different code directories. Does not yet include any kind of principled random port choosing.

hatton

[GPT-5.4] Addressed the remaining feedback in ca63b5d and added line comments with the specifics.

src/BloomExe/Program.cs

nabalone

I didn't really review the .mjs scripts, thinking we would notice if there's something wrong with them. But let me know if I should

nabalone · 2026-03-23T19:19:42Z

src/BloomExe/Program.cs

+
+            var remainingArgs = new List<string>();
+
+            for (var i = 0; i < args.Length; i++)


[Worded by Devin]

Suggestion: consider simplifying this hand-rolled argument loop

This codebase already uses the CommandLineParser NuGet library (imported at , used at lines 214–264 with attribute-decorated classes like HydrateParameters in ). The 120-line hand-rolled loop here is inconsistent with that existing pattern.

Duplication: The three port option blocks (lines 746–812) are near-identical copy-paste that differ only in the option name and backing property. A dictionary-driven approach or a small shared helper could cut the loop body to ~20 lines:

var portOptions = new Dictionary<string, Action>
{
["--http-port"] = v => StartupHttpPort = SetOnce(StartupHttpPort, v, "--http-port"),
["--cdp-port"] = v => StartupCdpPort = SetOnce(StartupCdpPort, v, "--cdp-port"),
["--vite-port"] = v => StartupVitePort = SetOnce(StartupVitePort, v, "--vite-port"),
};

Bug — --label swallows flags: TryParseStartupStringArgument (line 876) unconditionally accepts the next token as the value, so --label --help silently treats --help as the label. The Node.js helpers in this same PR explicitly reject values starting with -- (e.g. requireOptionValue in bloomProcessCommon.mjs), but the C# side doesn't.

Magic number: The overlap check at line 845 hard-codes + 2 instead of referencing BloomServer.ReservedPortBlockLength, as also noted in the existing Copilot review thread.

Not blocking, but worth a cleanup pass — especially the --label flag-swallowing issue.

If we want to keep Program.cs clean I thought this might be worth doing, and an AI could do it quickly. But feel free to ignore and merge

[GTP-5.4] Leaving this as-is. The cleanup/refactor suggestion is optional, and the two concrete issues it called out are already handled on the current branch: --label now rejects option-looking values, and the old + 2 overlap check is no longer present.

I'm investigating the non-use CommandLineParser now...

Because of when these intial args are needed, it seems the complexity cost of unifying them would be a net loss.

simplified

…vExes # Conflicts: # src/BloomExe/Edit/EditingModel.cs # src/BloomExe/Workspace/WorkspaceView.cs # src/BloomExe/web/BloomServer.cs # src/BloomExe/web/ReactControl.cs

devin-ai-integration

Devin Review found 1 new potential issue.

View 11 additional findings in Devin Review.

devin-ai-integration · 2026-03-28T16:15:00Z

src/BloomExe/Program.cs

+                        if (StartupAutomation)
+                        {
+                            // Automation startup is the intentional multi-instance path.
+                            // Since this is a developer-only situation, we won't worry about the possibility of multiple instances writing on the same collection settings or whatever.
+                            Logger.WriteEvent(
+                                $"Bypassing Bloom's single-instance token because automation startup was requested. {StartupRequestedPortSummary}"
+                            );
+                        }


📝 Info: Automation path intentionally skips single-instance token

When --automation is passed, the code skips UniqueToken.AcquireToken entirely (neither acquiring nor attempting). This means: (1) multiple --automation instances can run simultaneously, (2) a normal Bloom holding the token can coexist with automation instances, (3) automation instances skip TempFile.CleanupTempFolder() on exit since _ownsSingleInstanceToken is false. The shared-state conflicts mentioned in the comment (line 565) are real — e.g., multiple instances writing to the same Settings.Default file, or both trying to use the same collection folder — but this is accepted for the automation use case. The Ctrl-key multi-instance path (src/BloomExe/Program.cs:571-577) was also simplified: it no longer sets a RunningSecondInstance flag (which was removed entirely with zero remaining references).

Was this helpful? React with 👍 or 👎 to provide feedback.

hatton added 4 commits March 13, 2026 14:52

allow isolated bloom.exe launches

617a900

Allows tests or agents to launch their own copies of bloom.exe on their own ports, lessoning the chance of stepping on other running versions running from different code directories. Does not yet include any kind of principled random port choosing.

add --label, --vite-port, show info in window title bar

a170199

yarn go to launch front and back end together with watching

f211333

This comment was marked as resolved.

Sign in to view

Address multiple-instance PR feedback

ca63b5d

hatton commented Mar 14, 2026

View reviewed changes

src/BloomExe/Program.cs Outdated Show resolved Hide resolved

hatton added 3 commits March 14, 2026 09:57

Apply formatter after PR feedback fixes

f094681

Revert VS Code workspace config changes

7bb5c87

add top level go.sh, have it turn off feedback

59171d7

hatton marked this pull request as ready for review March 14, 2026 22:00

Copilot AI review requested due to automatic review settings March 14, 2026 22:00

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of hatton March 14, 2026 22:00 View session

This comment was marked as resolved.

Sign in to view

Fix Bloom automation port scanning and CRLF output

ef02624

nabalone approved these changes Mar 23, 2026

View reviewed changes

This comment was marked as resolved.

Sign in to view

Simplify by making the browser automation port be the 3rd port in line

2945318

simplified

hatton force-pushed the BL-16014-MultipleDevExes branch from 71f43b6 to 2945318 Compare March 27, 2026 23:34

Merge remote-tracking branch 'origin/master' into BL-16014-MultipleDe…

92f7fe5

…vExes # Conflicts: # src/BloomExe/Edit/EditingModel.cs # src/BloomExe/Workspace/WorkspaceView.cs # src/BloomExe/web/BloomServer.cs # src/BloomExe/web/ReactControl.cs

This comment was marked as resolved.

Sign in to view

Remove unused BloomServer port helpers

2ba1bc2

This comment was marked as resolved.

Sign in to view

hatton force-pushed the BL-16014-MultipleDevExes branch from c682aad to 30a13c5 Compare March 28, 2026 15:59

show branch name if helpful

5fe9c37

hatton force-pushed the BL-16014-MultipleDevExes branch from 30a13c5 to 5fe9c37 Compare March 28, 2026 16:07

devin-ai-integration bot reviewed Mar 28, 2026

View reviewed changes

Clean up multi-instance startup state

6494610


		var remainingArgs = new List<string>();

		for (var i = 0; i < args.Length; i++)

Uh oh!

Conversation

hatton commented Mar 14, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

This comment was marked as resolved.

Uh oh!

This comment was marked as resolved.

Uh oh!

This comment was marked as resolved.

Uh oh!

hatton left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

This comment was marked as resolved.

Uh oh!

This comment was marked as resolved.

Uh oh!

nabalone left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

nabalone Mar 23, 2026

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

nabalone Mar 23, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

hatton Mar 27, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

hatton Mar 28, 2026

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

hatton Mar 28, 2026

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

This comment was marked as resolved.

Uh oh!

This comment was marked as resolved.

Uh oh!

This comment was marked as resolved.

Uh oh!

devin-ai-integration bot left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

devin-ai-integration bot Mar 28, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Reviewers

Assignees

Labels

Projects

Milestone

Development

Uh oh!

3 participants

hatton commented Mar 14, 2026 •

edited

Loading

nabalone Mar 23, 2026 •

edited

Loading

hatton Mar 27, 2026 •

edited

Loading

devin-ai-integration bot Mar 28, 2026 •

edited

Loading