fix(dashboard): surface launch/crash failures (#100)

The dashboard runs under curses.wrapper and cmd_dashboard only caught
KeyboardInterrupt, so failures vanished:
- die() prints to stderr, but under curses that lands on the alternate
  screen and is wiped on exit, so config errors gave no reason.
- Die is a SystemExit, so the new-agent flow's `except Exception` never
  caught config errors; they crashed the TUI.
- the startup manifest probe was unguarded.

Now: Die carries its message (+ log.error()); cmd_dashboard re-surfaces
a Die's reason once the terminal is restored and writes any other
crash's traceback to ~/.bot-bottle/logs/dashboard-crash.log; the startup
probe and the new-agent flow degrade a bad config to a status-line
warning instead of crashing.

Closes #100

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>

bot_bottle/cli/dashboard.py

@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ import subprocess
 import sys
 import tempfile
 import time
+import traceback
 from dataclasses import dataclass
 from datetime import datetime, timezone
 from pathlib import Path
@@ -52,7 +53,7 @@ from ..backend.docker.pipelock_apply import (
     parse_allowlist_content,
     render_allowlist_content,
 )
-from ..log import info
+from ..log import Die, error, info
 from ..manifest import Manifest
 from ..supervise import (
     ACTION_OPERATOR_EDIT,
@@ -1277,9 +1278,57 @@ def cmd_dashboard(argv: list[str]) -> int:
         curses.wrapper(_main_loop)
     except KeyboardInterrupt:
         return 130
+    except Die as e:
+        # die() printed the reason to stderr, but that happened while
+        # curses owned the terminal — the text landed on the alternate
+        # screen and was wiped when the terminal was restored. Re-surface
+        # it now that we're back on the normal screen.
+        if e.message:
+            error(e.message)
+        else:
+            error("dashboard exited on a fatal error (no detail captured).")
+        return e.code if isinstance(e.code, int) else 1
+    except Exception as e:
+        # Any other crash inside the TUI. The traceback would otherwise
+        # vanish with the alternate screen, so persist it and tell the
+        # operator where to look.
+        log_path = _write_crash_log(e)
+        error(f"dashboard crashed: {type(e).__name__}: {e}")
+        error(f"full traceback written to {log_path}")
+        return 1
     return 0
 
 
+def _write_crash_log(exc: BaseException) -> Path:
+    """Persist `exc`'s traceback to a stable file under ~/.bot-bottle/
+    and return its path.
+
+    The dashboard runs under curses, so a crash's stderr/traceback is
+    painted onto the alternate screen and lost when the terminal is
+    restored — this leaves the operator a durable record of *why* it
+    died. Best-effort: falls back to a tempfile if the home dir can't
+    be written."""
+    stamp = datetime.now(timezone.utc).strftime("%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ")
+    body = "".join(
+        traceback.format_exception(type(exc), exc, exc.__traceback__)
+    )
+    entry = f"=== dashboard crash {stamp} ===\n{body}\n"
+    try:
+        log_dir = _supervise.bot_bottle_root() / "logs"
+        log_dir.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
+        path = log_dir / "dashboard-crash.log"
+        with path.open("a", encoding="utf-8") as fh:
+            fh.write(entry)
+        return path
+    except OSError:
+        fd, tmp = tempfile.mkstemp(
+            prefix="bot-bottle-dashboard-crash-", suffix=".log",
+        )
+        with os.fdopen(fd, "w", encoding="utf-8") as fh:
+            fh.write(entry)
+        return Path(tmp)
+
+
 def _list_once() -> int:
     pending = discover_pending()
     if not pending:
@@ -1407,8 +1456,19 @@ def _main_loop(stdscr: "curses._CursesWindow") -> None:
         if manifest_cache[0] is None:
             manifest_cache[0] = Manifest.resolve(USER_CWD, missing_ok=True)
         return manifest_cache[0]
-    if not _get_manifest().bottles and not _get_manifest().agents:
-        status_line = "warning: no bot-bottle config/agents found; new-agent picker is empty"
+    # A malformed manifest must not take the whole dashboard down — the
+    # operator may just be watching running bottles. Degrade to a
+    # status-line warning. Die is a SystemExit (not an Exception), so it
+    # has to be caught explicitly or it escapes the loop and crashes.
+    try:
+        _loaded = _get_manifest()
+    except Die as e:
+        status_line = f"config error: {e.message or 'malformed manifest'}"
+    except Exception as e:
+        status_line = f"config load failed: {e}"
+    else:
+        if not _loaded.bottles and not _loaded.agents:
+            status_line = "warning: no bot-bottle config/agents found; new-agent picker is empty"
     # First-tick guard: a brand-new dashboard finds any
     # pre-existing queue entries on its first poll; those
     # shouldn't ring the bell as if they just arrived.
@@ -1494,6 +1554,11 @@ def _main_loop(stdscr: "curses._CursesWindow") -> None:
             # bottle running.
             try:
                 manifest = _get_manifest()
+            except Die as e:
+                # Config error (Die is a SystemExit, missed by the
+                # except-Exception below). Surface the reason inline.
+                status_line = f"config error: {e.message or 'malformed manifest'}"
+                continue
             except Exception as e:
                 status_line = f"manifest load failed: {e}"
                 continue

bot_bottle/log.py

@@ -14,11 +14,23 @@ def warn(msg: str) -> None:
     print(f"bot-bottle: warning: {msg}", file=sys.stderr)
 
 
+def error(msg: str) -> None:
+    print(f"bot-bottle: error: {msg}", file=sys.stderr)
+
+
 class Die(SystemExit):
     """Raised by die() so callers (and tests) can distinguish a deliberate
-    fatal exit from an unrelated SystemExit."""
+    fatal exit from an unrelated SystemExit.
+
+    Carries the human-facing message so a caller that suppressed stderr
+    — e.g. the curses dashboard, whose alternate screen is wiped when the
+    terminal is restored — can re-surface the reason after the fact."""
+
+    def __init__(self, code: int = 1, message: str = "") -> None:
+        super().__init__(code)
+        self.message = message
 
 
 def die(msg: str) -> NoReturn:
-    print(f"bot-bottle: error: {msg}", file=sys.stderr)
-    raise Die(1)
+    error(msg)
+    raise Die(1, msg)

tests/unit/test_dashboard_crash_logging.py

@@ -0,0 +1,140 @@
+"""Unit: dashboard launch/crash failure logging (issue #100).
+
+The dashboard runs under curses, so anything written to stderr while the
+TUI owns the terminal is wiped when the terminal is restored. These
+tests lock the recovery paths: a config error (`Die`) is re-surfaced
+after the wrapper returns, and an unexpected crash is persisted to a
+log file the operator can read.
+"""
+
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+import contextlib
+import io
+import tempfile
+import unittest
+from pathlib import Path
+from unittest import mock
+
+from bot_bottle import supervise
+from bot_bottle.cli import dashboard
+from bot_bottle.log import Die, die
+
+
+class TestDieCarriesMessage(unittest.TestCase):
+    def test_die_attaches_message_and_code(self):
+        buf = io.StringIO()
+        with contextlib.redirect_stderr(buf):
+            with self.assertRaises(Die) as cm:
+                die("bad manifest: unknown key 'foo'")
+        self.assertEqual("bad manifest: unknown key 'foo'", cm.exception.message)
+        self.assertEqual(1, cm.exception.code)
+        self.assertIn(
+            "bot-bottle: error: bad manifest: unknown key 'foo'", buf.getvalue()
+        )
+
+    def test_die_default_message_is_empty(self):
+        self.assertEqual("", Die(1).message)
+        self.assertEqual(1, Die(1).code)
+
+
+class _FakeHomeMixin:
+    """Point supervise.bot_bottle_root (what _write_crash_log resolves
+    through) at a temp dir so the crash log doesn't touch the real
+    ~/.bot-bottle."""
+
+    def _setup_fake_home(self):
+        self._tmp = tempfile.TemporaryDirectory(prefix="dash-crash-test.")
+        self._orig_root = supervise.bot_bottle_root
+        self._root = Path(self._tmp.name) / ".bot-bottle"
+        supervise.bot_bottle_root = lambda: self._root  # type: ignore[assignment]
+
+    def _teardown_fake_home(self):
+        supervise.bot_bottle_root = self._orig_root  # type: ignore[assignment]
+        self._tmp.cleanup()
+
+
+class TestCmdDashboardErrorPaths(_FakeHomeMixin, unittest.TestCase):
+    def setUp(self):
+        self._setup_fake_home()
+
+    def tearDown(self):
+        self._teardown_fake_home()
+
+    def test_keyboard_interrupt_returns_130(self):
+        with mock.patch.object(
+            dashboard.curses, "wrapper", side_effect=KeyboardInterrupt
+        ):
+            self.assertEqual(130, dashboard.cmd_dashboard([]))
+
+    def test_die_resurfaces_message_after_curses(self):
+        buf = io.StringIO()
+        with mock.patch.object(
+            dashboard.curses, "wrapper",
+            side_effect=Die(1, "manifest parse error at line 3"),
+        ):
+            with contextlib.redirect_stderr(buf):
+                rc = dashboard.cmd_dashboard([])
+        self.assertEqual(1, rc)
+        self.assertIn("manifest parse error at line 3", buf.getvalue())
+
+    def test_die_without_message_has_fallback(self):
+        buf = io.StringIO()
+        with mock.patch.object(dashboard.curses, "wrapper", side_effect=Die(1)):
+            with contextlib.redirect_stderr(buf):
+                rc = dashboard.cmd_dashboard([])
+        self.assertEqual(1, rc)
+        self.assertIn("fatal error", buf.getvalue())
+
+    def test_unexpected_exception_writes_crash_log(self):
+        buf = io.StringIO()
+        with mock.patch.object(
+            dashboard.curses, "wrapper",
+            side_effect=ValueError("kaboom in render"),
+        ):
+            with contextlib.redirect_stderr(buf):
+                rc = dashboard.cmd_dashboard([])
+        self.assertEqual(1, rc)
+        out = buf.getvalue()
+        self.assertIn("dashboard crashed: ValueError: kaboom in render", out)
+        self.assertIn("full traceback written to", out)
+        log_path = self._root / "logs" / "dashboard-crash.log"
+        self.assertTrue(log_path.exists())
+        content = log_path.read_text()
+        self.assertIn("kaboom in render", content)
+        self.assertIn("Traceback (most recent call last)", content)
+
+
+class TestWriteCrashLog(_FakeHomeMixin, unittest.TestCase):
+    def setUp(self):
+        self._setup_fake_home()
+
+    def tearDown(self):
+        self._teardown_fake_home()
+
+    def test_appends_traceback_with_header(self):
+        try:
+            raise RuntimeError("explode")
+        except RuntimeError as e:
+            path = dashboard._write_crash_log(e)
+        self.assertEqual(self._root / "logs" / "dashboard-crash.log", path)
+        text = path.read_text()
+        self.assertIn("=== dashboard crash", text)
+        self.assertIn("RuntimeError: explode", text)
+
+    def test_falls_back_to_tempfile_when_home_unwritable(self):
+        # bot_bottle_root points at a *file*, so mkdir under it raises
+        # OSError and the helper must fall back to a tempfile.
+        bad = Path(self._tmp.name) / "not-a-dir"
+        bad.write_text("x")
+        supervise.bot_bottle_root = lambda: bad  # type: ignore[assignment]
+        try:
+            raise RuntimeError("explode2")
+        except RuntimeError as e:
+            path = dashboard._write_crash_log(e)
+        self.assertTrue(path.exists())
+        self.assertIn("explode2", path.read_text())
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    unittest.main()