noise/docs/compose/reports/sse-migration.md

feature, status, specs, plans, branch, commits

feature	status	specs	plans	branch	commits
SSE Migration	delivered		docs/compose/plans/2026-06-11-sse-migration.md	main	869f4cb..16d55a1

SSE Migration — Final Report

What Was Built

Noise now uses Server-Sent Events (SSE) to receive messages from signal-cli in real-time, replacing the previous polling-based approach. The SSE client connects to signal-cli's /api/v1/events endpoint and processes incoming messages as they arrive, providing instant notification of new messages, delivery receipts, and typing indicators.

The implementation includes automatic reconnection with exponential backoff, ensuring robust message reception even when the connection is temporarily lost. The system gracefully handles connection failures and automatically restores the SSE stream without user intervention.

Architecture

Components

File	Purpose
noise-sse.el	SSE client with process filter, reconnection logic, and connection management
noise-receive.el	Processes SSE events and updates the UI (chat list, conversation buffers)
noise.el	Entry point with noise-mode that starts/stops SSE

Data Flow

signal-cli daemon
  ↓ GET /api/v1/events
noise-sse client (process filter)
  ↓ parse SSE events
noise-receive--handle-sse-event
  ↓ process envelope
UI refresh (chat list, conversation buffers)

Key Functions

• noise-sse-connect — Establishes SSE connection to signal-cli
• noise-sse-disconnect — Cleans up connection and timers
• noise-receive--handle-sse-event — Processes incoming SSE events
• noise-receive-start-sse / noise-receive-stop-sse — Public API for SSE management

Reconnection Strategy

• Initial connection: immediate
• On disconnect: exponential backoff (1s, 2s, 4s, 8s, ... up to 60s)
• On successful reconnect: resets backoff to 1s
• Configurable via noise-sse-max-reconnect-delay

Usage

Starting SSE

When noise-mode is enabled, SSE starts automatically:

(noise-mode 1)  ;; Starts SSE connection

Or manually:

M-x noise-receive-start-sse

Stopping SSE

When noise-mode is disabled, SSE stops automatically:

(noise-mode -1)  ;; Stops SSE connection

Or manually:

M-x noise-receive-stop-sse

Configuration

;; Maximum reconnect delay (default: 60 seconds)
(setq noise-sse-max-reconnect-delay 60)

;; Signal-cli address (default: http://localhost:8080)
(setq noise-signal-cli-address "http://localhost:8080")

;; Account for multi-account daemons
(setq noise-account "+15551234567")

Manual Refresh

You can still manually fetch messages with:

M-x noise-receive

This works even while SSE is running and is useful for initial setup or testing.

Verification

Test Results

All 66 tests pass:

Ran 66 tests, 66 results as expected, 0 unexpected

Test Coverage

• SSE parsing: 3 tests for event parsing (basic, multiline, empty)
• Connection state: 3 tests for reconnection logic (initial state, backoff, max delay)
• Process filter: 2 tests for stream parsing (complete events, incomplete buffering)
• Connection management: 4 tests for URL construction and connect/disconnect
• Integration: Tests verify SSE integration with existing envelope processing

Manual Testing

• Verified SSE connection establishment
• Confirmed real-time message reception
• Tested reconnection after connection loss
• Validated UI updates on incoming messages

Journey Log

• [pivot] Replaced polling with SSE for real-time message reception
• [lesson] signal-cli supports SSE via /api/v1/events endpoint (confirmed from GitHub issues #2033, #2034, #1935)
• [lesson] Emacs make-network-process uses :service keyword for port, not :port
• [lesson] Test processes need careful mocking to avoid "Buffer has no process" errors

Source Materials

File	Role	Notes
docs/compose/plans/2026-06-11-sse-migration.md	Implementation plan	Complete
noise-sse.el	SSE client implementation	New file
noise-receive.el	Message reception pipeline	Modified to use SSE
noise.el	Entry point	Updated noise-mode