| name | event-logger-nodes-review |
| description | Code review checklist for newspack-event-logger-nodes (the application). Use whenever reviewing a diff that touches anything under newspack-event-logger-nodes/ — application Node subclasses, service CI verbs, dashboards, topologies, job handlers, memcache schema, hub/spoke routing. |
| argument-hint | [file or class] |
Event Logger Nodes Review Checklist
The application gates. Substrate concerns (PIPE_BUF discipline, lazy init, FROM stamping, TM_STRUCT typing) live in newspack-nodes' nodes-review skill and apply transitively here.
When to Use
After any diff touching files under newspack-event-logger-nodes/. Run BEFORE pushing or merging.
Gates (high-impact first)
1. Remote-activity gate
No operator hub toggle exists. enable_workers (v0.5.0) and enable_aggregator are retired, and tests/unit/RetiredConfigKeysTest.php guards both keys. Hub-mode derives from whether the aggregator topology — plus hub-control for settings/discovery fan-out — sits in the substrate's active topologies list. Fresh installs are spokes or standalone.
Settings fan-out is the substrate Settings_Sync_Node graph in the hub-control topology; Auto_Tuner_Node::persist is a plain update_option, no remote_manager job, no suppress_sync. An option change always records a settings event, but nothing fans it out unless hub-control is active and per-spoke HTTP_Out nodes are wired — missing consumers ARE the structural gate.
Push back on any diff introducing a hub flag (enable_aggregator / enable_workers checks, a Hub::is_active() helper, a MINIMUM-style gate). A polarity check around the settings/discovery fan-out regresses to the legacy design.
2. Stats fail-soft, SSE fail-closed
Two memcache uses with deliberately opposite behavior:
- Stats_Store (the ELN-side callsite, and anything reading stats for dashboards): every method returns
null / [] / false on memcache failure, and never throws. Dashboards display "no data" rather than erroring.
- SSE slot pool: fail CLOSED. Memcache down means new connections get HTTP 429. The pool IS the rate limit; falling through silently breaks that invariant.
Sse_Slot_Pool (the 429 callsite) is a SUBSTRATE component (newspack-nodes/includes/class-sse-slot-pool.php), not an ELN class — it enforces fail-closed, and the ELN-side gate is to not break the invariant.
A diff unifying these into one error-handling style is wrong. Code that throws from the stats path, or swallows errors in the slot path, has them inverted.
3. JobIntake for >4KB, firehose for ≤4KB
LogManager writes to the firehose under a MAX_DATA_SIZE = 3840 byte cap, under PIPE_BUF's 4096. Anything larger is silently clipped: the category gets (truncated) appended and the data becomes a single 1000-char m string (['m' => substr(json,0,1000).'...'], plus an error_log), destroying the job payload.
Large jobs belong on \Newspack_Nodes\Job_Intake::queue($handler, $payload), a substrate class. It auto-locks via Lock and uses an allow_large_writes() Partition (Job_Intake::MAX_JOB_SIZE — the canonical 32MB cap Job_Router_Node derives from).
A new producer of potentially-large jobs routed through LogManager is silently broken. Check whether wp_json_encode($payload) can exceed 4KB; if it can, it must use JobIntake.
4. Read the shared Core::$memd, don't inject a cache
Caching is the single shared \Newspack_Nodes\Core::$memd handle, a raw \Memcached. No Cache_Interface / Memcached_Cache survives to type-hint or inject. New code that adds a cache constructor param, type-hints a cache interface, or revives a per-class cache field fights the gut; consumers (Stats_Store, the service CIs) read Core::$memd directly with null-safe Core::$memd?->.... Tests set Core::$memd in setUp to the substrate's in-memory \Memcached double (../newspack-nodes/tests/Helpers/InMemoryMemcached.php, required via tests/bootstrap.php; there is no local tests/Helpers/). The set_cache() injection seam is gone.
5. One connection — don't build your own or hardcode servers
The substrate's \Newspack_Nodes\Bootstrap::init_memcached() builds Core::$memd once at boot from the memcache_servers config (default 127.0.0.1:11211); ELN production code never assigns it. A diff that hardcodes a server list or news up a second \Memcached connection is wrong — read the shared handle. (Memcached_Cache::DEFAULT_SERVERS went away with the class.)
6. Salt rotation behavior
Stats_Store::flush_all() rotates the 8-char salt in newspack_event_logger_nodes_stats_salt. Existing keys orphan instantly; TTL cleans up, and there is no scrubber.
Long-running workers cache the prefix at construction, so they keep writing to the OLD salt until they respawn. A diff calling flush_all() and expecting immediate effect is wrong — call sites must tolerate the stale-write window or trigger a worker restart.
7. Memcache value caps
Per-namespace caps prevent value-explosion against memcache's 1MB/value limit:
MAX_DIM_VALUES = 20MAX_URL_DIM_VALUES = 10MAX_CAT_VALUES = 50
Overflow rolls into a synthetic "Other" bucket. The total pseudo-category is preserved before capping, so totals stay accurate even after dimension keys get capped.
Raising a cap without weighing the value size, or removing the "Other" rollup, is risky: memcache silently truncates or rejects values over 1MB.
8. Sums-not-means storage
Leaderboard buckets store raw sums — count, sum_req_time, samples, sum_time, sum_count — so cross-bucket and cross-partition merge is exact addition. The display layer computes means at read time.
A diff introducing running-mean storage (the EMA we explicitly fixed) regresses to a known buggy state. Aggregator code MUST sum, not average.
9. Application Node subclasses resolve by namespace prefix
The plugin's main file registers the top-level node-class prefix via \Newspack_Nodes\Topology_Registry::register_plugin('Newspack_Event_Logger_Nodes\\', …/topologies); register_namespace covers only the App\ service-CI sub-namespace. make_node Flame_Builder then resolves \Newspack_Event_Logger_Nodes\Flame_Builder_Node by prefix, with no per-class registration to keep in sync.
A new node subclass inherits that registration free if it lives under Newspack_Event_Logger_Nodes\\ (or App\\) and a composer dump-autoload -o runs. Otherwise a .tsl make_node Foo foo cannot resolve the class.
10. No class_exists() guards for in-plugin classes
The deferred loader (require_once chain on plugins_loaded priority 11) loads every class in this plugin before anything constructs them, so class_exists() guards around an in-plugin class are dead branches, deliberately removed in a cleanup pass. Push back when a diff adds one back as "defensive".
Optional-dependency guards stay: class_exists( 'Memcached' ) (PHP extension), class_exists( 'WP_REST_Controller' ) (test bootstrap context), class_exists( 'WP_CLI' ) (CLI-only paths). Ask "is this class guaranteed loaded by our own bootstrap?" If yes, drop the guard.
11. Stream-injection + iteration-cap pattern for testability
CLI commands and other blocking-work classes use seams instead of calling STDIN / microtime / sleep inline — but the seam differs by method, not a uniform "resource + cap" pair. Reqgrep_Command::process_stdin( $stream = null ) takes only the I/O resource (defaulting to STDIN, looping fgets to EOF, no cap); Reqgrep_Command::follow_mode( int $max_iterations = \PHP_INT_MAX ) takes only an iteration cap; the substrate's CLI_Stdin_Reader_Node::fire is its own seam. Production uses the defaults; tests pass php://memory streams and small caps to drive loops deterministically.
Flag a new blocking command that bakes the streams in with no injection seam and no iteration cap. It is hard to test, and the fix costs one parameter.
12. Type flags
Inherited from the substrate: array VALUE → TM_STRUCT, string VALUE → TM_BYTESTREAM. Consumers reading array VALUE must gate on TM_STRUCT. Mixing is a known-buggy pattern; don't regress.
LogManager, RequestBuilder (emit_request / emit_error), FlameBuilder and JobIntake all use TM_STRUCT. Hub fan-in is the substrate \Newspack_Nodes\Remote_Source_Node, which forwards the remote envelope's TYPE; ELN's Remote_Job_Rewrite_Node reads array VALUE, gated on it being an array, and forwards in place. The old ELN Stream_Merger_Node / Remote_Source_Node were deleted in the pull-side cutover.
13. Index formatters receive the unpacked message array — they never json_decode
Request_Builder_Node::format_index_entry and Flame_Builder_Node::format_index_entry (the Partition::with_index() formatters) receive the unpacked message ARRAY, not the serialized JSONL line: format_index_entry( array $message, array $position ), reading $message[ Message::VALUE ] directly. Push back on a diff reintroducing a json_decode inside a formatter (with a FLAME_JSON_DEPTH, 64, or any depth), or restoring the old string $line / by-ref $data signature — the substrate no longer passes a line, so a decode there operates on the wrong type.
14. Spoke credentials live in the substrate Vault
Server_Registry, Remote_Manager and Health_Check_Extensions were deleted; spoke credentials and the registry live in the substrate Vault (\Newspack_Nodes\Vault, managed via the substrate vault CI). Push back on a diff reintroducing a Server_Registry / aggregator_servers option, a Remote_Manager job handler, or any numeric-server-id storage in ELN — that concern belongs to newspack-nodes' Vault.
Service CI specifics
Per-plugin REST controllers are gone; endpoints are verbs on App\*_CI_Node service CIs. This plugin owns FIVE: Discovery_CI_Node, Logger_CI_Node, Events_CI_Node, Performance_CI_Node, Rules_CI_Node (the last is the v0.28.0 per-URL-ruleset editor — verbs list/save/upsert/delete/reset). status/settings/aggregator are substrate-owned CIs, and the substrate vault CI replaced the old servers CI. The substrate's command-protocol REST surface dispatches commands at /wp-json/newspack-nodes/v1/command (POST) and SSE at /wp-json/newspack-nodes/v1/messages/stream (GET). Performance_Controller_Base and the entire includes/rest/ directory were DELETED in v0.9.0, and an M2BootstrapTest regression guard asserts the class stays gone. Push back on a diff reintroducing Performance_Controller_Base, adding extends Performance_Controller_Base, or reviving includes/rest/.
- Verb declaration: in
node_schema()['commands'] — name, description, args (per-arg name/type/required/optional default), and an inline handler closure. There is no per-schema permission_callback field.
- Per-verb capability gate: every handler calls
self::require_manage_options() (the Service_CI_Node static helper) first; worker requests are excluded via the NEWSPACK_NODES_WORKER_TYPE env tag set pre-dispatch.
- Per-verb rate limit: none. Service-CI verbs are not rate-limited at the CI layer; the SSE slot pool's connection cap is the structural backpressure on dashboards.
- Error returns: throw freely — the substrate wraps as
TM_COMMAND|TM_ERROR along the FROM trail. Reserve return 'error: ...' for canonical-OK-shaped argument-validation paths.
- Output escaping:
esc_html() / esc_attr() / esc_url() for any string going into HTML; wp_json_encode() (not raw json_encode) for arrays sent over the wire.
- Handler signature:
static function ( Command_Interpreter_Node $self, array $args, array $envelope = [] ): array. $self is typed to the base Command_Interpreter_Node, not the concrete CI. There is no payload slot — the v0.11.0 cutover removed the request-side command payload. $args is a token array (list<string> argv), NOT a space-joined string: the substrate migrated the {name, arguments} command envelope to the token-array contract, so handlers parse via Command_Args::parse( self::arg_strings( $args ) ), or read the whole payload as one token (self::arg_strings( $args )[0]) for the rules save/upsert JSON blob. Flag a handler still typed string $args or splitting a joined string as a stale port.
15. Canonical view contract (v0.8.0)
Every dashboard hook (useRequestLogGraph, usePerformanceGraph, useGyroscopeGraph, useErrorLogGraph, useHookCatalogGraph) MUST follow the same view contract — the gut of the dashboard rewrite:
- Command-fanout views (any view issuing a TM_COMMAND it expects a reply for) own a
pending Map keyed by message[ID]. The hook stashes { resolve, reject } resolvers under the ID before filling the message; the view's fill() matches by ID, settles, then updates the render model. Pure-SSE views need no pending.
- TM_ERROR envelopes route through an internal
_errorMessage(payload) helper that coerces string / {message} / fallback payloads to a readable string before stashing in the view model's error field or rejecting the pending Promise. Never throw inline from fill() — that crashes React.
- View-model updates preserve prior data on partial replies: per-slice last-modified dedup in
overview-view-node; list-replaces-table in urls-view-node (storeResult swaps the whole data rows array); complete-wins upsert-by-rid in gyroscope-view-node, never overwriting an entry already marked complete. Flag a diff that wholesale-replaces the model on every reply, clobbering sibling slices or prior rows — it breaks drilldown.
- No dead REPL mounts (
_output / _completion / _uptime / _cwd) on production dashboards. The CommandInterpreter mount serves the console tree only; copy-pasting it into a Performance dashboard adds dead nodes that compete for _router traffic and collide with the debug-overlay's REPL.
- All mounted nodes (
_sse, _http, _heartbeat, view, transform, route) set sink = interpreter; steer flow via target / TO, not bespoke nodeA.sink = nodeB chains.
- Mount only what the dashboard needs: a command/reply dashboard with no live stream (
overview/performance — poll plus on-demand commands) gets _http + view only; live-stream dashboards (request log, gyroscope, error log) get _sse + _heartbeat + transform + view. Unused boundary nodes are dead weight.
Flag a new dashboard or hook that lands without these; it regresses to the pre-canonical pattern.
16. v0.6.0 schema field rename
node_schema() uses 'arguments' (not 'ctor') for positional ctor args and 'commands' (not 'verbs') for verb declarations. A diff reading or writing 'ctor' / 'verbs' is a stale port — the rename landed in substrate v0.6.0 and both repos shipped it.
17. Settings go through Settings_Schema (v0.13.0)
Settings live in ONE declarative Settings_Schema (includes/class-settings-schema.php), one Field per setting, from which the Config overlay keys, the admin register/render loop, and worker-restart classification (Schema::restart_for()) all derive. The parallel Config::$option_schema + Admin::$option_names arrays collapsed into it in v0.13.0. A diff adding a setting should add a Field with its restart: keys, NOT reintroduce a parallel Admin array, and must leave reset and delete-on-blank to the substrate's Config_System\Reset_Gate rather than hand-rolling it.
18. Substrate presence gate
The deferred bootstrap (plugins_loaded priority 11) is gated on class_exists( '\Newspack_Nodes\Node' ): it wires ELN when the substrate is present and no-ops otherwise. Requires Plugins: newspack-nodes keeps the runtime active on WP 6.5+, and the plugins deploy together, so there is no version floor — a present-but-too-old substrate isn't a real case. Flag a diff re-introducing a MINIMUM_NODES_VERSION floor or admin-notice guard; that machinery was deliberately removed.
19. Hook-instrumentation invariants (v0.11.0 / v0.13.1)
App\Core::wrap_callbacks skips any callback declaring a & (by-reference) parameter (callback_has_ref_param()), so wrapping doesn't break by-reference WordPress filters, and it registers a sacrificial hook_spacer at SPACER_PRIORITY (PHP_INT_MAX - 2) to survive self-removing filters (v0.13.1). A hook-instrumentation diff that wraps a by-ref callback, or removes the spacer, regresses a real shipped fix.
20. Job_Worker_Node lives in the substrate
The job executor (Job_Worker_Node) moved to newspack-nodes in v0.12.0. This plugin keeps ONLY the job request-context glue — Log_Manager::begin/end_job_context, hooked onto the substrate's newspack_nodes/job_worker/{before,after}_job actions. A diff reintroducing a Job_Worker_Node here duplicates the substrate.
21. Per-URL logging ruleset (v0.28.0) — one writer, pattern-hash ids, empty-means-empty
The seven global logging settings (log_urls/skip_urls/log_events/custom_events/significant_events/auto_disable_threshold/auto_protect_time_threshold) were absorbed into a per-URL ruleset: an ordered list of Rules, each a URL pattern (prefix /x or exact /x?) with a log/skip action and — for log rules — its own hooks, custom events, significant events and auto-tune thresholds. Log_Manager resolves ONE governing rule per request: longest-prefix-wins, case-insensitive, and no match means skip. Gates:
- Every write goes through
Rule_Set::save() — never a raw update_option on newspack_event_logger_nodes_rules. save() maintains the inline↔pointer hook tiering (INLINE_HOOK_LIMIT = 100; heavy hooks tier to a non-autoloaded ..._rule_hooks_<id> option mirrored into evlog:rules:hooks:<id>) and orphan reconcile. Bypassing it corrupts the two-tier storage.
- A rule's id is
Rule_Set::id_for($pattern), the pattern's Log_Manager::url_hash() — one id per pattern, and a client-supplied id is ignored. A diff reintroducing positional id minting (generate_rule_id/gen_id), or letting two rules share a pattern, is a regression.
- Empty means empty. There is NO implicit
/ log-all baseline; an empty or absent ruleset logs nothing. A diff re-adding a synthetic Rule::minimal('/') fallback (that factory was removed) regresses the fixed behavior. Deployments wanting log-all declare a / log rule explicitly, as the shipped default config does.
- Don't revive the global logging options. Reintroducing
log_urls/skip_urls/log_events/custom_events/etc. as Settings_Schema fields or option rows revives retired machinery — those are per-rule now. (enable_logging, log_memory, flush_every_line, allowed_users, hook_start_priority stay global.)
- Discovery stages hooks, it doesn't write rules.
Discovery_Collector_Node stages spoke-reported hooks into a non-autoloaded discovered_hooks option, surfaced in the editor's picker; the editor is the only writer of rules. A diff having discovery union-merge into a / rule and save the ruleset regresses the "empty means empty" fix.
upsert edits match by id, add matches by pattern. Rules_CI_Node::upsert replaces in place by id when the incoming rule carries one, so an edit that renames doesn't orphan the old pattern; it falls back to pattern-match only for the id-less "Log this URL" add. Don't collapse them back to pattern-only.
React / dashboard nits
@wordpress/element for React, @wordpress/api-fetch for REST.- Bundle build is wp-scripts based;
npm run build produces build/ artifacts.
- Shared hooks/utils import from
@newspack-nodes/shared/*, the substrate's canonical src/shared, resolved by esbuild + jest and mirroring @newspack-nodes/runtime. There is no local src/shared/; it was removed in v0.12.0. A tree importing from another dashboard tree rather than the shared alias remains a layering smell.
restUrl localized as bare /wp-json/, not pre-namespaced. Components add the namespace per call.
Tests
- Unit tests under
tests/unit/, mostly flat. ELN owns five Service-CI test files: DiscoveryCITest.php, LoggerCITest.php, EventsCITest.php, PerformanceCITest.php, RulesCITest.php (AggregatorCITest / SettingsCITest are substrate tests in newspack-nodes). The ruleset engine has its own suite: RuleTest.php, RuleSetTest.php, RuleMatcherTest.php. The only subdirs are tests/unit/Admin/ and tests/unit/Cli/; integration tests live under tests/integration/. There is no tests/unit/Rest/ subdirectory — per-plugin REST controllers retired with the Service CI cutover.
- Coverage report lands under
$TEST_TMP/newspack-event-logger-nodes-coverage/ (default /tmp) after running tests/run-coverage.sh. New code should add tests so coverage doesn't regress.
- Test fixtures use
Message::TM_STRUCT for array-VALUE messages (it was TM_BYTESTREAM pre-rename; TM_BYTESTREAM in a fixture with array VALUE is a stale test needing an update).
- New Service CI verbs need a happy-path test, an unauthorized-request test verifying
require_manage_options throws for non-admins, and a memcache-failure test where the handler reads Core::$memd. Rate-limit tests don't apply — the SSE slot pool is the only structural backpressure.
Common review nits that aren't bugs
- The 9-namespace memcache schema looks redundant at first glance. It's deliberate: different access patterns benefit from different keys, and the
get_multi batching across all namespaces is essential for dashboard latency.
- Reading
\Newspack_Nodes\Core::$memd (the raw \Memcached) directly from many classes looks like a missing abstraction, but it's the intended shape post-gut — one shared handle, null-safe access, no Cache_Interface indirection.
- Application classes register with the substrate's CommandInterpreter. That's intentional, even though they aren't technically substrate.
Related Skills
event-logger-nodes-workflow — implementation workflowevent-logger-nodes-debugging — runtime debuggingnodes-review (in newspack-nodes) — substrate gates that apply transitively
