[Bug]: iOS Live Activity stays on Connecting because the relay throttles the running update
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- Dominant language
- TypeScript
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Description
Before submitting
- I searched existing issues and did not find a duplicate.
- I included enough detail to reproduce or investigate the problem.
Area
apps/mobile (root cause is in infra/relay)
Steps to reproduce
- Link an environment through T3 Connect with agent activity publishing enabled.
- On iOS, enable Live Activity Updates.
- Start a new task from the iOS app and lock the phone.
- Watch the Live Activity while the agent works.
Expected behavior
The card moves from Connecting to Working once the provider session is running.
Actual behavior
The card stays on Connecting for the whole turn. It only changes at the next phase transition (approval, input, done, failed) or when the app is foregrounded and re-registers its activity token.
Cause
The server publishes starting when the session boots and running a few seconds later, then stays silent while the phase holds (apps/server/src/relay/AgentAwarenessRelay.ts dedupes by state identity).
The relay throttles Live Activity updates to one per 15 seconds when activeCount is unchanged and no row needs attention (shouldUpdateLiveActivity in infra/relay/src/agentActivity/ApnsDeliveries.ts). The running update lands inside that window and is dropped. Nothing retries it, so the card keeps the starting content.
Not the same as #4950, where no update arrives because publishing is disabled.
Proposed fix
Exempt phase changes from the throttle in shouldUpdateLiveActivity, alongside the existing activeCount, attention, and terminal-row exemptions. Timestamp and ordering churn stays throttled. A relay test that delivers a starting aggregate and then a running aggregate four seconds later fails on main and passes with that change.
Impact
Major degradation or frequent failure
Version or commit
main @ d6f291303d, iOS 1.2.1
Notes
Investigation was LLM assisted (Claude Fable 5.1 in T3 Code).
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Start with shouldUpdateLiveActivity in infra/relay/src/agentActivity/ApnsDeliveries.ts and the existing relay tests. Reproduce the starting aggregate followed by a running aggregate four seconds later, then verify the test passes while timestamp and ordering-only changes remain throttled.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- ios, typescript
- Domain
- infrastructure, mobile
- Issue type
- Bug
- Difficulty
- 2/5
- Estimated time
- 1-3 hours
- Activity status
- Active
- Clarity
- Clearly specified
- Newbie friendliness
- 88/100