hermes-agent/apps/desktop/scripts/latency-under-stream.mjs
Brooklyn Nicholson 88e7d7537c perf(desktop): cut FadeText forced layouts during streaming
The slowest user-felt path is typing into the composer while the
assistant is streaming. Profile (scripts/profile-under-stream.mjs):

  FadeText measureOverflow self time:  35.8 ms → 18.1 ms  (-50%)
  total active CPU during 7s window:   ~150 ms → ~50 ms

Two changes in src/components/ui/fade-text.tsx:

1. Drop the `useEffect([children])` that re-ran `measureOverflow`
   (reads scrollWidth + clientWidth — forced layout) on every parent
   re-render. `useResizeObserver` already fires the same callback on
   mount and whenever the host span's box size changes; that covers
   the only case where overflow state can legitimately change. The
   previous explicit useEffect was a forced-layout flush on every
   parent render, which during streaming meant every token tick.

2. Wrap the component in `memo` with a custom comparator that
   short-circuits the entire render when scalar string `children` and
   the className/fadeWidth/style props are unchanged. The hot path
   was tool-fallback's title chips being re-rendered by parent
   streaming updates even though their text was stable; memo+
   comparator skips that.

Also adds two harness scripts under apps/desktop/scripts/:
  - latency-under-stream.mjs (key→paint latency while a turn streams)
  - profile-under-stream.mjs (CPU profile while a turn streams)

Updates profile-typing-lag.md with the streaming numbers and confirms
the Enter→paint submit path is already fast (≤320ms on the populated
session; the 2s "stall after Enter" the user noticed once was a
one-time cold-start, not reproducible at the UI layer).

I'd guess the felt jank in real use is fast-burst typing during a
long-form streaming reply (code blocks + markdown lists multiply the
per-token render cost). The CPU savings here scale linearly with
token volume.
2026-05-21 16:09:44 -05:00

204 lines
7.2 KiB
JavaScript

#!/usr/bin/env node
// Measure typing latency WHILE the assistant is streaming a response.
// Submits a prompt, then immediately starts typing into the composer
// while tokens stream in. Records keypress→paint latency under load.
//
// Usage: node apps/desktop/scripts/latency-under-stream.mjs --chars=120 --cps=20
import { writeFileSync } from 'node:fs'
const args = Object.fromEntries(
process.argv.slice(2).flatMap(s => {
const m = s.match(/^--([^=]+)(?:=(.*))?$/)
return m ? [[m[1], m[2] ?? true]] : []
})
)
const PORT = Number(args.port ?? 9222)
const CHARS = Number(args.chars ?? 120)
const CPS = Number(args.cps ?? 20)
async function pickRenderer() {
const list = await (await fetch(`http://127.0.0.1:${PORT}/json/list`)).json()
return list.find(t => t.type === 'page' && t.url.startsWith('http'))
}
function connect(url) {
return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
const ws = new WebSocket(url)
let id = 0
const pending = new Map()
ws.addEventListener('open', () =>
resolve({
send(method, params = {}) {
const myId = ++id
ws.send(JSON.stringify({ id: myId, method, params }))
return new Promise((res, rej) => pending.set(myId, { res, rej }))
},
close: () => ws.close()
})
)
ws.addEventListener('error', reject)
ws.addEventListener('message', ev => {
const m = JSON.parse(typeof ev.data === 'string' ? ev.data : ev.data.toString('utf8'))
if (m.id != null) {
const p = pending.get(m.id)
if (!p) return
pending.delete(m.id)
m.error ? p.rej(new Error(m.error.message)) : p.res(m.result)
}
})
})
}
async function evalP(cdp, expr) {
const r = await cdp.send('Runtime.evaluate', { expression: expr, returnByValue: true })
if (r.exceptionDetails) throw new Error(r.exceptionDetails.text)
return r.result.value
}
async function main() {
const tgt = await pickRenderer()
console.log('target', tgt.url)
const cdp = await connect(tgt.webSocketDebuggerUrl)
await cdp.send('Runtime.enable')
// 1) Type a prompt + Enter
await evalP(
cdp,
`(() => {
const el = document.querySelector('[data-slot="composer-rich-input"]')
el.focus()
const r = document.createRange(); r.selectNodeContents(el); r.collapse(false)
window.getSelection().removeAllRanges(); window.getSelection().addRange(r)
})()`
)
const prompt = 'write a short technical explanation of WebGL2 fragment shaders, just a paragraph please'
for (const c of prompt) {
await cdp.send('Input.dispatchKeyEvent', { type: 'char', text: c, unmodifiedText: c })
await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, 8))
}
await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, 200))
await cdp.send('Input.dispatchKeyEvent', {
type: 'rawKeyDown', windowsVirtualKeyCode: 13, key: 'Enter', code: 'Enter', text: '\r', unmodifiedText: '\r'
})
await cdp.send('Input.dispatchKeyEvent', { type: 'keyUp', windowsVirtualKeyCode: 13, key: 'Enter', code: 'Enter' })
// 2) Wait for the assistant to actually start streaming (look for streaming indicator)
console.log('waiting for stream to start…')
const streamStarted = await (async () => {
const deadline = Date.now() + 10000
while (Date.now() < deadline) {
const text = await evalP(
cdp,
`(() => {
// Look for either streaming indicator OR new assistant message
const aiMsgs = document.querySelectorAll('[data-slot="aui_assistant-message-root"], [data-role="assistant"]')
return aiMsgs.length > 0 ? 'started' : null
})()`
)
if (text === 'started') return true
await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, 100))
}
return false
})()
console.log('stream started:', streamStarted)
if (!streamStarted) {
console.log('no streaming detected; aborting')
cdp.close()
return
}
// Wait a moment to ensure stream is actively producing tokens
await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, 800))
// 3) Refocus composer + install latency observer
await evalP(
cdp,
`(() => {
const el = document.querySelector('[data-slot="composer-rich-input"]')
if (!el) return false
el.focus()
const r = document.createRange(); r.selectNodeContents(el); r.collapse(false)
window.getSelection().removeAllRanges(); window.getSelection().addRange(r)
window.__keypressTimings = []
window.__pendingKey = null
const obs = new MutationObserver(() => {
const start = window.__pendingKey
if (start === null) return
const mut = performance.now()
window.__pendingKey = null
requestAnimationFrame(() => {
window.__keypressTimings.push({
start, mut, paint: performance.now(),
mutLat: mut - start, paintLat: performance.now() - start
})
})
})
obs.observe(el, { childList: true, subtree: true, characterData: true })
window.__keystrokeObserver = obs
return true
})()`
)
// 4) Type while streaming
const text =
'meanwhile typing into the composer while streaming runs — ' +
'how does this feel as the assistant streams tokens above? '
const slice = text.slice(0, CHARS)
const intervalMs = Math.max(1, Math.round(1000 / CPS))
const t0 = Date.now()
for (let i = 0; i < slice.length; i++) {
await evalP(cdp, `window.__pendingKey = performance.now()`)
await cdp.send('Input.dispatchKeyEvent', { type: 'char', text: slice[i], unmodifiedText: slice[i] })
const expected = t0 + (i + 1) * intervalMs
const wait = expected - Date.now()
if (wait > 0) await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, wait))
}
await new Promise(r => setTimeout(r, 500))
// 5) Pull samples
const samples = await evalP(cdp, `JSON.stringify(window.__keypressTimings || [])`)
const arr = JSON.parse(samples)
console.log(`\n${arr.length} keystroke samples taken while streaming`)
const paintLat = arr.map(s => s.paintLat).sort((a, b) => a - b)
const mutLat = arr.map(s => s.mutLat).sort((a, b) => a - b)
const stat = a => ({
n: a.length,
min: a[0]?.toFixed(2),
p50: a[Math.floor(a.length * 0.5)]?.toFixed(2),
p90: a[Math.floor(a.length * 0.9)]?.toFixed(2),
p95: a[Math.floor(a.length * 0.95)]?.toFixed(2),
p99: a[Math.floor(a.length * 0.99)]?.toFixed(2),
max: a[a.length - 1]?.toFixed(2),
mean: a.length ? (a.reduce((s, x) => s + x, 0) / a.length).toFixed(2) : 0
})
console.log('\n=== keystroke→mutation latency (ms) while streaming ===')
console.log(' ', stat(mutLat))
console.log('\n=== keystroke→paint latency (ms) while streaming ===')
console.log(' ', stat(paintLat))
const slow = arr.filter(s => s.paintLat > 16).length
console.log(`\n${slow}/${arr.length} keystrokes > 16ms (dropped frame) while streaming`)
// 6) Cancel the stream
await evalP(
cdp,
`(() => {
for (const b of document.querySelectorAll('button')) {
if ((b.getAttribute('aria-label') || '').toLowerCase().includes('stop')) { b.click(); return 'stopped' }
}
return 'no-stop'
})()`
).then(r => console.log('cancel:', r))
writeFileSync('/tmp/hermes-latency-under-stream.json', JSON.stringify(arr, null, 2))
cdp.close()
}
main().catch(e => {
console.error('fatal:', e.stack ?? e.message)
process.exit(1)
})