rivet-dev / rivet-dev/dynamic-apps

perf: push socket events host→guest instead of guest wait=0 polling

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Description

Problem

Guest networking pays a ~2–4ms quantum per socket event (accept, data, close), because the embedded node polyfill (crates/execution/src/node_import_cache.rs:4750-4752) calls the net.poll / net.server_poll sync RPCs with waitMs = 0 and paces itself with guest-side setTimeout timers (scheduleSocketPoll). Latency is the guest timer cadence, not sidecar work.

Measured 2026-07-01 (3-layer differential bench, p50, guest VM vs host node — same program):

op host node guest tax
udp loopback echo 0.04ms 21ms 525×
unix-socket echo 0.24ms 21ms 88×
unix accept (connect+close) 0.14ms 4ms 29×
tcp 64KiB echo 0.32ms 6ms 19×
node:http loopback GET 0.46ms 5ms 11×

Cost scales with event count (one accept = one ~4ms tick; a full echo ≈ 5 events ≈ 21ms), not payload size. Sidecar-side wait improvements (#172, #173) are correct but cold on this path — the guest always passes wait==0, so the sidecar never waits.

Constraint — why not waitMs > 0

The polyfill cannot block: callSync parks the whole V8 isolate. And the sidecar services these RPCs synchronously on a single-thread tokio runtime (new_current_thread().block_on, stdio.rs), so a wait>0 sync RPC would park the entire sidecar event loop and serialize all VM traffic behind it. Event push is the only shape that doesn't block either loop.

Fix direction

Push socket readiness/connection events host→guest asynchronously over the stream-callback channel the bridge already uses for stdio, and have the polyfill resolve pending accepts/reads/writes off those events instead of re-arming timers. The sidecar-side readiness plumbing from #172 (wait_fd_readable_until) already gives the sidecar an efficient way to learn about readiness to forward.

Follow-up (smaller, same theme)

Sidecar-internal waits can also go push-based: e.g. the loopback peer-pairing wait (#173, currently deadline+backoff polling) could subscribe to a socket-table-insert notification, using the same Condvar/Notify + bounded-timeout-fallback pattern as #174.

Regression gates

Standing bench rows in agent-os scripts/benchmarks fuzz-perf lane: net/udp_echo_small, net/unix_echo_small, net/http_loopback_get, net/tcp_*, perf-finding/unix_accept_latency (agentos#1570/#1571).

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First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start with crates/execution/src/node_import_cache.rs:4750-4752 and trace the net.poll and net.server_poll calls, including scheduleSocketPoll and the stream-callback channel used for stdio. Then inspect the sidecar readiness path from #172. Done means socket events reach the guest without timer re-arming and the listed agent-os benchmark rows improve without breaking networking behavior.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
nodejs, rust
Domain
networking, performance
Issue type
Refactor
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Clearly specified
Newbie friendliness
42/100

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