Push a frame instead of storing and fetching it

The rate the media dtypes could carry was one frame every second or two: each
was a file on the data volume, an event on the socket, and a request back for
the bytes. This closes both halves of that, and they are one feature.

`save_artifact(..., volatile=True)` writes to a `VolatileStore` — the same
content-addressed store, in `/dev/shm`, bounded by size with the oldest falling
out (`ARTIFACT_VOLATILE_BYTES`, 48 MB under the container's raised `shm_size`).
Nothing sweeps it: a frame nobody kept is not worth walking the store to find.
`ArtifactStore.path` falls through to it, which is what lets a volatile frame be
an ordinary reference everywhere else — the dtype check, a panel's digest scope,
`load_artifact` in a node, and the widget's own fetch all work on one unchanged.
`adopt` copies one into the store when a run records it, so "returned media is
kept, emitted media is not" stays true.

The bytes then go down the flows websocket as a length-prefixed binary frame,
sent just ahead of the `message_value` naming them, so a tile has the frame when
it hears the value moved. Nothing is pushed unasked: a client names the messages
it is drawing (`{"type":"media","names":[…]}`), a panel's list is intersected
with the scope it already had, and only the newest frame per name in a batch is
sent — a client that fell behind is not handed frames it would draw over. The
tunnel relays text only, so a screen reached through a portal falls back to
fetching, which is why the rate table now has two rows.

Around the edges: the remote worker's fetch cache is bounded at last
(`FLUKSIO_ARTIFACT_CACHE_BYTES`), since content addressing means nothing in it
ever expires and a media stream fills it with chunks nothing asks for twice; a
port carrying an image draws the frame in the node panel rather than only
saying `image/png · frame.png · 1.79kB`; and an edge chip says that much instead
of a line of hash. The media screenshot stops waiting for `networkidle` — a
camera is a socket that never goes quiet, which is the point of it.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01YC4u66vjzW54fnHu5Juhh9
This commit is contained in:
2026-09-02 10:15:14 +02:00
co-authored by Claude Opus 5
parent 518231aa39
commit d471614e6a
29 changed files with 1101 additions and 147 deletions
+12 -2
View File
@@ -137,7 +137,8 @@ def process(speech): # an `audio` port
def process(camera_url):
for index, jpeg in enumerate(grab(camera_url)): # a generator
frame = fluksio.save_artifact(
jpeg, f"frame-{index:05d}.jpg", media_type="image/jpeg"
jpeg, f"frame-{index:05d}.jpg",
media_type="image/jpeg", volatile=True,
)
frame["meta"] = {"seq": index}
yield {"frame": frame} # an `image` stream port
@@ -148,12 +149,21 @@ has to match, so a node declaring `audio` never receives a video by accident.
See [Payload types](../reference/payload-types.md#image-audio-video) for what
each carries and what rates are realistic.
`volatile=True` is for a frame rather than a result. The bytes go to a ring in
memory instead of the data volume, and the engine pushes them down the
websocket to whichever screens are drawing that message — so a camera runs at
ten frames a second without writing anything to disk. They last as long as it
takes newer frames to need the room. Leave it off for a clip somebody asked to
keep.
!!! warning "Emitted media is not kept; returned media is"
Only what a node *returns* is recorded against its run. Frames yielded
along the way are replaced in state by the next one, and the artifact sweep
removes bytes nothing refers to any more, which is what stops a camera
filling the disk. If a particular frame matters, return it.
filling the disk. If a particular frame matters, return it: a volatile one
is copied out of the ring when the run records it, so returning it is also
what makes it outlive the next few seconds.
## Printing