Storage and state¶

carrier stores metadata in SQLite and command output in log files.

Note

All runtime data is local. carrier does not upload runs, logs, environment variables, or Git metadata.

Default layout¶

~/.local/share/carrier/
  carrier.db
  runs/
    000001.stdout.log
    000001.stderr.log
    000002.terminal.log

Change base directory:

[storage]
data_dir = "~/.local/share/carrier"

SQLite database¶

Metadata lives in:

carrier.db

Main table:

runs

Migration table:

goose_db_version

Search index:

run_search

Migrations are embedded in the binary and applied on startup.

Check migration state:

Check migration

carrier doctor

Run metadata¶

Each run stores:

ID
status
mode
command display string
original argv JSON
cwd
start and finish timestamps
duration
exit code
hostname
shell
Git metadata
output log paths
notification flags
label
captured environment JSON when enabled

Output logs¶

carrier run writes:

000001.stdout.log
000001.stderr.log

carrier shell writes:

000002.terminal.log

Redaction¶

Terminal output remains original. Persisted logs are redacted before writing.

Disable for one run:

Disable redaction for one safe run

carrier --no-redact run ./script-that-prints-safe-output

Warning

--no-redact affects persisted logs for that run. Use it only when you know the command cannot print secrets.

Output cap¶

Persisted logs are capped by:

[storage]
max_output_mb = 20

Truncated logs include:

[carrier: output truncated at configured max_output_mb]

Set max_output_mb = 0 to disable the cap. carrier config check warns about this because unbounded logs can grow quickly.

Captured environment¶

When storage.capture_env = true, carrier run stores the process environment in SQLite.

Inspect it:

Inspect environment

carrier show 42 --env
carrier show 42 --json | jq '.env'

Displayed values are redacted unless --no-redact is used.

Search index¶

carrier search indexes:

command display string
working directory
stdout and stderr logs from carrier run
terminal logs from carrier shell

The index stores up to 256 KiB of combined output per run. The original log files remain on disk under runs/.

Stale running runs¶

Runs can get stuck in running if the parent carrier process is killed or the machine shuts down. On startup, carrier marks old running runs as killed when they are older than:

Stale run threshold

[storage]
stale_run_threshold = "24h"

carrier doctor reports how many stale runs remain.

Cleanup¶

Preview:

Preview cleanup

carrier clean --older-than 30d --dry-run

Delete:

Delete old data

carrier clean --older-than 30d --yes

Keep only the latest N runs:

Keep latest records

carrier clean --keep-last 500 --dry-run
carrier clean --keep-last 500 --yes