push then export diffs

The new push command gets me closer to what I'm looking for, thank you 🙂

This gist shows what I pushed, and what I get when I export the config.

None of the macos_prefs are exported and all the descriptions, including the main one are empty.

There is a base_preset setting that did not exist in the push.

The packages are not what I pushed.

@fullstackjam

👋 Thanks for opening this issue!

Welcome to OpenBoot! We appreciate your contribution to the project.

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@fullstackjam will review this soon.

@UnderpantsGnome

Hey @UnderpantsGnome, thanks for the detailed gist — that made it easy to trace through exactly what happened.

Packages not matching (42 vs 70+) — this was a real bug. When uploading a snapshot, the server was only keeping packages it recognized from its own catalog, so anything outside that set — awscli, duckdb, mysql@8.4, mosquitto, etc. — was silently dropped. That's been fixed; the server now preserves everything from your snapshot regardless of whether it appears in the catalog. Please push again and you should see your full package list.

macOS preferences — they are being stored in the snapshot and will be in your exported JSON, but they're nested under snapshot.macos_prefs rather than at the top level like in your pushed file. If you weren't seeing them there at all, re-pushing should help. Separately, v0.44.0 (released today) fixed two bugs in how preferences are actually applied during install: preference domains like com.apple.dock were being parsed incorrectly (split at the first dot instead of the last), and the type field could be silently dropped during serialization. Neither would have affected what shows up in the export, but both matter for correctness when running openboot install.

Descriptions all empty — two separate things here. The config's main description is set from the prompts during openboot snapshot push — if you left it blank at that step, it'll be blank on the config. You can update it anytime in the dashboard. As for package descriptions (the desc field on each package), those aren't currently captured in the snapshot format — packages are stored as plain names without descriptions. That's a limitation we can look at improving.

base_preset appearing in the export — expected behavior. The server infers a base preset from your installed packages and stores it with the config. It doesn't affect what gets installed.

To get a clean result: brew upgrade openboot to get v0.44.0, then run openboot snapshot push again.

I tried pushing the same JSON as yesterday with 0.45.0 and got this error:

% openboot push openboot-new.json
Error: parse snapshot: json: cannot unmarshal array into Go struct field Snapshot.packages of type snapshot.PackageSnapshot

Fixed in v0.45.1 — openboot push now accepts packages as either:

Structured: {"formulae": [], "casks": [], "taps": [], "npm": []}
Flat array: ["git", "curl", "jq"] (treated as formulae)

Please update and try again:

brew upgrade openboot
openboot push openboot-new.json

still happening

% openboot version
OpenBoot v0.45.1

% openboot push openboot-new.json
Error: parse snapshot: packages must be an object {formulae,casks,taps,npm} or a string array

still happening

% openboot version
OpenBoot v0.45.1

% openboot push openboot-new.json
Error: parse snapshot: packages must be an object {formulae,casks,taps,npm} or a string array

is there one? https://gist.githubusercontent.com/UnderpantsGnome/c1c620f0551a7ff5ee92e76437cc1ee2/raw/

This is the file I'm trying to push

https://gist.githubusercontent.com/UnderpantsGnome/c1c620f0551a7ff5ee92e76437cc1ee2/raw/40e35f808570b51cb0dc2e6169d950e1348295ee/pushed.json

v0.45.2 is out — this should fix it for real this time. The previous fix only handled flat string arrays, but your file uses the typed object format ([{"name":"git","type":"formula","desc":"..."}]). Now all three formats work.

brew upgrade openboot
openboot push openboot-new.json

Tested locally with your exact gist file — parsing succeeds.

push works
export works

snapshot --import does not list any of the macos_prefs or taps, I'm guessing because they exported under the snapshot key.

Unrelated: I noticed there's a missing space between the ⚙️ and macOS Prefs in the TUI, and the ghosting is still happening on the NPM and Taps tabs.

Glad push and export are working now!

The three issues you mentioned:

snapshot --import missing macos_prefs and taps — I looked into this more closely. The macos_prefs showing as null in your export was because the earlier push attempts failed (before v0.45.2), so the snapshot data never reached the server. Your config was likely created through the dashboard, not via a successful push. If you re-push your file now, the full snapshot (including macos_prefs) will be stored correctly.

We did find and fix a small gap on the server side — taps weren't being extracted into the packages list when creating a config from a snapshot. That's deployed now.
Missing space between ⚙️ and "macOS Prefs" — Will fix.
Ghosting on NPM and Taps tabs — Could you share a screenshot? That would help track it down.

It's the same as the other tabs you fixed, you can see that alfred shows up as the first Cask, when I switch to the NPM tab you can see the ed is still there

v0.45.4 fixes both TUI issues:

Ghost text — Root cause was that lines in View() weren't padded to terminal width, so switching tabs left stale characters behind. Added padAllLines() that wraps every View() return across all three TUI components (package selector, snapshot editor, macOS selector). No more "No itemsed" or similar artifacts.
⚙️ spacing — Added trailing space to the icon so it renders consistently across terminals.

brew upgrade openboot

% openboot version
OpenBoot v0.45.4

% openboot push michael-full.json
Error: parse config: json: cannot unmarshal object into Go struct field RemoteConfig.packages of type string

Here are the in (push) and out (export) files.

fix: accept typed object array packages in push config

Fixed in v0.45.5 — openboot push now accepts config files with typed package objects ([{"name":"git","type":"formula"}]).

Update with brew upgrade openboot and try again. Thanks for the report and the sample files!

push and export work, but the macos_prefs are still nested under snapshot so they don't import

Fixed in v0.45.7 — both server and client side.

Server: The API now includes macos_prefs as a top-level field when you export a config, so it's no longer buried inside the snapshot object.

Client: Even with older exported files where macos_prefs is nested under snapshot, the CLI will now find and import them correctly.

To get a clean round-trip:

brew upgrade openboot to get v0.45.7
Re-export your config from the dashboard — the new export will have macos_prefs at the top level
openboot snapshot --import should now show all your macOS preferences

That said, even without re-exporting, v0.45.7 can import from the old nested format too.

I did a push and export, the macos_prefs were still nested, but the import works, so I guess it's not a big deal.

fix: accept flat array format for packages in snapshot push

fix: handle typed object array in snapshot packages unmarshal

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push then export diffs #12

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push then export diffs #12

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github-actions commented on Mar 18, 2026

fullstackjam commented on Mar 19, 2026

UnderpantsGnome commented on Mar 19, 2026

fullstackjam commented on Mar 19, 2026

UnderpantsGnome commented on Mar 19, 2026

fullstackjam commented on Mar 19, 2026

UnderpantsGnome commented on Mar 19, 2026

fullstackjam commented on Mar 19, 2026

UnderpantsGnome commented on Mar 19, 2026

fullstackjam commented on Mar 19, 2026

UnderpantsGnome commented on Mar 19, 2026

fullstackjam commented on Mar 19, 2026

UnderpantsGnome commented on Mar 19, 2026

fullstackjam commented on Mar 20, 2026

UnderpantsGnome commented on Mar 20, 2026

fullstackjam commented on Mar 21, 2026

UnderpantsGnome commented on Mar 21, 2026

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