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fix(huddle): stop 20 Hz speaker-level churn from re-rendering the whole app - #5825

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eva/huddle-render-amplifier-fix
Aug 14, 2026
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fix(huddle): stop 20 Hz speaker-level churn from re-rendering the whole app#5825
tlongwell-block merged 1 commit into
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eva/huddle-render-amplifier-fix

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@tlongwell-block tlongwell-block commented Aug 14, 2026

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Problem

With a huddle open, Buzz Desktop becomes extremely slow and laggy (Tyler, live report, 2026-08-14). Root-caused and runtime-convicted on the instrumented rig in #buzz-conversational-agents:

  • The Rust playout loop emits huddle-speaker-levels over Tauri IPC every 50 ms, unconditionally, for the whole life of a huddle (playout.rs SPEAKER_LEVEL_TICK_MS = 50).
  • Each event deserializes to a fresh object, so setRemoteSpeakerLevels updates state at 20 Hz even in silence.
  • HuddleProvider wraps the entire main app and its context value was an inline object literal — never memoized. Every level tick minted a new context identity, re-rendering every useHuddle() consumer, including ChannelScreen and message rows.

Measured (A/B, silent one-participant huddle, same channel/state): ~41 sustained ChannelScreen renders/sec unsuppressed vs ~4/sec with only the speaker-level setState suppressed — the 20 Hz path is ~90% of the load. Receipts: driver-render-counter-unsuppressed.jsonl / -suppressed.jsonl on the rig, verified independently. The same main-thread churn starves the relay client's 16 ms event-flush timer, which is the delayed/bursty message hydration and thread-panel stalls seen alongside the lag.

Fix (minimal, no behavior change for meters)

  1. Split the high-frequency fields (micLevel, activeSpeakers, speakerLevels) out of HuddleContextValue into a new HuddleLevelsContext, consumed via useHuddleLevels() only by the three meter components (HuddleBar, HuddleRoomHeader, HuddleProfileControl).
  2. Memoize the main context value so provider re-renders no longer mint a new identity for the ~everything that consumes useHuddle().
  3. Extract the mic-level analyser into useMicLevelAnalyser — the level pipeline now lives in one place, and HuddleContext.tsx stays under the file-size ratchet (977 lines).

Level meters keep their 20-30 Hz updates. Everything else re-renders only when a value it actually consumes changes.

Acceptance bar

With this fix, a silent open huddle should hold ChannelScreen at idle render rates (single digits/sec), and message hydration should stay live during huddles. The rig's render-counter + four-clock instrumentation can verify on this branch.

Validation

  • pnpm typecheck clean
  • biome check clean (repo leftovers in sidebar tests are preexisting on main)
  • full desktop suite: 4,775 passed, 0 failed at the final tree
  • file-size ratchet passes (was the reason for the analyser extraction)
  • lefthook pre-commit (desktop-fix + signoff) passed on commit

Not yet done: live-local A/B rerun on this branch — the rig (Wren/Max) has the instrumentation ready and can convict/acquit the fix with the same probe that convicted the bug.

Base: 068a83b0 (main). Co-developed with runtime evidence from Wren and instrumentation by Max.

Eva
fix(huddle): stop 20 Hz speaker-level churn from re-rendering every u…
39fa971 
…seHuddle consumer

With a huddle open, the Rust playout loop emits huddle-speaker-levels every
50 ms (playout.rs SPEAKER_LEVEL_TICK_MS). Each event lands in fresh state, and
because HuddleProvider wraps the whole app and its context value was an inline
object literal, every useHuddle() consumer — including ChannelScreen and
message rows — re-rendered on every tick. Measured: a silent huddle drove a
sustained ~41 ChannelScreen renders/sec; suppressing only the speaker-level
setState dropped it to ~4/sec (A/B on the instrumented rig; receipts in the
buzz-conversational-agents thread).

Fix, minimal and DRY:
- split the high-frequency fields (micLevel, activeSpeakers, speakerLevels)
  into a separate HuddleLevelsContext consumed via useHuddleLevels() only by
  the meter components (HuddleBar, HuddleRoomHeader, HuddleProfileControl);
- memoize the main HuddleContext value so level churn (and any other provider
  re-render) no longer mints a new context identity for everyone else;
- extract the mic-level analyser into useMicLevelAnalyser so the level
  pipeline lives in one place (also keeps HuddleContext.tsx under the
  file-size ratchet).

Level meters keep their 20-30 Hz updates; the rest of the app only re-renders
when a value it actually consumes changes.

Co-authored-by: Eva <011987e296fd5006292d2f930b574be47c7801048d1983c46c425d3c95f0cffd@buzz.block.builderlab.xyz>
Signed-off-by: Eva <011987e296fd5006292d2f930b574be47c7801048d1983c46c425d3c95f0cffd@buzz.block.builderlab.xyz>
@tlongwell-block
tlongwell-block requested a review from a team as a code owner August 14, 2026 02:02
@tlongwell-block
tlongwell-block merged commit 5743562 into main Aug 14, 2026
24 checks passed
@tlongwell-block
tlongwell-block deleted the eva/huddle-render-amplifier-fix branch August 14, 2026 02:27
wpfleger96 pushed a commit that referenced this pull request Aug 14, 2026
Duncan
Merge remote-tracking branch 'origin/main' into duncan/keyring-secret…
3469156 
…-projection

* origin/main:
  feat(desktop): one relative date ladder across chat and the Inbox (#3769)
  fix(desktop): amortize observer journal eviction with a low-water mark (#5808)
  Unify agent profile content (#5788)
  Standardize settings section layout (#5855)
  fix(desktop): share one timer across same-interval useNow consumers (#5861)
  Clarify immediate spoken huddle replies (#5863)
  Scope desktop presence subscriptions to active demand (#5830)
  Polish mobile profiles, DMs, and sheets (#5401)
  fix(huddle): stop 20 Hz speaker-level churn from re-rendering the whole app (#5825)
  Fix channel list scroll interruption (#5815)
  fix(desktop): match compact link preview thumbnail corners to card shell (#5711)
  feat(huddle): cut voice-turn time-to-first-audio from ~1.0 s to ~0.35 s (env-gated latency levers) (#5671)
  Speed up initial direct messages (#5658)
  Polish glass Huddle tray behavior (#5590)

Signed-off-by: Duncan <dcfd242e557282d7a1e2cf2e6877522682f1e5c6156dc92ca7d90eaedd3b0f95@buzz.block.builderlab.xyz>
@adrienlacombe adrienlacombe mentioned this pull request Aug 16, 2026
Merged
@github-actions github-actions Bot mentioned this pull request Aug 17, 2026
Open
bhargavms pushed a commit to EWA-Services/buzz that referenced this pull request Aug 18, 2026
@tlongwell-block Eva @bhargavms
fix(huddle): stop 20 Hz speaker-level churn from re-rendering the who…
0667d30 
…le app (block#5825)

## Problem

With a huddle open, Buzz Desktop becomes extremely slow and laggy
(Tyler, live report, 2026-08-14). Root-caused and runtime-convicted on
the instrumented rig in #buzz-conversational-agents:

- The Rust playout loop emits `huddle-speaker-levels` over Tauri IPC
every 50 ms, unconditionally, for the whole life of a huddle
(`playout.rs` `SPEAKER_LEVEL_TICK_MS = 50`).
- Each event deserializes to a fresh object, so `setRemoteSpeakerLevels`
updates state at 20 Hz even in silence.
- `HuddleProvider` wraps the entire main app and its context value was
an inline object literal — never memoized. Every level tick minted a new
context identity, re-rendering **every** `useHuddle()` consumer,
including `ChannelScreen` and message rows.

**Measured (A/B, silent one-participant huddle, same channel/state):**
~41 sustained ChannelScreen renders/sec unsuppressed vs ~4/sec with only
the speaker-level setState suppressed — the 20 Hz path is ~90% of the
load. Receipts: `driver-render-counter-unsuppressed.jsonl` /
`-suppressed.jsonl` on the rig, verified independently. The same
main-thread churn starves the relay client's 16 ms event-flush timer,
which is the delayed/bursty message hydration and thread-panel stalls
seen alongside the lag.

## Fix (minimal, no behavior change for meters)

1. **Split the high-frequency fields** (`micLevel`, `activeSpeakers`,
`speakerLevels`) out of `HuddleContextValue` into a new
`HuddleLevelsContext`, consumed via `useHuddleLevels()` only by the
three meter components (`HuddleBar`, `HuddleRoomHeader`,
`HuddleProfileControl`).
2. **Memoize the main context value** so provider re-renders no longer
mint a new identity for the ~everything that consumes `useHuddle()`.
3. **Extract the mic-level analyser** into `useMicLevelAnalyser` — the
level pipeline now lives in one place, and `HuddleContext.tsx` stays
under the file-size ratchet (977 lines).

Level meters keep their 20-30 Hz updates. Everything else re-renders
only when a value it actually consumes changes.

## Acceptance bar

With this fix, a silent open huddle should hold `ChannelScreen` at idle
render rates (single digits/sec), and message hydration should stay live
during huddles. The rig's render-counter + four-clock instrumentation
can verify on this branch.

## Validation

- `pnpm typecheck` clean
- `biome check` clean (repo leftovers in sidebar tests are preexisting
on main)
- full desktop suite: **4,775 passed, 0 failed** at the final tree
- file-size ratchet passes (was the reason for the analyser extraction)
- lefthook pre-commit (desktop-fix + signoff) passed on commit

Not yet done: live-local A/B rerun on this branch — the rig (Wren/Max)
has the instrumentation ready and can convict/acquit the fix with the
same probe that convicted the bug.

Base: `068a83b0` (main). Co-developed with runtime evidence from Wren
and instrumentation by Max.

Signed-off-by: Eva <011987e296fd5006292d2f930b574be47c7801048d1983c46c425d3c95f0cffd@buzz.block.builderlab.xyz>
Co-authored-by: Eva <011987e296fd5006292d2f930b574be47c7801048d1983c46c425d3c95f0cffd@buzz.block.builderlab.xyz>
Signed-off-by: bhargavms <bhargav.m@ewa-services.com>
kaalph pushed a commit to kaalph/buzz that referenced this pull request Aug 21, 2026
Duncan
Merge remote-tracking branch 'origin/main' into duncan/keyring-secret…
561d77e 
…-projection

* origin/main:
  feat(desktop): one relative date ladder across chat and the Inbox (block#3769)
  fix(desktop): amortize observer journal eviction with a low-water mark (block#5808)
  Unify agent profile content (block#5788)
  Standardize settings section layout (block#5855)
  fix(desktop): share one timer across same-interval useNow consumers (block#5861)
  Clarify immediate spoken huddle replies (block#5863)
  Scope desktop presence subscriptions to active demand (block#5830)
  Polish mobile profiles, DMs, and sheets (block#5401)
  fix(huddle): stop 20 Hz speaker-level churn from re-rendering the whole app (block#5825)
  Fix channel list scroll interruption (block#5815)
  fix(desktop): match compact link preview thumbnail corners to card shell (block#5711)
  feat(huddle): cut voice-turn time-to-first-audio from ~1.0 s to ~0.35 s (env-gated latency levers) (block#5671)
  Speed up initial direct messages (block#5658)
  Polish glass Huddle tray behavior (block#5590)

Signed-off-by: Duncan <dcfd242e557282d7a1e2cf2e6877522682f1e5c6156dc92ca7d90eaedd3b0f95@buzz.block.builderlab.xyz>
@oscarlehuu oscarlehuu mentioned this pull request Aug 22, 2026
Closed
@devin-ai-integration devin-ai-integration Bot mentioned this pull request Aug 22, 2026
Merged
cursor Bot pushed a commit to Nuncio-hq/crew that referenced this pull request Aug 23, 2026
@devin-ai-integration @cursoragent
perf(huddle): isolate level churn, tighten speech boundaries
87af09f 
Upstream sync of block#5825 and block#6397 plus the always-on part of block#5671.

block#5825 — 20 Hz speaker levels and the ~30 Hz mic analyser lived in the same
context value as huddle lifecycle state, so every tick re-rendered every
`useHuddle()` consumer (and their subtrees) across the whole app. Levels now
live in a separate `HuddleLevelsContext` (`useHuddleLevels()`), the mic
analyser moves to `useMicLevelAnalyser`, and the lifecycle value is memoized.
Meters still see every tick; ordinary consumers see none (20 -> 0 re-renders
per second of huddle audio).

block#6397 — endpointing was a single threshold plus a silence counter, so a
one-frame blip opened a segment, a dipping vowel started the countdown, and
word onsets/offsets were clipped. Speech boundaries now live in a pure
`VadEndpoint`: onset needs consecutive above-threshold frames, confirmation
prepends bounded pre-roll, offset uses a lower threshold (hysteresis), flush
keeps only a hangover tail, and reset drops buffered audio so nothing leaks
between segments. Short segments now log why they were dropped.

block#5671 — only the push-to-talk grouping fix is portable here: a held shortcut
no longer silence-flushes mid-hold when the mic is also manually open
(`vad_flush_allowed`). The env-gated STT/TTS levers live in TTS internals this
branch does not touch; documented as such in docs/crew/HERMES.md, and
BUZZ_STT_FLUSH_MS stays removed.

Fixes #275

Signed-off-by: Devin AI <158243242+devin-ai-integration[bot]@users.noreply.github.com>
cursor Bot pushed a commit to Nuncio-hq/crew that referenced this pull request Aug 23, 2026
@devin-ai-integration
perf(huddle): isolate level churn, tighten speech boundaries (#304)
6998094 
Upstream sync of block#5825 and block#6397 plus the always-on part of block#5671.

block#5825 — 20 Hz speaker levels and the ~30 Hz mic analyser lived in the same
context value as huddle lifecycle state, so every tick re-rendered every
`useHuddle()` consumer (and their subtrees) across the whole app. Levels now
live in a separate `HuddleLevelsContext` (`useHuddleLevels()`), the mic
analyser moves to `useMicLevelAnalyser`, and the lifecycle value is memoized.
Meters still see every tick; ordinary consumers see none (20 -> 0 re-renders
per second of huddle audio).

block#6397 — endpointing was a single threshold plus a silence counter, so a
one-frame blip opened a segment, a dipping vowel started the countdown, and
word onsets/offsets were clipped. Speech boundaries now live in a pure
`VadEndpoint`: onset needs consecutive above-threshold frames, confirmation
prepends bounded pre-roll, offset uses a lower threshold (hysteresis), flush
keeps only a hangover tail, and reset drops buffered audio so nothing leaks
between segments. Short segments now log why they were dropped.

block#5671 — only the push-to-talk grouping fix is portable here: a held shortcut
no longer silence-flushes mid-hold when the mic is also manually open
(`vad_flush_allowed`). The env-gated STT/TTS levers live in TTS internals this
branch does not touch; documented as such in docs/crew/HERMES.md, and
BUZZ_STT_FLUSH_MS stays removed.

Fixes #275

Signed-off-by: Devin AI <158243242+devin-ai-integration[bot]@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Devin AI <158243242+devin-ai-integration[bot]@users.noreply.github.com>
BradGroux pushed a commit to BradGroux/buzz that referenced this pull request Aug 23, 2026
@tlongwell-block Eva
fix(huddle): stop 20 Hz speaker-level churn from re-rendering the who…
a09428f 
…le app (block#5825)

## Problem

With a huddle open, Buzz Desktop becomes extremely slow and laggy
(Tyler, live report, 2026-08-14). Root-caused and runtime-convicted on
the instrumented rig in #buzz-conversational-agents:

- The Rust playout loop emits `huddle-speaker-levels` over Tauri IPC
every 50 ms, unconditionally, for the whole life of a huddle
(`playout.rs` `SPEAKER_LEVEL_TICK_MS = 50`).
- Each event deserializes to a fresh object, so `setRemoteSpeakerLevels`
updates state at 20 Hz even in silence.
- `HuddleProvider` wraps the entire main app and its context value was
an inline object literal — never memoized. Every level tick minted a new
context identity, re-rendering **every** `useHuddle()` consumer,
including `ChannelScreen` and message rows.

**Measured (A/B, silent one-participant huddle, same channel/state):**
~41 sustained ChannelScreen renders/sec unsuppressed vs ~4/sec with only
the speaker-level setState suppressed — the 20 Hz path is ~90% of the
load. Receipts: `driver-render-counter-unsuppressed.jsonl` /
`-suppressed.jsonl` on the rig, verified independently. The same
main-thread churn starves the relay client's 16 ms event-flush timer,
which is the delayed/bursty message hydration and thread-panel stalls
seen alongside the lag.

## Fix (minimal, no behavior change for meters)

1. **Split the high-frequency fields** (`micLevel`, `activeSpeakers`,
`speakerLevels`) out of `HuddleContextValue` into a new
`HuddleLevelsContext`, consumed via `useHuddleLevels()` only by the
three meter components (`HuddleBar`, `HuddleRoomHeader`,
`HuddleProfileControl`).
2. **Memoize the main context value** so provider re-renders no longer
mint a new identity for the ~everything that consumes `useHuddle()`.
3. **Extract the mic-level analyser** into `useMicLevelAnalyser` — the
level pipeline now lives in one place, and `HuddleContext.tsx` stays
under the file-size ratchet (977 lines).

Level meters keep their 20-30 Hz updates. Everything else re-renders
only when a value it actually consumes changes.

## Acceptance bar

With this fix, a silent open huddle should hold `ChannelScreen` at idle
render rates (single digits/sec), and message hydration should stay live
during huddles. The rig's render-counter + four-clock instrumentation
can verify on this branch.

## Validation

- `pnpm typecheck` clean
- `biome check` clean (repo leftovers in sidebar tests are preexisting
on main)
- full desktop suite: **4,775 passed, 0 failed** at the final tree
- file-size ratchet passes (was the reason for the analyser extraction)
- lefthook pre-commit (desktop-fix + signoff) passed on commit

Not yet done: live-local A/B rerun on this branch — the rig (Wren/Max)
has the instrumentation ready and can convict/acquit the fix with the
same probe that convicted the bug.

Base: `5214a075` (main). Co-developed with runtime evidence from Wren
and instrumentation by Max.

Signed-off-by: Eva <011987e296fd5006292d2f930b574be47c7801048d1983c46c425d3c95f0cffd@buzz.block.builderlab.xyz>
Co-authored-by: Eva <011987e296fd5006292d2f930b574be47c7801048d1983c46c425d3c95f0cffd@buzz.block.builderlab.xyz>
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