Dynamic-importing @hermes/ink + App costs ~170ms on cold start — during
that window the terminal was blank. Now `entry.tsx` writes a raw-ANSI
banner to stdout immediately after the TTY check, using hardcoded
DEFAULT_THEME colors. Ink's `<AlternateScreen>` wipes the normal-screen
buffer when it mounts, so the boot banner is replaced seamlessly by the
real React render a moment later — no double-banner, no flash.
T=2ms banner visible (vs. ~170ms before)
T=~170ms React + Ink mounts
T=~200ms alt screen takes over, Banner component repaints
Palette drift between `bootBanner.ts` and the live theme is harmless —
the live render overrides after ~200ms. Narrow terminals (cols < 98)
fall back to the one-line "⚕ NOUS HERMES" marker.
Before: entry.tsx imports @hermes/ink (394KB bundle) + App + GatewayClient
in declaration order, then calls `gw.start()` at ~T=220ms. Python fork +
server.py import starts then.
After: only `GatewayClient` is statically imported (5ms, node builtins
only). `gw.start()` fires at ~T=5ms. @hermes/ink + App load in parallel
via `Promise.all(import(...))`. Python gets ~215ms of free runway to do
its own module import before node even finishes loading.
Net: session.info arrives ~150ms earlier in cold start. First React frame
timing is unchanged (still ~240ms — still gated by ink+app imports).
Removed a previously-tried warm-thread in server.py that pre-imported
`run_agent` in the background. Measured variance showed occasional
5-10s outliers (GIL thrashing); median gain was <100ms. Not worth the
non-determinism.
- Switch tsconfig to nodenext module resolution for Node 22 (used by
installer script)
- Add shebang to entry.tsx, preserved into index.js
- Add HERMES_ROOT env var fallback for repo root resolution
