[Bug]: Projects and Chat Threads Disappear After Updating Nightly Build #4261

Before submitting

• I searched existing issues and did not find a duplicate.
• I included enough detail to reproduce or investigate the problem.

Area

apps/desktop

Steps to reproduce

1. Install the nightly build of the desktop application.
2. Connect to a remote development environment (Ubuntu VPS).
3. Create a new project.
4. Create one or more chat threads within the project.
5. Update the desktop application to a newer nightly build.
6. Launch the application again.

Expected behavior

• All existing projects should remain available after updating.
• Chat threads inside each project should still be present.
• Updating the desktop application should not remove or reset locally stored project metadata or chat history.

Actual behavior

After every nightly update:

• All previously created projects disappear.
• All chat threads associated with those projects are also gone.
• The application behaves as if no projects previously existed.
• I have to create a new project from scratch after every update.

This has happened consistently after each nightly update.

Impact

Major degradation or frequent failure

Version or commit

0.0.29-nightly.20260722.872

Environment

OS: Windows 10 Application: Desktop App Release Channel: Nightly App Version: 0.0.29-nightly.20260722.872 Git: Not configured for this project Development Environment: Connected to a remote environment (Cloud/VPS) Remote OS: Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS

Logs or stack traces

Relevant diagnostic observed after the issue:

OrchestrationGetSnapshotError: Thread <thread-id> was not found

Span:
ws.rpc.orchestration.subscribeThread

Cause:
Thread ade150c3-bf28-476d-ab4a-983015b81413 was not found

This appears after updating, when previously created projects and chat threads are no longer available.

Screenshots, recordings, or supporting files

No response

Workaround

Temporary workaround:

After every nightly update, I have to completely re-establish the remote environment before I can continue working:

1. Kill any existing T3 server processes on the remote machine.
2. Remove the remote T3 installation (~/.t3).
3. Reconnect the remote Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS environment from the desktop app, allowing the server to reinstall.
4. Create a new project because all previously created projects are no longer available.
5. Recreate all chat threads from scratch.

This restores the ability to work, but none of the previous projects or conversations are recovered. The remote source code remains intact, but the desktop application's project metadata and chat history are lost after each nightly update.