Commit Graph
1 Commits
Author SHA1 Message Date
DottaandClaude Opus 5.5 c57cd1bdb9 perf(server): read plugin lifecycle inbox heads in one pass (#20405)
## Thinking Path

> - Paperclip is the open source app people use to manage AI agents for
work
> - Plugins get agent, project and agent runtime changes from the
`resource_lifecycle_events` journal. Each plugin acknowledges events one
resource at a time.
> - The inbox page query checked each unacknowledged event against all
older events of the same resource. Each check walked the acknowledged
history of that resource.
> - Agent runtime streams get a new event for each configuration change,
so one resource can have thousands of acknowledged events. The cost grew
as pending events times acknowledged history.
> - On a hosted instance, three copies of this read ran for 601 seconds
each, and one earlier copy ran for 19 minutes. The delivery worker runs
it again after each acknowledgment.
> - This pull request selects the head of each resource in one pass and
keeps the same result.
> - The benefit is that the page read is linear in the company journal
size. In local tests it is 250x to 660x faster, and the result rows are
equal.

## Linked Issues or Issue Description

**What happened?**
The plugin lifecycle inbox page query (`select "id", "company_id",
"resource_type", "resource_id", "action", "created_at" from
"resource_lifecycle_events" where ...`) ran for 601 seconds on a hosted
database. Three copies were active at the same time.

**Expected behavior**
A lifecycle page read must stay fast when a resource has a long
acknowledged history and a pending backlog.

**Steps to reproduce**
1. Give a company 40 agents with 1,500 `agent_runtime` events each.
2. Acknowledge the first 1,200 events of each agent for one plugin.
3. Call `pluginLifecycleInbox(db, pluginId).list(companyId, 100,
undefined, ["agent", "project", "agent_runtime"])`.
4. The read takes about 10 seconds for 60,000 events of that company. At
200,000 events it takes about 6 minutes.

**Paperclip version or commit**
`02bfe71a6b` (master).

**Deployment mode**
Hosted (PostgreSQL). Local repro uses embedded PostgreSQL 18.

## What Changed

- `server/src/services/plugin-lifecycle-inbox.ts`: `list` now selects
one head per resource with `DISTINCT ON (resource_type, resource_id)`.
The head is the unacknowledged creation, else the oldest unacknowledged
event. Then the query applies `afterId`, id order and the limit. This is
the same set that the old `firstForResource` predicate admits.
`acknowledge` keeps the old predicate for its single-event check.
- `plugin-lifecycle-inbox.ts`: new `hasPending(companyId, types)`. It
returns whether any unacknowledged event exists. Each resource with an
unacknowledged event has a head, so this gives the same answer as
`list(companyId, 1).length > 0`.
- `server/src/services/plugin-lifecycle-delivery.ts`: the idle-sleep
journal check uses `hasPending`. This keeps its early exit. A one-row
`list` page would read the full journal.
- `server/src/__tests__/resource-lifecycle-events.test.ts`: new database
test for heads across acknowledged history, a creation recorded after
transitions, acknowledged gaps, shared ids across resource types,
per-plugin progress, another company, `afterId` pages, limits,
`hasPending`, and the next head after an acknowledgment. The test also
passes on the old query, so it locks the contract.
- `scripts/benchmark-plugin-lifecycle-inbox.ts`: new benchmark. It loads
the baseline service from git, runs both on the same fixture, alternates
order, asserts equal rows, and prints plans.
- `doc/DATABASE.md`: describes the read cost and the benchmark command.
- No schema change, index or migration.

## Verification

Thesis: the old read cost is (unacknowledged candidates) x (acknowledged
older events per resource), because each candidate walks the
acknowledged prefix of its resource. One pass that keeps the
per-resource head removes that product and returns equal rows.

Baseline plan at 220,080 events: 40,020 candidates each walked about
3,999 older rows, which gave 160,039,980 acknowledgment probes and
562,140,833 buffer hits. The treatment plan reads the journal once with
a hash anti join and sorts the 40,020 unacknowledged rows (3,925 buffer
hits).

Local SQL timings (embedded PostgreSQL 18, Apple Silicon; event counts
include a 20,000-event second company, synthetic data, warm cache, one
warmup, order alternates):

| Fixture (events / acknowledged) | Case | Before median | After median
| Samples (after) | Speedup |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 40,060 / 16,040 | page of 100, all types | 3,263 ms | 13.1 ms | 3
(12.0-14.1) | 250x |
| 80,080 / 48,060 | page of 100, all types | 10,137 ms | 23.9 ms | 5
(22.7-32.6) | 424x |
| 220,080 / 160,060 | page of 100, all types | 355,718 ms | 538 ms | 3
(72-785) | 662x |
| 1,020,080 / 960,060 | page of 100, all types | not run (est. > 30 min)
| 1,682 ms | 7 (1,203-2,384) | - |
| 80,080 / 48,060 | page of 100, agent and project only | 1.5 ms | 1.6
ms | 5 | neutral |
| 80,080 / 48,060 | idle-sleep check | 14.5 ms | 13.8 ms | 5 | neutral |
| 1,020,080 / 960,060 | idle-sleep check | not run | 406 ms | 7 | - |

- Result rows are equal (`assert.deepEqual` on all mapped rows, in
order) for each case where both versions ran.
- The agent runtime revision read in `plugin-agent-runtime-state.ts` and
`agent-file-store.ts` (`select id ... order by id desc limit 1`) uses a
backward index-only scan and reads 5 buffers at 1M events. It is not
changed.

Commands:

```sh
pnpm --filter @paperclipai/server exec tsx ../scripts/benchmark-plugin-lifecycle-inbox.ts --baseline-ref=02bfe71a6b --agents=40 --per-agent=1500 --acked=1200 --samples=5
pnpm --filter @paperclipai/server exec tsx ../scripts/benchmark-plugin-lifecycle-inbox.ts --baseline-ref=02bfe71a6b --agents=40 --per-agent=25000 --acked=24000 --samples=7 --treatment-only
cd server && npx vitest run src/__tests__/resource-lifecycle-events.test.ts src/__tests__/plugin-lifecycle-delivery.test.ts src/__tests__/agent-runtime-hooks.test.ts
```

- `resource-lifecycle-events.test.ts`: 28 passed.
`plugin-lifecycle-delivery.test.ts`: 40 passed (includes idle-sleep
"none" and "present"). `agent-runtime-hooks.test.ts`: 22 passed.
- `tsc --noEmit -p server`: pass.

## Risks

- The page read is still linear in the company journal size, because
acknowledgments are per plugin and the journal has no retention yet. At
1M events a page takes about 1.7 s locally. Each acknowledgment wakes
another full pass. A per-plugin cursor or retention can remove this
later.
- The planner can choose a different plan on the hosted database. The
local plans use a hash anti join and one sort. The hosted improvement is
not yet measured.
- `acknowledge` still checks one event against older events of its
resource. That check is linear in that resource's history per call, as
before.
- Low behavior risk: the new test passes on both the old and new
queries.

## Model Used

- Claude Opus 5.5 (`claude-opus-5-5`), Anthropic, used through Claude
Code with tool use (shell, file edits, local PostgreSQL). Extended
reasoning on.

## Checklist

- [x] I have included a thinking path that traces from project context
to this change
- [x] I have specified the model used (with version and capability
details)
- [x] I have checked ROADMAP.md and confirmed this PR does not duplicate
planned core work
- [x] I have searched GitHub for duplicate or related PRs and linked
them above
- [x] I have either (a) linked existing issues with `Fixes: #` / `Closes
#` / `Refs #` OR (b) described the issue in-PR following the relevant
issue template
- [x] I have not referenced internal/instance-local Paperclip issues or
links (only public GitHub `#NNN` / `github.com/paperclipai/paperclip`
URLs)
- [x] My branch name describes the change (e.g. `docs/...`, `fix/...`)
and contains no internal Paperclip ticket id or instance-derived details
- [x] I have run tests locally and they pass
- [x] I have added or updated tests where applicable
- [x] I have updated relevant documentation to reflect my changes
- [x] I have considered and documented any risks above
- [ ] All Paperclip CI gates are green
- [ ] Greptile is 5/5 with no open P2s, recommendations, or follow-ups
- [x] I will address all Greptile and reviewer comments before
requesting merge

🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)

---------

Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-11-09 17:37:14 -06:00