manual_slop/conductor/tracks/code_path_audit_20260607/spec.md

Track: Code Path & Data Pipeline Audit

Status: Spec approved 2026-06-07 Initialized: 2026-06-07 Owner: Tier 2 Tech Lead Priority: Medium (foundational; enables follow-up pruning track)

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Overview

Build src/code_path_audit.py — a data-oriented static-analysis tool that audits the 3 major actions (AI message lifecycle, discussion save/load, GUI startup) for expensive operations, redundant calls, and pipelining candidates. The output (custom postfix .dsl data + markdown + Mermaid + prefix tree text) is the artifact that informs pipeline-pruning decisions; the actual code changes are a follow-up track (pipeline_pruning_20260607).

Per the user's framing: "anything that can even remotely smell as an expensive bulk action or major action that takes more than 10-40 microseconds." The audit focuses on expensive operations (file I/O, network, AST parsing, big loops, anything that smells like a bulk action) inside the 3 actions — not on every state mutation. The cost model is heuristic, calibrated by a runtime-profiling follow-up (pipeline_runtime_profiling_20260607) that catches the cases static analysis can't resolve (C-extension cost, import cost, JIT effects, decorator-driven dispatch).

The MMA worker spawn action is out of scope for this track (per user: "keeping that cold for a while until I like the main ux loop with ai in a discussion fully dogfooded").

Current State Audit (as of ca781543)

src/ has 61 .py files (27,447 total lines; 23,845 code lines). The call graph is non-trivial; per-action traversal is what makes the analysis tractable.

Already Implemented (DO NOT re-implement; KEEP / build on)

1. src/mcp_client.py:934-992 — derive_code_path(target, max_depth=5). A single-symbol recursive call tracer with text output. Doesn't render multi-action graphs, doesn't track mutations, doesn't measure cost. The new tool is the multi-action + mutation + cost version of this primitive. Build on this: lift the AST traversal logic and trace() recursion pattern into code_path_audit.py.
2. scripts/audit_main_thread_imports.py — static CI gate for import-time purity. Different concern (startup-time import cost), but its AST-walking pattern is the model for code_path_audit.py's implementation.
3. src/performance_monitor.py — runtime profiling with monitor.scope("name") and per-component hit counts + latencies. Used at runtime; the follow-up pipeline_runtime_profiling_20260607 track will use it to calibrate the heuristic cost model.
4. conductor/archive/code_path_analysis_20260507/ — prior manual audit + PIPELINE_ANALYSIS.md + Mermaid diagrams for the major pipelines. Manual effort, no reusable tool. New track is the data-grounded successor.
5. conductor/archive/ai_interaction_call_graph_20260507/ — sequence diagram for the AI loop. New track supersedes this for the 3 actions in scope.
6. SDM docstrings ([C: ...] / [M: ...] tags in src/*.py docstrings) — pre-computed caller/mutation info. The new audit tool will be a more rigorous version of what SDM already documents ad-hoc.

Gaps to Fill (this track's scope)

• A static call-graph builder for all of src/ (multi-action, depth-configurable, machine-readable output).
• A state-mutation index per function (5 mutation kinds: attr_write, container_mutate, file_write, ipc_emit, global_write).
• An expensive-ops index (7 cost classes, with a heuristic data-size estimate).
• A per-action traversal API (trace_action(action, max_depth=10) -> ActionProfile).
• An output suite: custom postfix .dsl data files + markdown summaries + Mermaid per-action call graphs + prefix-tree text view.
• A CLI (python -m src.code_path_audit --action <name>) and an MCP tool (code_path_audit(action_name, max_depth)).
• The actual audit run on the 3 actions, with the report committed to docs/reports/code_path_audit/2026-06-07/.

Goals

1. Produce a queryable artifact. The custom postfix .dsl output is the source of truth; markdown + Mermaid + prefix-tree text are for human review. Re-run after any src/ change to see drift.
2. Surface the top-N optimization candidates per action. The summary.md ranks candidates by potential data-transform load reduction. This is what the user will use to decide which pruning/optimization work to do next.
3. Data-grounded design. The audit's data structure is the spec; the heuristics and the threshold are module-level constants tunable from one place.
4. Reusable across actions. The trace_action API takes any Action (entry point + description). Adding a 4th action (e.g., MMA worker spawn, when it's no longer cold) is one Action(...) declaration.
5. Surface calibration gaps clearly. When the static heuristic can't resolve a call (C-extension, decorator-driven dispatch, getattr magic), the report flags it as "unresolved" so the runtime-profiling follow-up targets it.

Non-Goals

• Not implementing the actual code optimizations — that's pipeline_pruning_20260607.
• Not profiling runtime costs — that's pipeline_runtime_profiling_20260607.
• Not analyzing the MMA worker spawn action (cold per user).
• Not analyzing simulation/* or tests/* directories.
• Not analyzing actions beyond the 3 in scope.
• Not resolving C-extension call costs statically.
• Not resolving decorator-driven call dispatch statically (e.g., @property, @imscope).
• Not providing real microsecond measurements — the cost is heuristic (calibrated later).

Architecture

src/code_path_audit.py — single new module, no new dependencies. Exposes both an MCP tool surface (for agents) and a CLI (python -m src.code_path_audit ...).

Public API

class CallGraph:
    """Directed graph: nodes are functions; edges are call sites."""
    nodes: dict[str, "FunctionNode"]            # fully-qualified name -> node
    edges: dict[str, set[str]]                 # caller -> set of callees
    def add_edge(self, caller: str, callee: str) -> None: ...
    def transitive_callees(self, root: str, max_depth: int = 10) -> set[str]: ...
    def render_mermaid(self, root: str, max_depth: int = 5) -> str: ...

class FunctionNode:
    fqname: str                                # "src.ai_client.AIClient.send"
    file: str
    line: int
    calls: list[str]                           # all callees (resolved or not)
    state_mutations: list["StateMutation"]
    expensive_ops: list["ExpensiveOp"]

class StateMutation:
    target: str                                # "self.history", "module.events", "file:..."
    kind: Literal["attr_write", "container_mutate", "file_write", "ipc_emit", "global_write"]
    line: int

class ExpensiveOp:
    callee: str
    cost_class: Literal["file_io", "network", "ast_parse", "json_io", "pickle", "deep_copy", "loop_amplified"]
    data_size_estimate: int | None              # bytes or container length, heuristic
    line: int                                  # call site in the caller
    weight: int                                # cost_class_weight * data_size (or 1 if data_size unknown)

class Action:
    name: str                                  # "ai_message_lifecycle"
    entry_points: list[str]                    # ["src.app_controller.AppController.process_user_request", ...]
    description: str

class ActionProfile:
    action: Action
    call_graph: CallGraph                      # subgraph reachable from entry points
    expensive_ops: list[ExpensiveOp]           # all expensive ops in the subgraph
    state_mutations: list[StateMutation]       # all mutations in the subgraph
    redundancy: list[tuple[str, int]]          # (op_fqname, call_count) where count > 1
    pipelining_candidates: list[list[str]]     # groups of independent ops currently sequential
    total_load_estimate: int                   # sum(weight) heuristic
    unresolved_calls: list[str]                # calls the AST walker couldn't resolve
    mermaid: str                               # rendered Mermaid
    markdown: str                              # human-readable per-action report

def trace_action(action: Action, max_depth: int = 10) -> ActionProfile: ...
def build_call_graph(src_dir: str = "src") -> CallGraph: ...   # full call graph
def build_expensive_ops_index(cg: CallGraph) -> dict[str, list[ExpensiveOp]]: ...
def build_state_mutations_index(cg: CallGraph) -> dict[str, list[StateMutation]]: ...

Cost Model (heuristic, calibrated by the runtime-profiling follow-up)

Pattern	Cost class	Default weight	Data size source
open(), Path.read_*, Path.write_*, *.write_text	file_io	100	file size from Path.stat() when resolvable, else None
requests.*, urllib.*, websockets.*, client.send (with httpx-like signatures)	network	500	payload size from param literal/typed hint
ast.parse, ast.walk, tree_sitter.*	ast_parse	200	source bytes from the path arg
json.dump, json.load, tomli_w.dump, tomllib.load	json_io	150	container length if param is a list/dict
pickle.dump, pickle.load	pickle	300	container length
copy.deepcopy	deep_copy	200	container length
Any call inside the body of a for / while loop	loop_amplified	caller_weight × loop_bound_estimate	loop bound = range(...) literal/arg, else 1

Expense threshold: EXPENSIVE_THRESHOLD = 40_000 (module-level constant). Any ExpensiveOp.weight > EXPENSIVE_THRESHOLD is flagged "expensive" in the per-action report. The 40,000 default matches the user's stated 10-40μs range; the runtime-profiling follow-up will calibrate it.

Unresolved calls: when the AST walker cannot resolve a callee (e.g., attribute access on self.X where X is set dynamically; getattr; decorator-wrapped method dispatch), the call goes into unresolved_calls with a "unresolved" cost class and weight 0. The report's caveats section notes these; the runtime-profiling follow-up measures them.

Out of the static analysis

• C-extension call costs (imgui-bundle, tree-sitter native) — runtime profiling only.
• Decorator-driven dispatch (e.g., @property, @imscope) — runtime profiling only.
• Import cost at module load time — covered by the existing scripts/audit_main_thread_imports.py.
• eval / exec calls — flagged as unresolved, not analyzed.

Per-Action Design

For each of the 3 actions, the audit is invoked with one or more entry points and a depth limit (default 10). The audit produces an ActionProfile that the report renders.

Action	Entry points	Expected high-cost ops the audit should surface
AI message lifecycle	src.app_controller.AppController.process_user_request, src.ai_client.AIClient.send, src.aggregate.build_file_items, src.summarize._summarise_*	Per-context-file AST parse in build_file_items; AI network call; history append + comms log append + session_logger file write; sub-agent summarization (network + AST, loop-amplified over context files)
Discussion save/load	src.project_manager.save_project, src.project_manager.load_project, src.history.HistoryManager.save_snapshot, src.models.parse_history_entries	tomli_w.dump / tomllib.load on project TOML; json.dump on comms log (loop-amplified per entry); history file read/write; AST parse on schema validation
GUI startup	sloppy.main → gui_2.App.__init__, src.app_controller.AppController.__init__, src.paths._resolve_*	tomllib.load on config.toml; AST parses for tool registration; file stat on log paths; sloppy.py first-frame import chain (covered by the existing scripts/audit_main_thread_imports.py)

The user can extend with more actions later (e.g., MMA worker spawn when it's no longer cold). Each action is one Action(...) declaration + a trace_action() call.

Output Format

CLI:

uv run python -m src.code_path_audit --action ai_message_lifecycle [--depth N] [--dsl] [--tree] [--markdown] [--mermaid]

MCP tool (for agents):

code_path_audit(action_name: str, max_depth: int = 10) -> dict

Generated artifacts (all under docs/reports/code_path_audit/<YYYY-MM-DD>/):

File	Format	Purpose
call_graph.dsl	Custom postfix DSL	Full call graph (all of src/); machine-readable, parses in ~30 lines
expensive_ops.dsl	Custom postfix DSL	Expensive ops index (per-file, per-function)
state_mutations.dsl	Custom postfix DSL	State mutations index (per function)
actions/<action>.dsl	Custom postfix DSL	Per-action profile (machine-readable)
actions/<action>.tree	Prefix tree (text)	Per-action human-readable tree (for human review)
actions/<action>.md	Markdown	Per-action summary + table (for code review)
actions/<action>.mmd	Mermaid	Per-action call graph (visual)
summary.md	Markdown	Top-level cross-action summary + ranked optimization candidates
optimization_candidates.md	Markdown	Ranked list with: candidate, current cost, proposed reduction, effort, priority

The two follow-up tracks consume the .dsl files; the markdown + tree are for human review.

The custom DSL is postfix (RPN) with length-prefixed lists — no brackets, no braces, no commas, no colons. Each "word" is a tagged constructor that consumes a known number of args from the stack (e.g., fn consumes 3, exp-op consumes 5, mut consumes 3, N list consumes N items). Whitespace-tokenized. Strings are bare atoms when they have no whitespace; quoted only when needed. nil for null. \ for line comments. The DSL is deliberately NOT strict Forth — it's a custom postfix format tailored to the audit's record shapes (function, call, mutation, expensive op, pair, list).

Example of a single FunctionNode record:

\ FunctionNode: fqname file line fn
"src.ai_client.AIClient.send" "src/ai_client.py" 100 fn
"build_file_items" call
"process_response" call
"self.history" attr_write 110 mut
"open" file_io 100 120 exp-op

The prefix tree renderer is a separate human-readable view of the same data — top-down, ├─/└─/│ box-drawing, scannable. Generated by a recursive walker. Inlined in the markdown reports (optionally produced as actions/<action>.tree for tooling).

Why custom postfix DSL (not JSON, not s-expressions, not strict Forth):

• Not JSON (JSON is ill-performant: quoting, escaping, hash table allocation, no streaming).
• Not s-expressions (the bracket version drifts back toward s-exprs; the user wanted postfix specifically).
• Not strict Forth (the user wants a format ideal for call-graph recording, not a Turing-complete Forth program).
• Postfix (per user: "I want a post-fix heiarchy"): stack-based, no delimiters to count.
• Length-prefixed lists (standard postfix solution for nesting): N list consumes N items, unambiguous.
• Trivial parser (~30 lines: split + walk + evaluate tagged words against a known arity table).
• Compact: ~30-40% fewer characters than JSON for the same data.
• Streamable: no need to parse the whole file to find a record; you can scan for tags.
• Extensible: add new metric types by adding new tagged words (metric(name value sample_size), histogram(buckets), etc.).

Verification (TDD per conductor/workflow.md)

Unit tests in tests/test_code_path_audit.py:

• CallGraph.add_edge + transitive_callees correctness on a synthetic 5-node graph.
• ExpensiveOpIndex detects each of the 7 cost classes on synthetic source.
• StateMutationIndex detects each of the 5 mutation kinds on synthetic source.
• trace_action produces an ActionProfile for a synthetic action whose expected cost is computable by hand.
• Custom postfix .dsl output round-trips (parse_dsl(to_dsl(profile)) == in-memory structure).
• Prefix tree renderer produces well-formed box-drawing output for the 3 per-action reports.
• Markdown output is well-formed (header per section, table per category).
• Mermaid output parses as valid Mermaid syntax.

Smoke test: run python -m src.code_path_audit --action ai_message_lifecycle --depth 5 against a fixture project; verify the report is produced and contains the expected high-cost ops (per the table above).

Manual verification: the report is the deliverable. A Tier 2 Tech Lead + user review the produced summary.md to confirm the optimization candidates make sense.

Commit Structure (6 atomic commits, in order)

1. feat(audit): add code_path_audit data structures (CallGraph, ExpensiveOpIndex, StateMutationIndex)
   - src/code_path_audit.py (initial data structures)
   - tests/test_code_path_audit.py (unit tests)
2. feat(audit): add trace_action + ActionProfile + cost model
   - src/code_path_audit.py (extends with action tracing)
   - tests/test_code_path_audit.py (integration tests)
3. feat(audit): add custom postfix DSL writer + parser + tree renderer / markdown / Mermaid output
4. feat(audit): add MCP tool + CLI surface
5. docs(audit): run audit on 3 actions; commit report
   - docs/reports/code_path_audit/2026-06-07/* (the deliverable)
6. conductor(tracks): mark Code Path Audit track complete
   - tracks.md update

Each commit message includes a git notes add -m "..." summary per conductor/workflow.md step 9.1-9.3.

Risks

Risk	Likelihood	Impact	Mitigation
Heuristic cost model is imprecise; reported "expensive" ops aren't actually expensive at runtime.	Medium	Medium (false positives dilute the report)	EXPENSIVE_THRESHOLD is a module-level constant; the runtime-profiling follow-up calibrates it.
AST walking misses dynamic patterns (eval, getattr, decorator-driven dispatch).	Medium	Medium (under-estimates some calls)	Document the limitations in the report's caveats section; the runtime-profiling follow-up catches these.
Mermaid diagrams exceed renderable size for deep actions.	Medium	Low (visualization only)	Default max_depth=5 for --mermaid; full graph available as .dsl.
The 3 actions' entry points are not exactly the functions the user has in mind.	Medium	Low (the report is the artifact; user can re-run with different entry points)	Document the chosen entry points in the report; CLI/MCP tool accepts any fully-qualified function name.
Report is too large to review (thousands of expensive ops).	Low	Medium	Per-action scoping; default --depth 5; ranked optimization candidates in summary.md make the top-N obvious.
Existing derive_code_path is the de-facto call-graph tool and the new one is redundant.	Low	Low (the new one is a strict superset)	derive_code_path stays as a thin wrapper around code_path_audit.trace_action for backward compat, OR gets a @deprecated shim.
The 3 actions are not actually the user's top 3 (user might have meant a different 3).	Low	Low (the tool is generic; re-run with different actions is one CLI call)	CLI accepts any Action; user can re-run.

Coordination with Pending Tracks

This track has no blockers and no conflicts. It can ship independently of the 5 active planned tracks. It enables future refactors:

Pending track	Could use this analysis for...
qwen_llama_grok_integration_20260606	Identifying redundant OpenAI-compatible request paths in _send_* functions
data_oriented_error_handling_20260606	Showing the call paths the new Result[T] return values will thread through
data_structure_strengthening_20260606	Pinpointing hot functions where the new type aliases matter most
mcp_architecture_refactor_20260606	Identifying which sub-MCPs have the most expensive operations (file_io vs network vs ast)
test_batching_refactor_20260606	Confirming which tests trigger the most expensive paths (to optimize test selection)

This track's analysis is read-only — it doesn't modify src/, doesn't change the public API, doesn't add tests to the existing test suite. The only new files are src/code_path_audit.py (the tool), tests/test_code_path_audit.py (the tests), and the report under docs/reports/code_path_audit/2026-06-07/.

Follow-up

• pipeline_runtime_profiling_20260607 (the user-requested follow-up; NOT in this track): adds a runtime profiling harness using the existing src/performance_monitor.py + a per-action test fixture. Measures real costs for the 3 actions. Calibrates the heuristic cost model (EXPENSIVE_THRESHOLD + per-class weights). Catches "things that aren't easy to resolve statically" — import cost, JIT effects, GC pauses, C-extension call cost (imgui-bundle, tree-sitter native), decorator-driven dispatch. Output: scripts/runtime_profiler.py + updated code_path_audit.py cost model.
• pipeline_pruning_20260607 (the second follow-up; NOT in this track): implements the high-priority optimization candidates surfaced by this track's report. Will be scoped AFTER this track ships, since the report itself defines what to prune.

Out of Scope

• MMA worker spawn action (deferred per user — keeping MMA cold until the 1:1 discussion UX is dogfooded in a few projects).
• Implementing the optimization fixes (deferred to pipeline_pruning_20260607).
• Runtime profiling (deferred to pipeline_runtime_profiling_20260607 per the user's explicit ask).
• Other major actions beyond AI message, save/load, GUI startup.
• C-extension call costs (deferred to runtime profiling).
• Decorator-driven call dispatch (deferred to runtime profiling).
• simulation/* and tests/* directories (analysis is src/-only for this track; can be extended later).
• Modifying src/ (read-only analysis).

See Also

• conductor/archive/code_path_analysis_20260507/ — prior manual audit; the new track is its data-grounded successor.
• conductor/archive/ai_interaction_call_graph_20260507/ — prior sequence diagram for the AI loop.
• src/mcp_client.py:934-992 — derive_code_path(target, max_depth=5) (single-symbol tracer; the new tool supersedes this for multi-action use).
• src/performance_monitor.py — runtime profiling infrastructure used by the pipeline_runtime_profiling_20260607 follow-up.
• scripts/audit_main_thread_imports.py — related static CI gate (startup-time import cost).
• docs/reports/PLANNING_DIGEST_20260606.md — planning context; the 5 active planned tracks are independent of this one.
• docs/guide_data_oriented.md (if it exists; otherwise conductor/product-guidelines.md "Data-Oriented & Immediate Mode Heuristics") — the project's data-oriented design philosophy this track follows.