crashes on save, macos

i believe the version of KDENLIVE i am using is up to date,

i am on an intel mac running 12.7.6

when creating a project, I am able edit and save freely. when I close the application and then later re-open a project, i am able to make all sorts of edits, but when i try to save the project (both cmd + s and the manual save button) it crashes and i loose all changes made. this is happening consistantly with all the test projects that i have made, these test projects using different media clips.

backing up to a previous version of the project causes a curious result. i am able to save and edit just fine, but when i re-open the project, the same problem occurs.

does anyone have any idea what is going on?