Reconnect clients after server restart

[ThiagoAlexsander]

Is there a way to automatically reconnect the Interactsh CLI Client after restarting the Interactsh Server?
I'm self-hosting the server.

When I restart the server, simulating a problem/crash, the clients start throwing this error:

[ERR] The correlation id was not found (probably evicted due to inactivity): could not get correlation-id from cache

The server works properly, just not the clients.

A guy suggested using a session file, but that didn't help.

[bad-antics]

When you restart the server, the in-memory correlation cache is wiped - this is expected behavior. Here's how to handle it:

Solution 1: Use persistent storage on server

Start your server with disk-based caching:

interactsh-server -d yourdomain.com -disk

The -disk flag persists correlation IDs to disk, surviving restarts.

Solution 2: Client-side session recovery

Even with -sf session.txt, clients need to re-register after server restart:

# Create a wrapper script
#!/bin/bash
while true; do
    interactsh-client -s your-server.com -sf session.txt
    echo "Reconnecting in 5s..."
    sleep 5
done

Solution 3: Use -persist flag (newer versions)

interactsh-server -d yourdomain.com -persist

Why session files alone don't help:
The session file stores the client's correlation ID, but after server restart, the server doesn't know that ID anymore unless using persistent storage.

Best setup for HA:

interactsh-server -d yourdomain.com -disk -eviction 168h

This persists data and keeps it for 7 days.

What version are you running? The -disk and -persist flags may have been added in recent releases.

[bad-antics]

When you restart the server, the in-memory correlation cache is wiped - this is expected behavior. Here's how to handle it:

Solution 1: Use persistent storage on server

Start your server with disk-based caching:

interactsh-server -d yourdomain.com -disk

The -disk flag persists correlation IDs to disk, surviving restarts.

Solution 2: Client-side session recovery

Even with -sf session.txt, clients need to re-register after server restart:

# Create a wrapper script
#!/bin/bash
while true; do
    interactsh-client -s your-server.com -sf session.txt
    echo "Reconnecting in 5s..."
    sleep 5
done

Solution 3: Use -persist flag (newer versions)

interactsh-server -d yourdomain.com -persist

Why session files alone don't help:
The session file stores the client's correlation ID, but after server restart, the server doesn't know that ID anymore unless using persistent storage.

Best setup for HA:

interactsh-server -d yourdomain.com -disk -eviction 168h

This persists data and keeps it for 7 days.

What version are you running? The -disk and -persist flags may have been added in recent releases.

[bad-antics]

The core issue is that interactsh generates a unique correlation ID per client session, and when the server restarts, its in-memory cache of valid correlation IDs is wiped. The client keeps trying to poll with the old ID, but the server doesn't recognize it anymore.

Solutions:

1. Use -disk persistence on the server — this stores correlation IDs on disk instead of only in memory:

interactsh-server -d your.domain.com -disk -disk-path /var/lib/interactsh/

After a restart, the server reloads the correlation IDs from disk and existing clients can reconnect.

2. Session file on the client (you mentioned this didn't work — make sure the path is writable):

interactsh-client -s your.domain.com -sf /tmp/interactsh-session.yaml

The session file stores the crypto keys and correlation ID. On reconnect, the client reuses the same ID. But this only works if the server also persists its cache (via -disk). Without server-side persistence, the session file alone won't help because the server still won't recognize the old correlation ID.

3. Wrapper script for auto-reconnect:

#!/bin/bash
while true; do
    interactsh-client -s your.domain.com -token YOUR_TOKEN -sf /tmp/session.yaml -v 2>&1
    echo "[*] Client disconnected, reconnecting in 5s..."
    sleep 5
done

4. Use systemd with restart policy for both server and client:

# /etc/systemd/system/interactsh-client.service
[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/interactsh-client -s your.domain.com -sf /var/lib/interactsh/session.yaml
Restart=always
RestartSec=5

TL;DR: You need both -disk on the server AND -sf on the client for reconnection to work across server restarts.