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Electron architecture: agent-host utility process, MessagePort streaming, startup wins #418
Description
From the Electron-architecture research (VS Code/pi-desktop pattern): agents are spawned directly from the main process today (452 child_process call sites in electron/). Move them into one utilityProcess.fork 'agent host' owning all provider child processes, streaming to the renderer via MessageChannelMain MessagePorts (structured clone, no per-message main-process hop). Keeps main responsive under agent churn and gives crash isolation.
Also from the round: module.enableCompileCache() in main (near-free startup win), Slack-style boot data (inline thread list into initial HTML — first paint shows real threads, no spinner), lazy transcripts (don't hydrate full history until a thread is selected), and a startup-time CI gate with a regression threshold. Companions to #144/#225/#359.
Activity
currentbits commentedon Oct 18, 2026
Status from thread d9f18846 (commit 7c8b3bf on
coder/electron-architecture-agent-host-utility-d9f188):Shipped
module.enableCompileCache()at the top ofelectron/main.js. On Electron 35.7 / Node 22.16 the store/runner/ipc/services require graph went from about 80 ms to about 70 ms on warm launches.electron/smoke.js: it times process start to the first React mount and fails aboveSOLENTA_STARTUP_BUDGET_MS(default 15 s). It runs on all three OS smoke jobs. Locally it measures 1.1–1.8 s, and I confirmed it fails with a 300 ms budget.Already on main
src/bootSnapshot.tspaints projects, threads and the selected transcript from a snapshot before IPC answers.threads.getonly runs for the selected thread, and archived rows are left out of the boot snapshot (Performance round: measure on real data, then fix the top costs #1475).Agent-host utilityProcess: on hold, needs a decision. It only works if the store moves with it:
scripts/perf/store-stream-bench.js). A host that owns only the child processes moves just the line split andJSON.parse. Each event then crosses back to main by structured clone, which costs about the same as the parse.currentbits commentedon Oct 18, 2026
Compile cache and the startup gate are in PR #1662. The agent-host work is split out to #1661, which starts by measuring main's event-loop lag under concurrent agents before any refactor. Close #418 once #1662 merges.
perf(boot): V8 compile cache in main and a startup-time smoke gate (#418
currentbits commentedon Oct 18, 2026
Landed from Solenta thread "Electron architecture: agent-host utility process, MessagePo" (PR #1662). Closed on merge.
perf(boot): V8 compile cache in main and a startup-time smoke gate (#418
currentbits commentedon Oct 19, 2026
Step 1 of the agent-host split-out (#1661) is measured and closed. Main is not lagging under agent churn, so there is no need to move runner and Store into a utilityProcess.
scripts/perf/agent-churn-bench.js(PR Add a bench for main-process lag under agent load (#1661) #1683). It runs N fake stream-json agents through the real runner, Store and IPC against a clone of the live store (1952 threads).Store._snapshotDirtyShards, which stringifies every dirty shard synchronously in one save. Moving the Store to another process would only move that stall, so the fix belongs inside the Store. It is offered as a follow-up chip and is not urgent.Full tables are on #1661.