Booting against a pre-bloated 300k-row device_status_log, /api/status answers in <3s
while the table is still large (chunked startup prune trickling in the background), and
the backlog drains to the cap with the server responsive throughout. The old whole-table
sort froze boot ~40s. Fallout doc gets the P2 findings section.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Investigated the fleet-wide simultaneous reconnect concern. buildPlaylistPayload is
synchronous but cheap: measured avg 0.078ms / max 0.70ms per call with a 200-item
snapshot; 230 devices = ~18ms CPU spread across 230 separate handler invocations (the
loop yields between them), never one block. Per-call << 50ms invariant. No change
needed; documented with the measured number.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Block is a real lever now, so cover the authz path. Booted server + JWT; device and a
viewer membership seeded via the DB file. Proves POST /api/devices/:id/{block,unblock}:
owner (workspace_admin) -> 200; unauthenticated -> 401; cross-workspace user -> 403;
workspace_viewer -> 403 (read-only), with the DB blocked column asserted at each step.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Every new subsystem is disable-able via env (flip + restart, no redeploy/bisect):
- FLAP_LIMITER_ENABLED=false -> flap limiter always allows.
- OTA_DOWNLOAD_GUARD_ENABLED=false -> download guard always admits.
- MAINTENANCE_BAND_GATE_ENABLED=false -> interval maintenance ignores band.
- CONNECT_RATE_QUARANTINE_TRIPS=0 -> quarantine off (already; confirmed).
Startup prune is never band-gated regardless. Kill switches table added to the fallout
doc. Tests assert each OFF behaviour.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
A fixed OTA_DOWNLOAD_MAX_CONCURRENT=10 throttled a legitimate coordinated rollout even
on a perfectly healthy server, and a shed 503 costs a client a full ~30-min re-check
cycle. Made the download guard's concurrency + rate caps band-aware:
- normal -> serve FREELY (no cap): a whole-fleet rollout isn't staggered when healthy
- elevated -> the configured caps engage (early backpressure)
- critical -> shed 503 (the real protection, unchanged)
Kill switch OTA_DOWNLOAD_GUARD_ENABLED=false disables it entirely.
Tests updated: normal serves 50/50 with 0 shed; caps + shed now asserted under elevated;
storm harness OTA flood runs under elevated (the loaded state). Suite green.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
resolveIdentity runs on every register (block + flap gates). It already returned on
device_id before any DB access; memoized the device_fingerprints statement (prepared
once, lazily) and documented the invariant. Test asserts a device_id-present resolve
prepares/runs ZERO device_fingerprints queries; a device_id-absent resolve does.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
The flap limiter's auto-quarantine used to run `UPDATE devices SET blocked = 1` — a
PERMANENT, human-cleared block on an automatic trigger. A stuck-then-recovered device
stayed dark until someone noticed.
- Removed the auto-write from ws/deviceSocket.js. devices.blocked is now written ONLY by
an operator (dashboard endpoint / direct SQLite).
- Quarantine moved into lib/flap-limiter.js as IN-MEMORY, TIME-LIMITED state: after
connectRateQuarantineTrips trips in a window the identity is quarantinedUntil = now +
connectRateQuarantineMs (new, default 30m); check() then refuses cheaply with
reason:'quarantined' and AUTO-CLEARS when the window passes. Safe in-memory now that
Item A ended the restart loop, and a self-healing auto-action must not survive as a DB row.
- Log quarantine START once; repeat refusals go through the coalescer. Stale
"-> blocked=1" comments updated.
- connectRateQuarantineTrips=0 still disables it.
Tests: quarantine engages after N trips, refuses cheaply during the window, auto-clears
after connectRateQuarantineMs; and an integration flapper is quarantined while
devices.blocked stays 0.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Deliverables 3 & 4: per-item blast radius + soak signals, and the before/after
worst-case synchronous blocking for every hot path touched (prune, sweeps, OTA,
register, telemetry). Ends with the A<->B interlock note (ship together).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Combines all four spiral inputs at once: a pre-bloated device_status_log (300k rows), a
maintenance sweep running over it (the old whole-table sort froze 40-48s), a hard
flapper, and an OTA download flood from a single SNAT IP. Asserts:
- the event loop never enters a multi-second freeze (max 10ms-ticker gap < 300ms,
vs 40-48s pre-fix) and the ticker keeps firing throughout,
- the chunked sweep drains the 300k backlog to the per-device cap,
- every limiter still bites under load: the flapper is refused, the OTA flood is shed
past the global window cap (served capped, never per-IP).
Suite 267/267.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Don't let telemetry/logging cook the loop under a storm.
- lib/log-coalescer.js: dedup+count high-frequency lines, flush ONE summarized line per
key per window ("[loop-lag] band=critical (x47 in 30s)"). Bounded buffer (auto-flush
at MAX_KEYS). Applied to the loop-lag "still loaded" line (band CHANGES stay immediate),
the per-request OTA check line, and "Device reconnected".
- loop-lag: event_loop_lag rows are BUFFERED and batch-inserted on a flush interval
(was a synchronous INSERT per sample); the buffer is bounded (drop-oldest). Its
retention prune now rides the Item-A chunkedDelete so this table can never repeat the
status_log bloat-then-freeze. /api/status still reads in-memory current (real-time
band unaffected).
- Bounded the previously un-evicted per-device Maps: content-ack limiter gets an idle
sweep (started in server.js); status-log-writer.lastWritten is capped (drop-oldest;
it only suppresses a redundant consecutive row, so eviction is safe).
Tests: N identical lines -> one counted line; single line verbatim; coalescer buffer
bounded under a distinct-key flood; content-ack Map swept of idle buckets.
loop-lag-integration updated for the batched-insert cadence. Suite 266/266.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
- Enforcement (deviceSocket): resolve identity ONCE via the SNAT-safe chain and check
blocked against the RESOLVED device_id (device_id directly OR fingerprint->device_id),
so a blocked device that reconnects WITHOUT a device_id is still caught — the old
"if (device_id)" gate let a device_id-less reconnect slip past. Still the first gate,
before flap/throttle/DB/playlist. Nulling the token still does NOT block (it
re-provisions) — the blocked column is the lever.
- Dashboard toggle: POST /api/devices/:id/{block,unblock} (write-gated + workspace-scoped
via checkDeviceOwnership) writes devices.blocked; takes effect on the device's NEXT
register with no restart. api.js + a Block/Unblock button in device-detail.js.
- Outage procedure documented in-code: direct SQLite
"UPDATE devices SET blocked = 1 WHERE id = <id>" works with the dashboard down.
Tests: blocked refused at handshake with no playlist build; device_id-less reconnect
with a mapped fingerprint still refused; unblock effective on next register, no restart.
Suite 262/262.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
The fleet SNATs to one IP, so nothing on the OTA path may key on IP.
- /api/update/check: EARLY-RETURN before any filesystem call when the breaker won't
offer (rate-backoff / up-to-date / phantom / client-newer). A looping client that
gets rate-backoff now does ZERO fs — the flood can't become a statSync flood.
- lib/apk-cache.js: resolve APK path/size/mtime once at boot + refresh on an interval;
the check/download endpoints read cached metadata (get() does no fs, proven by test).
- lib/ota-download-guard.js + /download/apk: GLOBAL concurrency + rate caps + critical-
band shed (503 Retry-After), NEVER per-IP. Replaces the per-IP-per-10min log throttle
(which hid the flood under SNAT) with a per-window served/shed aggregate so a download
flood is VISIBLE. Bounded single rolling-state object; in-flight released on finish/close.
- Breaker unchanged; no IP limiting or device_id requirement added (legacy field clients
send no device_id on OTA checks — must keep working).
Tests: apk-cache get() = 0 statSync over 1000 reads; download guard sheds past global
concurrency + per-window rate + critical band; admit() has no IP parameter. Suite 259/259.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
The #142 burst throttle (5/10s) misses a device flapping every 3-5s (~2-3/10s) — yet
each cycle is an expensive register+build+acks and one status_log row (the spiral
trigger). Now that Item A ends the restart loop that used to wipe in-memory throttle
state every ~40s, an in-memory sustained limiter can finally bite.
- lib/device-identity.js: SNAT-safe identity resolution — device_id -> fingerprint
(map via device_fingerprints -> device_id, else raw fp) -> device_token -> ONE bounded
global anon bucket. NEVER IP (the fleet SNATs to 10.10.10.1). An unidentifiable client
is still bucketed (collectively) so an anon flood is capped, never unthrottled.
- lib/flap-limiter.js: per-identity connect-frequency over a long window
(CONNECT_RATE_WINDOW_MS=5min, CONNECT_RATE_MAX=20; anon bucket cap 60). Over the rate
-> refuse + disconnect (cheap). Bounded by an idle sweep (anon bucket never swept).
Optional auto-quarantine: a device_id-resolved hard flapper -> blocked=1.
- Wired at the device:register gate BEFORE fingerprint tracking/throttle/DB/build,
skipping same-socket playlist refreshes. Sweep started in server.js.
Tests: 4s-flapper refused after the window max; 60s-normal never; two device_ids
independent (never IP); device_id-less bucketed by fingerprint; neither id nor
fingerprint capped via global anon; idle sweep preserves the anon bucket. Suite 254/254.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
The death-spiral amplifier: pruneStatusLog ran a whole-table ROW_NUMBER() sort,
40-48s synchronous on the 1.1M-row incident table, freezing boot -> healthcheck
fail -> restart loop.
- lib/chunked-prune.js: shared chunkedDelete (rowid IN (SELECT ... LIMIT ?) since
better-sqlite3 has no DELETE...LIMIT) — bounded batch + setImmediate yield between
batches, optional band-gate. Core invariant: no sync op blocks >~50ms ever.
- pruneStatusLog: rewritten per-device via a loose index-scan seek
(WHERE device_id > ? ORDER BY device_id LIMIT 1 — O(log n) each), retention +
newest-cap trimmed in bounded batches, async, re-entrancy-guarded, band-gated on
the interval / un-gated + fire-and-forget at startup so a bloated table self-heals
on deploy WITHOUT freezing boot.
- heartbeat.js: maintenance moved off the interval body into async band-gated
re-entrant runMaintenance(); play_logs + provisioning prunes chunked; offline-marking
stays synchronous.
- pruneTelemetry: bounded single statement (OFFSET 6000 LIMIT batch), stays sync.
- idx_devices_provisioning so the provisioning prune batch subquery is an index range.
Tests: correctness (per-device cap + retention, independent devices), 300k-row backlog
trims in many batches with max event-loop gap <250ms, band-gate no-op while critical +
startup runs regardless, re-entrancy (concurrent -> once). Existing prune tests updated
to await. Suite 247/247.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Phase 0 deliverable for the beta7 (alpha-only) hardening pass. Enumerates every
synchronous unbounded op (maintenance sweeps, register hot path, content-ack, OTA
endpoints, loop-lag telemetry, log volume, un-evicted per-device Maps), classifies
each exposed/mitigated with worst-case blocking, confirms the two-mechanism spiral
(whole-table prune freeze <-> restart-loop throttle wipe), and sequences items A-E.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Found in the alpha load test: client-chosen pairing codes collide by birthday
paradox, the provisioning INSERT hit UNIQUE(devices.pairing_code), the SqliteError
threw out of the (synchronous) socket handler -> uncaughtException -> logFatalAndExit
-> the WHOLE server exited and every device dropped. The colliding flood crash-LOOPED
the container (2 restarts).
Two layers, same "one device can't take down the fleet" theme as #142/#143/#144:
1. Narrow (deviceSocket.js): wrap the device:register provisioning INSERT in
try/catch — a UNIQUE pairing_code collision (or ANY db error) rejects THAT
registration (device:auth-error -> client retries) instead of throwing.
currentDeviceId/authenticated now set only AFTER the row exists (no half-auth
socket on failure).
2. Broader (lib/safe-socket.js): protectSocket() overrides socket.on per connection
so any handler throw is caught, logged (event + id + stack), the socket told, and
DISCONNECTED — per-CONNECTION fail-fast, not whole-PROCESS. We don't keep serving a
connection from possibly-half-mutated state (honors the existing fail-fast intent),
we just contain it to "one device reconnects" (a non-event after beta5). Wired into
both the /device and /dashboard connection handlers; auto-covers future handlers.
Audited first: no handler throws as control flow, so blanket-wrapping is safe.
Tests (mutation-verified, fail without their fix):
- register-insert-crash.test.js: a pairing_code collision AND a general bind error
each reject-one-device with no uncaughtException; server keeps serving.
- socket-handler-isolation.test.js: a throwing handler disconnects only that socket;
the server + other sockets stay alive.
Full suite 243/243.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Second head of the OTA-loop root cause (#144), on the connection/heartbeat
layer: unbounded device-driven work with no circuit-breaker. Symptoms in Bold
prod — devices shown OFFLINE in CMS while online+playing, loop-lag simmer
(p99 300-1145ms), device_status_log grown to 1.1M rows.
False-offline (two causes, both fixed):
- evicted-socket re-arm race: evictPriorSocket runs before registerConnection,
so the evicted old socket's disconnect armed a fresh offline timer for a
just-reconnected device. Tag evicted socket ids and bail in the disconnect
handler (ws/deviceSocket.js).
- heartbeat checker false-positive: a device with a live socket in /device is
UP even if its in-memory lastHeartbeat is stale under lag; skip it instead of
marking offline (services/heartbeat.js).
Storm containment:
- batched/coalescing device_status_log writer (lib/status-log-writer.js): net
state per device per flush, breaking the storm->bloat->slow-write->lag loop.
- newest-N-per-device row-count cap in the global sweep (db/database.js): hard
bound regardless of churn; trims the existing 1.1M backlog on the first sweep.
Per-device prune unified to statusLogRetentionDays (was hardcoded 7d).
- reconnect-throttle idle-bucket sweep (lib/reconnect-throttle.js): the #142
throttle already existed; added the memory-bound sweep it lacked (wired in
server.js). No second breaker.
- cosmetic: cap the OTA breaker level counter (lib/ota-breaker.js).
- best-effort status-log flush on the crash path (server.js).
Tests: load harness (test/reconnect-storm-load.test.js) proves breaker engage,
clean offline-clear, no-throttle-on-normal-reconnect, batched writes, bounded
loop-lag; cause-1 re-arm race proven with teeth (test/evicted-socket-rearm.test.js).
Both mutation-checked (fail without their fix). Full suite 240/240.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
/api/update/check offered the update whenever client !== latest (raw string
inequality, not semver) with no backoff. A device that can't APPLY the update
(broken OTA client 1.7.12, signing/Fire OS) keeps reporting the same version and is
told update_available=true on every poll; a fast poll loop saturates the event loop
(prod loop-lag 49s). All requests share one NAT IP, so IP-keying is useless.
server-only breaker (lib/ota-breaker.js), two independent axes:
- RATE breaker (primary, immediate): a key checking >THRESHOLD (3) times within
WINDOW (60s) is looping -> throttle update_available with exponential backoff
(30s->2m->8m->cap 30m). Healthy devices poll ~12 min and never approach this, so
rollout/stragglers are inherently safe -- NO grace-for-flood timer; slow == safe.
- PHANTOM guard (immediate): unrecognized version, or a prerelease of an OLDER core
(superseded old-minor beta e.g. 1.9.1-beta4), gets no-offer on the first check. A
RECENT real older version (beta3 vs latest beta4; stable 1.7.12) stays offerable.
- Never offers a downgrade (client >= latest -> no offer).
KEYING (#144 option 3): keyed on device_id when present, else reported version.
- server.js:581 accepts + logs ?device_id=, passes it to the breaker.
- UpdateChecker.kt:122 appends &device_id=<config.deviceId> (existing registered id;
omitted until provisioned). One-line client change.
beta4+ clients get precise per-device throttling; stuck legacy clients sending only
?version= are caught by the version-keyed + rate + phantom logic. Response gains
additive `reason` + `retry_after_seconds` (old clients ignore).
BOUNDED STATE: a periodic sweep (startSweep, wired in server.js) evicts buckets idle
> IDLE_RESET_MS so the keyed Map can't grow unbounded (churned device_ids); not
reset-on-access only.
SCOPE (deliberate): this targets the FAST flood + phantoms. The slow #144 drip
(stable 1.7.12 polling ~every 12 min, ~20/hr) stays below >3/60s and is NOT
throttled -- catching it needs #144 option-3 "skip-this-version after N cycles",
which is intentionally NOT in this build.
NOTE: carries a CLIENT/APK change -> versionCode must increment at the beta4 bump and
the release keystore is required for the APK. The device_id path only helps devices
that can install beta4+; the stuck legacy fleet is covered by the version-keyed path.
Tests: unit (lib/ota-breaker, injected time) a-f + comparator + escalation + sweep +
slow-drip-scope; HTTP integration (real endpoint, device_id passthrough). Full suite
green serial AND parallel (234). OTA-only delta -- reconnect/reclaim/shed/content-ack/
block untouched.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Bold: screens sit on the Connect page showing the server URL = paired server-side
but never told, so the app never starts playing.
Flow / gap (Step A):
- CLIENT leaves the Connect page ONLY on the 'device:paired' event — web player
(player/index.html) hides the setup screen; Android ProvisioningActivity.onPaired
launches MainActivity + finish(). That event is the sole signal.
- SERVER pushes 'device:paired' to the device's room from POST /api/provision/pair
(server.js) at pair time — but ONLY reaches a LIVE socket then. The normal
device_id reconnect path emitted device:registered + device:playlist-update but
NOT device:paired. So a screen paired while disconnected, or that reconnects after
pairing (exactly the screens cycling on the Connect page), is paired server-side
(user_id set, receiving playlists) yet never gets device:paired -> stuck on Connect.
Fix (server-only, uses the EXISTING client listener — no client update needed, which
matters because we can't push a client update to stuck screens): on the device_id
reconnect, if the device is paired (user_id set), re-emit 'device:paired'
{device_id, name}. Push-on-pair (server.js) already covers the live-at-pair-time
case; this covers paired-then-reconnect. A paired screen now leaves Connect and
plays on its next reconnect with no client change and no manual re-pair.
Tests (port 3989, real flow): provision -> pair via /api/provision/pair (socket
closed) -> reconnect RECEIVES device:paired (+name +playlist) — the stuck-screen
repro; an unpaired device gets NO device:paired (stays on the pairing flow); the fix
reuses the existing device:paired event (no new protocol). Full suite green serial
AND parallel (220); dbac699 / 404c330 / e734281 intact.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Bold beta1: three devices spam "Fingerprint reclaim rejected ... device active
(status=offline, ~2500s since heartbeat, liveConn=false)" twice/~2s indefinitely —
contradictory: gone by every signal yet treated as active.
Root cause (NOT a missing clear — corrected the hypothesis). The reject condition
was `liveConn || status==='online' || secondsSince < RECLAIM_GRACE_SECONDS(24h)`.
For the observed devices liveConn=false and status=offline, so the ONLY true term
is `secondsSince < 24h` — an effective 24h CALENDAR grace, not a stale flag. Audited
the clears: liveConn (deviceConnections) is removed on the debounced disconnect
(heartbeat.removeConnection) AND the offline_timeout sweep (deviceConnections.delete);
status is set 'offline' on both. liveConn=false + status=offline PROVE the clears
ran — there is nothing stale to clear. The 24h time gate (mislabeled "device active")
blocked a legitimately-gone device from reclaiming for up to 24h, so it retried
every ~2s forever-in-practice. The "twice per ~2s" is two reclaim ATTEMPTS per cycle
(client reconnect + re-pair-on-auth-error), each hitting the single console.warn —
not double-logging in one attempt.
Fix:
- Decide "still alive" from RUNTIME signals: `!!liveConn || secondsSince <
reclaimSettleSeconds`. A device with no live socket and a heartbeat older than the
settle window is gone -> reclaimable. A live (or just-seen) device is still
rejected, so reclaim-abuse protection holds. NOT just ignoring "active" — it fixes
WHY it was stuck (the 24h gate). RECLAIM_SETTLE_SECONDS default 300 (was 24h).
SECURITY TRADEOFF flagged in config: shortens the anti-fingerprint-theft window;
raise to re-tighten. Tuning guess to validate vs Bold.
- Log throttle: the deferral logs at most once per device per RECLAIM_REJECT_LOG_
WINDOW_MS (default 60s) — collapses the double-log + the per-2s flood (same
discipline as the content-ack shed log). Cleared when a reclaim proceeds.
Recovery of the 3 wedged devices (2febcaa9, 1984694c, 139159eb): they SELF-HEAL on
their next reclaim attempt (~2s) once this ships — their heartbeats are ~2500s stale
(>300s settle) and liveConn=false, so the reclaim now succeeds. No operator SQL needed.
Tests (port 3988): gone device reclaims; live device still rejected; clear-on-leave
(disconnect clears liveConn -> stale device reclaims); deferral log <=1 per window.
Full suite green serial+parallel (217). reconnect-throttle.js, the dbac699 content-ack
limiter, and the 404c330 block/auth code untouched.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Highest-priority #143 item (operator finding from Bold): nulling a device's token
did NOT lock it out — device 75c2a08a immediately reconnected and saturated the
loop. Two distinct defects:
1. Auth short-circuit (the cause). device:register used
if (device.device_token && !validateDeviceToken(...)) { reject }
so a NULL/empty STORED token made the guard falsy -> validation SKIPPED, and the
next block even MINTED a fresh token and persisted it. Nulling a token thus
RE-PROVISIONED the device instead of locking it out. Fix: drop the
`device.device_token &&` guard -> `if (!validateDeviceToken(device_id, device_token))`
(validateDeviceToken already returns false for null-stored/missing/mismatch), and
remove the legacy "mint a token for a null-token device" path (the re-provision
vector). An already-provisioned device (every row, incl. 'provisioning', is created
WITH a token) presenting null/empty/invalid is now REJECTED + disconnected.
The first-pairing seam is unaffected: a brand-new device has NO device_id and goes
through the pairing_code branch (which mints id+token) — a different code path.
2. No server-side kill switch. Added a `blocked` column (devices.blocked INTEGER
NOT NULL DEFAULT 0; schema.sql + a database.js migration). The block is the FIRST
gate at the top of device:register — before the fingerprint block, the reconnect
throttle, any DB writes, or playlist build — so a blocked device's socket is
refused immediately (auth-error 'Device blocked' + disconnect, zero further work).
It does NOT rely on null-token (the thing that failed). The row is re-read every
register, so a DIRECT SQLite edit takes effect on the device's NEXT reconnect with
NO server restart. Operator statements (dashboard-down, hand-edit):
block: UPDATE devices SET blocked = 1 WHERE id = '<device_id>';
unblock: UPDATE devices SET blocked = 0 WHERE id = '<device_id>';
Tests (port 3987): nulled-token provisioned device is REJECTED (75c2a08a repro);
blocked=1 refused at the first gate (no register/playlist); unblock reconnects;
first-pairing still works; normal valid-token device unaffected. Full suite green
serial AND parallel (213); reconnect-throttle.js + the dbac699 content-ack limiter
untouched.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
#142's content-ack dedup is insufficient: a device cycling 2-4 content IDs makes
every ack look unique so dedup never fires, while aggregate volume from ~30 devices
saturates the event loop (the #142 reconnect throttle kept the server responsive,
which is how this was even observable).
Folded ONE control on the content-ack path (no competing limiters; reconnect-
throttle.js untouched) in lib/content-ack-limiter.js:
- Step 1 — per-device RATE budget: caps TOTAL non-duplicate acks per device per
window regardless of differing content_id (the case dedup misses). Over budget =
DROP silently (the per-ack log+emit is the cost); log ONCE per device per window
when shedding starts. Keeps the #142 dedup (dedup'd repeats don't consume budget).
Per-device, in-memory, resets on restart (modeled on lastPlayLogAt; does NOT reuse
reconnect-throttle's ban-semantics bucket).
Env (TUNING GUESSES, validate vs Bold's fleet): CONTENT_ACK_MAX_PER_WINDOW=20,
CONTENT_ACK_RATE_WINDOW_MS=10000 (=2/s, above legit ~<=1/s, below the flood).
- Step 2 — global pressure valve: reuses the #142 loop-lag band (+ its hysteresis,
no second control loop). Under CRITICAL band, shed content-acks even for an
in-budget device; reconnects + dashboard/HTTP are ALWAYS processed; a healthy
device in a non-critical band is never touched by the valve. Valve open/close
logged once at the band edge in services/loop-lag.js (not per shed message).
Tests (unique ports 3985/3986, not the 3982/3983/3984 set):
- unit: the #143 regression (cycling ids evading dedup IS rate-limited), under/over
budget, dedup still works + doesn't consume budget, valve sheds in-budget under
critical while normal is untouched, rate precedence, window reset, per-device
isolation.
- integration: socket flood is capped to budget with a single shed-start log;
under-budget passes every ack; valve OPEN sheds content-acks while a reconnect +
/api/status still succeed.
Full suite green serial AND parallel (208 tests).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Documents the #142 changes and tells operators with an already-bloated
device_status_log to reclaim space with a one-time manual VACUUM in a maintenance
window (retention now bounds further growth). Explains why auto-VACUUM is not
enabled. New doc: docs/maintenance-device-status-log.md.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Brings the full #142 stack onto main on top of the 1.9.1 stable cut:
- device_status_log index + de-dupe
- event-loop lag telemetry (bounded)
- load-aware per-device reconnect throttle (the outage fix)
- global device_status_log retention sweep (STATUS_LOG_RETENTION_DAYS)
- content-ack dedup
- provisioning-row cleanup window 365d -> 24h
services/heartbeat.js deleted unclaimed provisioning devices with
created_at < now - (365 * 86400) — a YEAR — while its own comment said "older
than 24 hours". So socket-register pairing junk lingered ~365x longer than
intended. Change the window to 24 * 3600 to match the comment.
Correctness fix only — does NOT touch the pre-auth register path or add a rate
limiter (that pre-auth hardening is a separate security issue, out of this cut).
Extracted the sweep into pruneProvisioningDevices() (still in heartbeat.js, called
from the same interval) so it is unit-testable. Test asserts a >24h unclaimed
provisioning row is swept while a <24h row, an imported row (user_id set), and a
non-provisioning row are kept.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
device:content-ack logged + emitted every message, so a device repeatedly
reporting the same "content <id>: ready" (observed from an older app version)
added avoidable load per message.
- Suppress identical (device_id, content_id, status) reports within
config.contentAckDedupMs (default 10s), modeled on the lastPlayLogAt throttle.
A status change has a different key and passes immediately; a fresh report after
the window passes too. In-memory, resets on restart. The handler does no DB
writes, so this is purely shedding redundant log+emit work.
test: integration over a real authenticated device socket — a burst of identical
"ready" collapses to one log/emit, a "ready" after the window passes, and a status
change is never deduped. Unique PORT (3984).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
The per-device insert-time prune (deviceSocket.js) only ever touches a device
that is actively inserting, so it misses two paths: removed/idle devices whose
rows linger forever, and heartbeat.js's offline_timeout insert that bypasses
logDeviceStatus entirely. The reporter's 1.2M-row bloat accumulated UNDER a 7-day
per-device prune for exactly this reason.
- pruneStatusLog() (db/database.js): a GLOBAL time-range sweep across ALL devices,
modeled on the play_logs prune. Run once on startup (recovers a bloated table
right after deploy) and on the heartbeat interval (services/heartbeat.js).
- STATUS_LOG_RETENTION_DAYS env, default 3 (lower than the old hardcoded 7d; the
dashboard only shows a 24h uptime window, so 2-3d is ample for diagnostics).
- Deliberately NO per-device row cap: Step 3's throttle already bounds how fast a
storming device can generate status rows, so a cap would add sweep complexity
for little gain (noted for later if needed).
- NO VACUUM / auto_vacuum here (kept off the hot path); space reclaim is left as a
separate decision (see report).
test: deterministic in-process unit test proves the sweep deletes over-retention
rows across all devices — including a device absent from the devices table and an
offline_timeout row — while keeping recent rows; idempotent on an empty table.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Gates genuine reconnects PER DEVICE before the heavy register work (DB writes +
playlist build) runs, so a single flapping device can no longer saturate the
event loop and take down the server.
- Actuator is per-device, keyed on device_id (modeled on lastPlayLogAt). A device
is flagged only when it exceeds reconnectBaseMax genuine reconnects per window.
Same-socket playlist refreshes (isPlaylistRefresh) are exempt.
- Load-awareness is BANDED (normal/elevated/critical from the step-2 lag signal),
not a continuous controller. The band only MULTIPLIES an already-flagged
device's backoff; global lag never gates a healthy device.
- Hysteresis: escalate immediately while storming (tighten fast); decay one level
per reconnectReleaseMs of calm (release slow).
- HARD CEILING per device, independent of band and warm-up — a slow-ramp attacker
can't train through it.
- COLD START: for reconnectWarmupMs after boot, force the normal band and apply
only the hard ceiling, so a full-fleet reconnect after a deploy doesn't throttle
healthy screens. State is in-memory, resets on restart.
- Observability: every throttle engagement logs device, band, observed vs allowed
rate, and backoff. Throttled device gets device:throttled + a deferred disconnect.
Tests (api.test.js style):
- unit: healthy-never-throttled, storm-throttled-with-growing-backoff, band
multiplies backoff, hard-ceiling-even-in-warmup, warm-up leniency, neighbor
isolation, slow release.
- integration GATE (the required one): full-fleet reconnect right after restart
throttles NO healthy device; a single device storming IS throttled; a neighbor
stays unaffected while another storms.
- also fixes pre-existing test PORT collisions (my new integration files clashed
with totp.test.js:3979 and totp-keyrotation.test.js:3980 -> moved to 3982/3983);
full suite now green serially AND in parallel.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Continuously samples event-loop delay via perf_hooks.monitorEventLoopDelay()
(C++-backed histogram; cheap). Each window persists mean/p50/p99/max to a new
event_loop_lag table and recomputes a coarse load band (normal/elevated/critical)
from the window p99. Standalone value: current lag is exposed on /api/status and
band changes are logged, so site lag is diagnosable independent of throttling.
The band feeds the #142 reconnect throttle (next commit) but ships first as its
own subsystem.
- event_loop_lag is bounded from day one: indexed on sampled_at + scheduled prune
(LAG_TELEMETRY_RETENTION_DAYS, small default) modeled on the play_logs prune.
Deliberately NOT another unbounded-growth table.
- Band transitions are asymmetric: jump up immediately (tighten fast), release one
level at a time after N calm samples below a deadband (release slow, no flap).
Pure nextBand() function, unit-tested deterministically.
- config: LAG_SAMPLE_INTERVAL_MS, LAG_RESOLUTION_MS, LAG_TELEMETRY_RETENTION_DAYS,
LAG_PRUNE_INTERVAL_MS, LAG_ELEVATED_MS, LAG_CRITICAL_MS, LAG_RELEASE_SAMPLES.
- tests: band-transition unit tests; integration proves sampling persists, stays
bounded under the prune, and surfaces on /api/status.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
The dashboard uptime query (WHERE device_id=? AND timestamp>?) and the
per-device retention prune (WHERE device_id=? AND timestamp<?) were both full
table scans. At 1M+ rows (the outage report) this was the dashboard-degradation
cause that persisted even after the reconnect storm stopped.
- schema.sql: add idx_device_status_log_device_ts(device_id, timestamp); both
queries now SEARCH ... USING INDEX instead of SCAN (verified via EXPLAIN).
- database.js: same index as a migration for existing DBs (idempotent).
- schema.sql defined device_status_log twice; drop the duplicate.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Add a pre-push fast-forward check: fetch origin/main and abort if it has commits not in local HEAD, BEFORE the annotated tag is created. Prevents the beta9 incident where origin/main had advanced by one commit so 'git push origin main' was rejected, but the tag pushed anyway and fired release.yml from a commit not on main. Best-effort fetch — warns and proceeds when offline (the push stays the backstop).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
A mute toggle wrote the draft playlist_items + emitted a live device:mute-changed but only markDraft()'d — it never updated playlists.published_snapshot, the copy the device actually plays. So the device's item.muted stayed 0 and every loop/reload re-applied full volume: dashboard icon red but audio kept playing (Android; web's native <video> loop masked it). emitMuteChanged now surgically patches the matching item's muted (0/1) inside the published_snapshot and re-pushes the playlist, so loops re-apply the correct flag. Surgical patch (not publishPlaylist) so a mute toggle can't prematurely publish other draft edits or flip publish state. Adds a regression test that fails without the patch.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Covers API 24 (7.0) + 25 (7.1.2); all 26+ APIs were already guarded with graceful else branches; no dependency bumps. Validated on API 24 + 25 emulators: install, foreground service, #139 OTA verify on the legacy GET_SIGNATURES path (incl. tampered-refuse), EncryptedSharedPreferences, and playback.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Community contribution from @ChrisChrome (tested on Debian 13 headless). Adds scripts/debian-13-setup.sh — server/player/both modes, systemd units, kiosk autologin, and management scripts (status/update/logs) — modeled on the Raspberry Pi setup. Also fixes Chromium fullscreen by detecting screen resolution at runtime (replacing --start-fullscreen), applied to both the Debian and Pi scripts, plus a README entry.
Maintainer review fix: the kiosk wait-loop now polls /api/status (the server's real readiness endpoint) instead of the non-existent /api/health, which had been silently burning the ~120s timeout on every all-in-one boot (bug inherited from the Pi script, fixed in both).
Follow-up to the cache/backoff loop fix (aa23cf0): make a device that can't
self-install visible to operators, and fix the signature-verify bug that kept the
whole #139 fix from engaging on the actual Fire OS target.
Dashboard surface (Phase 2):
- devices gains ota_status / ota_target_version / ota_attempts / ota_updated_at
via the idempotent ALTER TABLE ADD COLUMN migration (non-destructive,
default-backfilled, idempotent on re-run).
- The device reports ota_status (OtaThrottle.statusFor -> none | pending |
manual_update_required) in device_info; the server persists it on register
(the reconnect backstop). devices d.* already surfaces it to the dashboard.
- Dashboard shows a non-blocking amber badge when manual_update_required
("Update available (vX) - install failed N times, manual update required");
i18n key in en.js (non-en inherits via the en fallback). Server suite +1 test.
Event-driven status (Option B):
- New device:ota-status WS message, emitted on STATE TRANSITIONS only
(enter-backoff -> manual_update_required, clear -> none), so the badge updates
promptly without waiting for a reconnect and without per-poll/heartbeat chatter.
Server handler persists the same fields; an unknown/forged device_id is a safe
no-op. The register-path persist stays as the reconnect backstop.
Signature-verify fix (the critical piece):
verifyApkSignature read the downloaded APK's signer via
getPackageArchiveInfo(GET_SIGNING_CERTIFICATES).signingInfo, but that field is
null for ARCHIVE files on API 28/29 (populated only from API 30). On Fire OS 8
(Android 9 / API 28) - the actual deployment target - this returned 0 certs from
a correctly-signed APK, so every OTA was refused as "tampered," the cache was
deleted, and the full APK re-downloaded every check cycle. This was the real
cause of the #139 re-download loop, NOT a silent-install failure: the cache and
backoff added in this branch sit behind this verify gate and never engaged on
the target.
Fix: below API 30, read the archive's signer via the legacy GET_SIGNATURES +
.signatures (its v1/JAR cert, which IS populated on 28/29). Keep
GET_SIGNING_CERTIFICATES + signingInfo for API >= 30 and for the installed-app
read (which works on 28+). The archive's signer is still extracted and compared
to the installed app's signer; a mismatch or zero-cert APK is still rejected.
This reads the cert correctly on old APIs - it does not weaken verification.
Verified on emulators:
- API 28: verify now passes for a legit APK (was: 0 certs, refused). Full backoff
then engages - 8.5MB pulled once, cache-hit on retries, backoff after 3,
manual_update_required emitted once; clears on successful update.
- API 28 negative: a re-signed (different-key) APK is still refused on cert
MISMATCH - no hole opened.
- API 30: unchanged path still passes (no regression).
- server suite 173/173, OtaThrottleTest 7/7.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Devices that download an OTA APK but cannot silently install it (Fire TV: no
device-owner path) re-downloaded the full APK every check cycle indefinitely -
install never completes, version never advances, next check re-triggers.
Client (UpdateChecker.kt, ServerConfig.kt, OtaThrottle.kt):
- Reuse a cached, signature-verified APK instead of re-downloading every cycle;
delete leftover invalid files; keep the verified APK on disk as the
manual-install artifact.
- Persisted per-version attempt budget (EncryptedSharedPreferences) so it
survives the Fire OS app restarts that drive the loop. An attempt is counted
only when an install is launched - a download/verify failure does not consume
the budget, so a transient network problem cannot park a healthy device in
backoff. After 3 failed installs, back off to one retry per 24h.
- Clear OTA state and caches when a check returns update_available=false while
state is pending (app relaunched as the new version).
- Report OTA status to the dashboard via device:log (tag ota) on state
transitions only (enter-backoff, clear) to avoid flooding the channel.
- Extract throttle decision logic into a pure OtaThrottle object (no Android
deps) with JUnit coverage (OtaThrottleTest) for the state transitions.
Server (server.js):
- Reword /download/apk log from "OTA update in progress" to "APK served" and
rate-limit to once per IP / 10 min so a looping device cannot flood the log.
Note: client-cooperative fix - prevents the loop in cohorts running this APK.
Currently-stuck beta4 devices still require a one-time manual update.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Version bump for the beta6 strobe artifact: VERSION, server package + lock, and
the Android client (versionName 1.9.1-beta6, versionCode 26 so OTA sees it as an
upgrade over beta5/25). Also removes two leftover untracked PiP test scratch files
(frontend/alert-overlay.html, frontend/overlay.js) from a prior session.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Christopher Cookman