| name | nodes-dashboards |
| description | Use when building or changing a dashboard / inspector / panel on the newspack-nodes substrate (topology console, debug overlay, event & performance dashboards, or a consumer plugin's dashboard) — especially before writing a "view node" that receives a whole model, or a server command that computes everything. |
Dashboards Are Node Graphs, Not God Objects
A dashboard's data flow is a real node graph with message traffic at every edge — composable, introspectable, reusable — like any worker pipeline. One view node that takes a finished model from one server command and hands it to React is not a Nodes dashboard; it is a React app with a dead node stapled on. It sits at counter 0 / 0 B in the console: nothing flows, so nothing is inspectable and nothing is reusable.
God nodes and god commands are one anti-pattern. A client node holding the whole model is a god node; a server verb (insights → {sources, top, accumulated}) computing the whole model is a god command. Both kill composition, introspection and reuse. Decompose BOTH sides.
The pattern — compose the data flow
Timer ─> Tee ─> Fetcher(recv=countsIn, cmd=counts) ──┐
└> Fetcher(recv=topIn, cmd=top) ─────┤ (target = _shell/_http/<ci>)
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┘
▼
_shell (Tap — watch every send) ─> _http (HttpOut) ──────────┐
│ ▲ responses batch back │
│ │ │
POST one batch ▼ │ │
═══ server graph === │
(small verbs / nodes, NO god command) │
│
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
▼
countsIn (Tee) ─> Counter ─> counts-view-node ─> <CountsWidget/>
topIn (Tee) ─> Ranker ─> top-view-node ─> <TopTableWidget/>
Timer ticks the poll and hitchhikes the router tick, so every command emitted on a tick — and every response — batches into ONE HTTP round-trip (HttpOut locks on the tick, buffers, flush()es one postBatch). Fan-out is free: ten fetchers, one request.Fetcher (generic, reusable): args = (receiver, command, command_args…). Its fill() ignores the payload — any message is only the trigger to emit its configured command with FROM = its receiver. Configure the command on the node, never read it from the triggering message: a node that sends whatever command its message carries IS a Shell, and a named, always-firing Shell wired into the graph is verboten (see Security Risks). connect_node it to _shell/_http/<ci>, not _http/<ci> directly — _shell is an observe-only Tap on the command-send path, so connect _shell watches every outgoing command without touching the graph. Timer ─> Tee ─> N Fetchers, each with a different configured command, all batch into one tick's POST.- Receiver = a
Tee: the reply routes back TO = the fetcher's receiver, and the Tee fans it to transforms and per-widget view nodes.
- Transforms are small reusable nodes (rank, count, filter, parse) — each consumes and emits, so the work sits on the graph, inspectable and composable.
- View nodes are thin: each holds one widget's slice and
setStates it for a small React component (useNodeState).
- Server side decomposes too — small verbs or a server-side graph, one Fetcher per slice; never one verb that returns everything.
Why (what a god object forfeits)
Traffic at every edge is the point: connect <node> / drop a Tee to inspect any stage, the debug overlay shows the counts move, and the nodes (Fetcher, Tee, a Ranker, a Counter) are reused across dashboards rather than re-implemented per page. A god view-node plus a god command forfeits all of it, and is undebuggable precisely because nothing flows.
Reusable primitives
Timer, Tee, HttpOut (_http), Callback/Hook (transforms) and thin view nodes already ship in the JS runtime (src/runtime/). The generic Fetcher (src/runtime/fetcher-node.js — trigger → emit command, FROM = receiver) is the missing piece: build and reuse it, never inline a bespoke command-firing view node. mountExospine() (src/runtime/exospine.js) clips your graph onto the _command_interpreter → _router backbone.
Don't hand-wire the batching boilerplate — the substrate ships it. Two shared helpers under src/shared/ (consumed by sibling plugins via the @newspack-nodes/shared alias) own the whole _shell/_http/Timer/Tee/lock-flush and page-visibility scaffold, so a dashboard hook is just its slices:
useBatchedPoll (src/shared/hooks/useBatchedPoll.js) — owns the exospine mount, the _http HttpOut egress, the observe-only _shell Tap, the fan-out Tee + router-hitchhike Timer, the per-tick lock/flush bracket (one POST per tick), and the page-visibility gate (HIDDEN unregisters the Timer). You supply a build({ interpreter, tee }) that adds only the dashboard-specific nodes.addSliceFetcher (src/shared/helpers/addSliceFetcher.js) — wires ONE slice in one call: Fetcher → target plus a receiver Tee → [transform →] view, with an independent reply path per slice. Call it once per slice inside build.
Consumer dashboards live in their own src/ trees (the substrate's own are src/event-dashboards/, src/event-aggregator/, src/topology-console/, src/debug-overlay/); the shared spine stays in newspack-nodes/src/shared/.
Red flags — STOP, you're building a god object
- A view node that receives the whole model and
setStates it. Split it into Fetcher → Tee → transforms → per-widget views.
- A server command that returns
{everythingTheDashboardNeeds}. Split it into small verbs, one Fetcher per slice.
- A dashboard node sitting at counter 0 in the console: nothing flows through it, so it is dead, not composed.
- "I'll just
useDashboardGraph + one view + one poll command" — that IS the god pattern, the shortcut that produced every current god-object dashboard.
- Nothing on the canvas you could drop a
Tee into, or that the overlay would show moving: there is no graph.
- An op-id, a Promise registry, or
KEY used to match a reply to its request. The reply is ALREADY addressed: a node mints its command with FROM = <its own name> and the server replies TO = FROM, so it lands on that node and fill() handles it. makeOpId / PendingReplies / view.replies.add( id, resolve, reject ) / a Promise-returning send() all re-implement routing that already happened.
- "I batch N verbs in one tick, so I need to tell the replies apart." No — you have ONE node doing N jobs. Make it N nodes, one per concern (
slices.forEach( addSliceFetcher ), or two Poller nodes as RuntimeView does). Batching is orthogonal: HttpOut's lock/flush puts the whole tick in one POST however many nodes minted into it. Demux is a problem you invented.
Security Risks
- A node that sends whatever command its incoming message carries is a
Shell (Shells send commands; interpreters interpret them), and a named shell is dangerous: a maliciously routed message could execute arbitrary commands. Configure the command on the node (the Fetcher pattern) and treat the message as a trigger only. Route through _shell (a Tap) to watch sends.
Required background
nodes-review gate #8d (everything sinks into the interpreter; flow via target/TO/invoke). The Tachikoma batching principle: the tick hitchhike means more fetchers cost the same one POST. Pair with the dashboard leg of the docs/ tutorial track (see docs/README.md): writing-a-dashboard.md → writing-a-real-dashboard.md (the worked Publisher Insights rebuild) → writing-a-view-node.md (the thin per-widget view node).
