Developer debugs service worker redundant bug in Next.js PWA with Claude's help

A developer shared their experience building Somnia, a dream incubation and programming app, almost entirely with Claude as a coding partner. The app is a Next.js 14 Progressive Web App that installs to home screens like a native app, sends push notifications at sleep/wake times, stores all data locally on device, and avoids app store distribution.

The problematic bug

The developer spent three weeks debugging a critical issue where web push notifications weren't working. The service worker kept going REDUNDANT immediately after installing in PWA standalone mode on Samsung Android devices. navigator.serviceWorker.getRegistrations() consistently returned empty arrays in this mode.

Debugging process

During the debugging process, the developer:

• Consulted Claude, GPT, Gemini, and Perplexity for assistance
• Generated full debug reports
• Tried over 15 different fixes
• Built a debug page that finally showed the service worker going REDUNDANT
• Interpreted chrome://serviceworker-internals output with Claude's help

The root cause

The actual problem was that sw.js had been accidentally committed to git with a stale build ID. The precache manifest inside was trying to fetch assets from an old deployment, which all returned 404 errors. Workbox's install event failed silently, causing the service worker to self-destruct every time.

The fix

The solution was simple: git rm --cached command fixed the issue by removing the stale file from the cache.

Claude helped maintain systematic debugging when the developer wanted to give up, and while the app contains zero AI-generated content (all dream entries are written by humans), it was built almost entirely through conversation with Claude.