feat(mcp): per-file staleness banner + tunable watcher debounce (#403) (#428)

Two coupled changes addressing the issue's underlying ask — "how does the
agent know when the index lags" — without resorting to a static wait.

Per-file staleness banner
-------------------------
FileWatcher now tracks per-path `pendingFiles` (path, firstSeenMs,
lastSeenMs, indexing) — events since the last successful sync, cleared
only after a sync whose `syncStartedMs >= lastSeenMs` commits. Chokidar
initial-scan events are gated behind a `ready` flag (with `waitUntilReady()`
exposed so tests can deterministically wait through it) so a fresh startup
doesn't falsely flag every existing file as pending.

ToolHandler now wraps every code-returning response (search, context,
callers, callees, impact, trace, explore, node, files) with
`withStalenessNotice`: intersects "files referenced in the response" with
`getPendingFiles()` and emits a hybrid signal —

  * banner at the top for files referenced AND pending (with edit age +
    indexing/pending-sync state, telling the agent to Read those specific
    files directly; the rest of the response stays fresh and codegraph
    stays authoritative for it),
  * compact footer for pending files elsewhere in the project not
    referenced above (capped at 5).

Cost is one boolean check + N substring matches when pending; zero
allocation when idle. `codegraph_status` surfaces the same data as a
first-class `### Pending sync:` section so the agent can ask "is the index
caught up?" in one call.

Cross-project quirk: when an agent passes `projectPath` matching the
default session's project, the staleness wrapper switches from the cached
cross-project CodeGraph (no watcher) to the default one (with watcher) so
the signal still fires. Same fix applied to `handleStatus`.

CODEGRAPH_WATCH_DEBOUNCE_MS
---------------------------
MCP `serve --mcp` now reads `CODEGRAPH_WATCH_DEBOUNCE_MS` and forwards it
to `cg.watch({ debounceMs })`. Clamped to [100ms, 60s]; out-of-range or
non-numeric values fall back to the FileWatcher default (2000ms). Active
value is logged to stderr on watcher startup so it's discoverable. The
docs in `server-instructions.ts`, `installer/instructions-template.ts`,
and `.cursor/rules/codegraph.mdc` no longer claim "~500ms"; they now
describe the banner mechanism instead — since per-file staleness replaces
the "wait N ms" guidance entirely, the docs become accurate at any
debounce value.

Validation
----------
* 847 unit/integration tests pass (added 15 new ones — pending-file
  tracking, banner/footer routing, status section, env-var parsing).
* Direct MCP probe through a real `codegraph serve --mcp` process: edit a
  file, query within the debounce window, banner fires naming the
  edited file with edit-age.
* Real Claude TUI session via `scripts/agent-eval/itrun.sh` with
  `CODEGRAPH_WATCH_DEBOUNCE_MS=10000`: agent edits `math.ts`, calls
  `codegraph_explore`, reads the banner, **and discloses it unprompted in
  its final reply**: "note: symbol index is mid-sync for the new `divide`,
  but the source it returned is verbatim from disk."

Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
This commit is contained in:
Colby Mchenry
2026-05-25 23:48:10 -05:00
committed by GitHub
co-authored by Claude Opus 4.7
parent 4a4a37d135
commit b48170e69f
12 changed files with 696 additions and 18 deletions
+88
View File
@@ -198,6 +198,94 @@ describe('FileWatcher', () => {
});
});
describe('pending file tracking (#403)', () => {
it('should expose edited paths via getPendingFiles before sync fires', async () => {
// Slow debounce — events arrive but sync hasn't run yet.
const syncFn = vi.fn().mockResolvedValue({ filesChanged: 1, durationMs: 10 });
const watcher = new FileWatcher(testDir, syncFn, { debounceMs: 2000 });
watcher.start();
// Deterministic boundary: wait for chokidar's initial scan to complete
// so any late initial-scan events have fired before we assert. A bare
// sleep is flaky under test-parallelism load.
await watcher.waitUntilReady();
expect(watcher.getPendingFiles()).toEqual([]);
fs.writeFileSync(path.join(testDir, 'src', 'pending.ts'), 'export const p = 1;');
// Allow chokidar to emit, but DON'T let the 2s debounce fire.
await waitFor(() => watcher.getPendingFiles().length > 0, 3000);
const pending = watcher.getPendingFiles();
const paths = pending.map((p) => p.path);
expect(paths).toContain('src/pending.ts');
const entry = pending.find((p) => p.path === 'src/pending.ts')!;
expect(entry.firstSeenMs).toBeGreaterThan(0);
expect(entry.lastSeenMs).toBeGreaterThanOrEqual(entry.firstSeenMs);
// No sync running yet → indexing flag is false.
expect(entry.indexing).toBe(false);
watcher.stop();
});
it('should clear an entry only after a successful sync absorbing that edit', async () => {
const syncFn = vi.fn().mockResolvedValue({ filesChanged: 1, durationMs: 10 });
const watcher = new FileWatcher(testDir, syncFn, { debounceMs: 200 });
watcher.start();
await watcher.waitUntilReady();
fs.writeFileSync(path.join(testDir, 'src', 'fresh.ts'), 'export const f = 1;');
// Watcher saw the change → pendingFiles has the entry. Longer windows
// here because chokidar event delivery on macOS slows under heavy
// parallel test-suite load (4× slower than isolation).
await waitFor(() => watcher.getPendingFiles().some((p) => p.path === 'src/fresh.ts'), 8000);
// Wait through debounce + sync; the entry should drop out.
await waitFor(() => syncFn.mock.calls.length > 0, 8000);
await waitFor(() => !watcher.getPendingFiles().some((p) => p.path === 'src/fresh.ts'), 8000);
expect(watcher.getPendingFiles()).toEqual([]);
watcher.stop();
});
it('should keep entries unchanged when sync fails (rescheduled work sees the same set)', async () => {
// First post-settle sync rejects, second resolves. The initial-scan
// sync (triggered by chokidar's pre-existing add events) is allowed to
// resolve cleanly so it doesn't consume one of our scripted outcomes.
const syncFn = vi
.fn()
.mockResolvedValueOnce({ filesChanged: 0, durationMs: 1 }) // initial scan
.mockRejectedValueOnce(new Error('boom')) // first real edit fails
.mockResolvedValueOnce({ filesChanged: 1, durationMs: 10 }); // retry succeeds
const onSyncError = vi.fn();
const watcher = new FileWatcher(testDir, syncFn, { debounceMs: 200, onSyncError });
watcher.start();
// Wait through chokidar `ready` AND the initial-scan-triggered sync, so
// the next sync corresponds to the explicit edit below.
await watcher.waitUntilReady();
await waitFor(() => syncFn.mock.calls.length >= 1, 5000);
await new Promise((r) => setTimeout(r, 100));
fs.writeFileSync(path.join(testDir, 'src', 'will-fail.ts'), 'export const wf = 1;');
// Wait for the sync that handles the explicit edit to reject.
await waitFor(() => onSyncError.mock.calls.length > 0, 5000);
// The file is STILL in pendingFiles — failure didn't drop it.
const after = watcher.getPendingFiles();
expect(after.some((p) => p.path === 'src/will-fail.ts')).toBe(true);
// Retry resolves; entry clears.
await waitFor(
() => !watcher.getPendingFiles().some((p) => p.path === 'src/will-fail.ts'),
5000,
);
watcher.stop();
});
});
describe('callbacks', () => {
it('should call onSyncComplete after successful sync', async () => {
const syncFn = vi.fn().mockResolvedValue({ filesChanged: 2, durationMs: 50 });