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PaperClipAI/server
DottaandClaude Opus 5.5 d5c1f48180 perf(native): index the backup lease lookup by scope digest (#20571)
## Thinking Path

> - Paperclip is the open source app people use to manage AI agents for
work
> - Native harness backup expiration removes old session backups. Before
it removes a backup, it finds the environment leases that reference the
backup root
> - This lookup reads leases by run ID, by the
`metadata.nativeHarnessBackup.sessionScopeSha256` digest, or by the
identity's own lease ID, in one `OR` query
> - The metadata arm has no index. So PostgreSQL reads every lease of
the company, and the metadata of each lease, for each lookup
> - On a hosted test database, this statement ran 21,736 times at a mean
of 158 ms in one window. After other fixes, it still ran 2,364 times at
a mean of 121 ms
> - This pull request adds a small partial expression index on the
digest
> - The benefit is that each lookup reads a few index entries instead of
all company leases. The query text and the result do not change

## Linked Issues or Issue Description

**What existing behavior does this improve?**
The lease lookup in `backupDependencies` in
`server/src/services/native-runtime/native-harness-backup-expiration.ts`.
`reconcileBackup` calls it for each backup root when the expiration
worker loads or checks a root.

**Subsystem affected**
Native harness backup expiration and the `environment_leases` table
schema.

**Current behavior**
The query is `company_id = $1 and (heartbeat_run_id in (...) or
metadata->'nativeHarnessBackup'->>'sessionScopeSha256' = $n or id =
$m)`. The run arm and the ID arm have indexes. The digest arm has no
index. A `BitmapOr` plan needs an index for every arm, so the planner
reads all company leases and evaluates the JSON expression on each row.
Lease metadata holds sandbox details, so these reads are large.

**Proposed behavior**
The partial index `environment_leases_native_backup_scope_idx` keys
leases by the digest. It holds only leases that have a backup stamp.
Every arm of the `OR` now has an index, and the planner combines three
index probes. The SQL and the returned lease IDs do not change.

**Reason and benefit**
This statement was in the top ten by total database time on a loaded
hosted database. A local reproduction shows a query that is more than
6,000x faster and reads 9 buffers instead of about 436,000.

**Breaking changes**
None. The API, the lease-matching rules and the results do not change.

## What Changed

- Add the partial expression index
`environment_leases_native_backup_scope_idx` on
`(metadata->'nativeHarnessBackup'->>'sessionScopeSha256')`, where that
value is not null.
- Add migration `0459`. It uses `CREATE INDEX CONCURRENTLY IF NOT
EXISTS`. The migration runner runs it as a top-level statement, the same
as migrations 0454–0458.
- Add a regression test. It checks the lease-matching rules: run leases,
a lease with only the backup stamp, and the identity's own lease match.
Another digest, a non-string stamp, a top-level key with the same name,
and the same digest in another company do not match. The test also
checks that the custom plan and a forced generic plan of the generated
SQL use `BitmapOr` with the new index and no sequential scan.
- Add `scripts/benchmark-environment-lease-backup-lookup.ts`. It
captures the SQL that the real service generates and measures it with
and without the index.
- Document the index in `doc/DATABASE.md`.

## Verification

Cause and thesis. The cost comes from the one `OR` arm without an index,
which forces a scan of all company leases and their metadata. Thesis: an
index on the digest lets the planner use a `BitmapOr` of three index
probes, so the cost no longer depends on the company's lease count. The
results stay identical. The benchmark confirms the thesis.

I did not change the SQL. With the index, the existing `OR` query
already gets the index plan. A `UNION` rewrite would not help without
the index, because the digest arm would still scan the company.

Local SQL benchmark:

```sh
pnpm --filter @paperclipai/server exec tsx ../scripts/benchmark-environment-lease-backup-lookup.ts
```

Fixture (synthetic): one company with 100,000 leases with 4 KiB of
incompressible metadata each. 30% of the leases have a backup stamp for
another session. A second company has 20,000 leases. The table is 678
MB. The backup root has 3 run leases, 1 lease with only the stamp, and 1
identity lease. The same digest is also in the other company. Embedded
PostgreSQL 18 on an Apple laptop, which other work loaded heavily. The
hosted database is Neon with different compute, so absolute times are
local SQL measurements only.

The script measures in the order: no index, index, no index, index. Each
measurement has 2 warmups and 11 samples of `EXPLAIN ANALYZE` execution
time and of the full `reconcileBackup` call.

| Measurement | Without index | With index |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Lease query execution, run 1 | median 196 ms (138–562 ms) | median
0.010 ms (0.007–0.017 ms) |
| Lease query execution, run 2 | median 185 ms (144–295 ms) | median
0.030 ms (0.020–0.045 ms) |
| `reconcileBackup` wall time (includes file reads), runs 1 and 2 |
median 188 ms and 216 ms | median 1.4 ms and 4.2 ms |
| Plan | `Gather > Seq Scan` | `Bitmap Heap Scan > BitmapOr` of
`heartbeat_run_idx`, the new index and `pkey` |
| Buffers | 365,880 hit + 70,050 read | 9 hit |

These numbers are from head `65bd9d7ac6`. The final head only renumbers
the migration to 0459 after rebases; the SQL, the index and the service
code are the same. Two earlier runs on the same fixture, SQL and index
gave 236–425 ms without the index and 0.023–0.033 ms with the index. The
machine had heavy load from other work, so the spread without the index
is wide. Output check: in all four measurements, the service returned
the same 5 lease IDs, and the complete query rows were equal.

Index build (`CREATE INDEX CONCURRENTLY` from the migration file):
0.8–2.4 s for the 678 MB table over all runs. Index size: 3.4 MB with
30% of leases stamped.

Tests:

- `cd server && npx vitest run
src/__tests__/native-harness-backup-expiration.test.ts`: 109 passed. The
new test failed when I dropped the index before the plan check
(confirmed red), and it passes with the index.
- `pnpm --filter @paperclipai/db check:migrations`: passed.
- `pnpm --filter @paperclipai/db typecheck` and `pnpm --filter
@paperclipai/server typecheck`: passed.
- `pnpm verify`: it asks for broader coverage (exit 2) because of the
new script. See the CI results for this head.

## Risks

- Migration time. A concurrent index build reads the full
`environment_leases` table and does not block writes. Locally, the build
took 0.8–2.4 s for 678 MB. The time grows linearly with the table size.
I did not time it on a production-size clone. I expect a few seconds to
tens of seconds on a large instance, which is in the 1–2 minute budget.
This estimate is not proven.
- If the build stops, PostgreSQL can leave an invalid index. The
migration runner repairs invalid concurrent indexes when it runs again,
and `IF NOT EXISTS` makes a rerun safe.
- The index expression must stay textually equal to the query
expression. If someone changes the JSON path, the planner cannot use the
index. The new test catches this for custom and generic plans.
- The index is partial, so ANALYZE does not collect statistics for the
expression. The planner uses the default equality estimate. On the large
fixture and in the small test, the planner still selects the index plan.
A company with very few leases can still get a sequential scan, which is
cheap.
- Each lease write with a backup stamp writes one more small index
entry. The write cost is small.
- This change does not reduce how often the worker calls the lookup. It
makes each call cheap. The other digest lookups in backup retention
(`native-harness-backup-retention.ts`) and session retention checks can
also use the index.
- Previous-release story: no persisted state changes. The index is
derived from existing lease metadata.
- The hosted improvement is not verified until deployment. After
deployment, compare a new query-statistics window for this statement.

## Model Used

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

## 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>
2026-11-10 11:30:05 -06:00
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