@serfab/cadre-core 1.17.0 → 1.18.0

package/src/strand-first-sync-gate.ts

@@ -11,16 +11,16 @@
  * founder from a joiner; sereus can, because the launch knows whether it is founding.
  *
  * The invariant this module enforces: **a machine that has never held this strand's
- * `Strand.Header` row, and has not read every `App` table once, must not commit to it.**
- * The founder writes the Header in its bootstrap; every other machine can only receive it
- * from a peer, so "no local Header" means "never synced". The gate therefore holds the
+ * `Strand.Header` row, and has not read every `Strand` and `App` table once, must not commit
+ * to it.** The founder writes the Header in its bootstrap; every other machine can only receive
+ * it from a peer, so "no local Header" means "never synced". The gate therefore holds the
  * freshly initialized `StrandDatabase` back from the app — `StrandInstance.database` stays
- * unset and the instance reports `'syncing'` — and probes on a cadence until the Header is
- * readable AND a read of each app table settles, at which point the database is published
- * and the instance goes `'active'`. A machine whose store already holds the Header and every
- * app table (a founder, and normally a restart or a hibernation resume) passes the probe on
- * the first try and is never gated, so offline-first writes on a machine that has synced
- * before keep working.
+ * unset and the instance reports `'syncing'` — and probes, whenever data lands in the strand's
+ * store and on a backstop timer, until the Header is readable AND a read of each other table
+ * settles, at which point the database is published and the instance goes `'active'`. A
+ * machine whose store already holds the Header and every other table (a founder, and normally
+ * a restart or a hibernation resume) passes the probe on the first try and is never gated, so
+ * offline-first writes on a machine that has synced before keep working.
  *
  * "Has synced before" is decided by what the local store actually holds, not by whether this
  * machine once read the strand: a machine that left soon after its first sync can hold less
@@ -29,23 +29,28 @@
  * it kept, without the `Strand.Header` collection it had read before it left. Gating it is
  * right: writing into a collection this machine does not hold would fork it.
  *
- * Why the app tables too: the Header is ONE collection. It reaches a joiner ahead of the
- * founder's app-table collections (peer-join backfill and pull-on-read deliver those
- * separately), and a write to a table whose collection this machine has not yet fetched
- * invents one exactly as a lone joiner did. Measured on the reference chat schema
- * (2026-09-16, direct connections, Header-only probe): the joiner's participant + message
- * written the instant `addStrand` resolved diverged in 3 of 4 runs. Reading each table once
- * pulls its collection while the founder is reachable, so the write that follows appends.
+ * Why the other tables too: the Header is ONE collection. It reaches a joiner ahead of the
+ * founder's other collections (peer-join backfill and pull-on-read deliver those separately),
+ * and a write to a table whose collection this machine has not yet fetched invents one exactly
+ * as a lone joiner did. Measured on the reference chat schema (2026-09-16, direct connections,
+ * Header-only probe): the joiner's participant + message written the instant `addStrand`
+ * resolved diverged in 3 of 4 runs. The same holds for the `Strand` tables, which reach a joiner
+ * by the same backfill: the membership loop writes `ConsumedInvite`, `Member` and `MemberPeer`
+ * about a second after publication, and a manager writes `Invite`, `CancelledInvite`, `Manager`
+ * and `Revocation`. Reading each table once pulls its collection while the founder is
+ * reachable, so the write that follows appends.
  *
- * Every probe is a read (`Strand.Header`, then `select count(1)` on each `App` table). Reads
- * never invent a collection (Optimystic's `Collection.open` resolves undefined on an
- * authoritatively absent header, and throws on an unreachable one), so probing is safe to
- * repeat and a throw is just "not yet". Every table declared at founding has a collection
- * from the start (the founder bootstrap commits them all before the Header), so a probe read
- * fetches it; a table a later schema version adds reads as absent until its first write
- * creates the collection — see `docs/strands.md` ("Joining") for that residual.
+ * Every probe read is `select 1 from <table> limit 1` (`Strand.Header`, then each other `Strand`
+ * table, then each `App` table, skipping those already seen settled): opening the table fetches
+ * its collection header, and one row walks the root to the first leaf. Reads never commit a
+ * collection (one ruled authoritatively absent is staged empty in memory only, and an
+ * unreachable one throws), so probing is safe to repeat and a throw is just "not yet". Every
+ * table declared at founding has a collection from the start (the founder bootstrap commits the
+ * rest empty before its founding transaction writes the Header and the membership rows), so a
+ * probe read fetches it; a table a later schema version adds reads as absent until its first
+ * write creates the collection — see `docs/strands.md` ("Joining") for that residual.
  *
- * Owned by `StrandInstanceManager`: created in `buildStrandRuntime` for every launch, armed
+ * Owned by `StrandInstanceManager`: created in `buildStrandDatabase` for every database build, armed
  * only for a non-founder launch whose first probe fails, stopped and dropped in
  * `releaseRuntime` (so a quiesce → resume rebuild re-probes over the same store), and opened
  * by `publishDatabase` whenever the database is published without its loop — a launch that
@@ -67,12 +72,25 @@
 import debug from 'debug';
 import type { Database } from '@quereus/quereus';
 import type { StrandDatabase } from './strand-database.js';
+import { scheduleRuns, TABLE_CHANGE_COALESCE_MS, type TableChangeWatch } from './table-change-watch.js';
 import { defaultTimeoutScheduler, type TimeoutScheduler } from './timeout-scheduler.js';
 
 const log = debug('sereus:cadre:strand-first-sync');
 
-/** How often a gated launch re-probes (`Strand.Header`, then every `App` table) while waiting for its first sync. */
-export const DEFAULT_STRAND_FIRST_SYNC_POLL_MS = 500;
+/**
+ * How long a gated launch goes without probing when no data lands in the strand's store: the
+ * gate probes when data arrives, and this long after its last probe settled when none has. It
+ * covers a probe that failed for a reason no storage event follows — a consult that missed its
+ * deadline while the founder held the block, or a push that never comes.
+ *
+ * Why 2 s: arrivals wake the gate, so this timer is the fallback rather than the main path. At
+ * the supported 3 s link round trip one consult takes about 6 s (two round trips, per the 1.8.0
+ * measurements on {@link DEFAULT_STRAND_FIRST_SYNC_TIMEOUT_MS}), so a 2 s idle gap after a failed
+ * probe adds at most a third of one probe round, and it is under 1% of that 360 s budget. Shorter
+ * brings back the cost of polling (the gate re-probed every 500 ms before it woke on arrivals);
+ * much longer (5 s) delays the case with no storage event by most of a probe round for nothing.
+ */
+export const DEFAULT_STRAND_FIRST_SYNC_BACKSTOP_MS = 2_000;
 
 /**
  * How long `CadreNode.addStrand` waits for a machine's first sync before rejecting with
@@ -104,6 +122,37 @@ export const DEFAULT_STRAND_FIRST_SYNC_POLL_MS = 500;
  * several of those — which is why both bands are recorded here, and why a change to either
  * number has to be weighed against the other.
  *
+ * AT THE SUPPORTED LINK ON `@optimystic/*` 1.17.0 (2026-10-21), 1 500 ms one-way, the same
+ * scenario, one run per arm, with the probe reading every `Strand` table as well as the `App`
+ * one (`debt-first-sync-gate-reads-every-strand-table`); the kept-store arm was not run:
+ *  - Fresh join: writable at 28.7 s and NOT gated, as on 1.15.0.
+ *  - Re-attach over an EMPTY store: writable at 105.8 and 105.9 s over two runs, the row A wrote
+ *    while B was away readable at the same moment. B's first database build fails at 7.0 s (no
+ *    seed peer has answered; `StrandInstanceManager.deferUnreachableJoin` retries it), B's strand
+ *    node connects to A's at 15.1 s, the retried build's `connectToStrand` takes 21.2 s, and the
+ *    launch's first probe then takes 72.6 s and passes with no read failing, so the gate never
+ *    arms.
+ *  - The same arm with the probe held to the Header and the `App` table (one run, otherwise the
+ *    same build): that probe took 12.1 s, writable at 45.4 s, the row at 63.5 s. So the seven
+ *    `Strand` reads cost about 60 s here, about 8.6 s each, against about 6 s for each of the
+ *    baseline's two reads — more than the 42 s estimated from one 6 s consult per read.
+ *
+ * AT THE SUPPORTED LINK ON `@optimystic/*` 1.15.0 (2026-10-20), 1 500 ms one-way, the same
+ * scenario, one fresh-join run, with the one-row probes woken by data landing in the store
+ * (`first-sync-gate-probes-cheaply`; the full-count probes polled every 500 ms gave the same
+ * figures):
+ *  - Fresh join: writable at 28.8 s, and NOT gated. The launch waits 27.3 s in
+ *    `connectToStrand` for its seed peer (it hydrates the founder's catalog, 9 tables), and by
+ *    then the store holds the strand: the first probe passed in 24 ms.
+ *  - The strand case of `message-cost-accounting` (two relay-only parties on loopback) agrees:
+ *    B's `addStrand` took 471 ms, with 13 `sync` streams to A, 4 block reads from the Header
+ *    probe and 8 from the table probes. Its two tables are empty, so a full count would fetch
+ *    the same blocks as a one-row read.
+ *  - Neither arms the gate, so neither times the woken path. That was checked on
+ *    `harness-topology`'s cross-party share (a joiner launched with no seed, dialed afterwards)
+ *    with the backstop raised to 10 s: the founder's join backfill push opened the gate 2.1 s
+ *    after it armed.
+ *
  * AT THE SUPPORTED LINK ON `@optimystic/*` 1.8.0 (2026-09-29), 1 500 ms one-way, the read
  * deadline derived from the declared link at 7 000 ms (`cohortReadDeadlineMs` in
  * `link-budget.ts`; the plugin's `COHORT_READ_DEADLINE_MS` is the same number), and cadre
@@ -160,19 +209,19 @@ export const DEFAULT_STRAND_FIRST_SYNC_POLL_MS = 500;
  * injector are unknown to us) opened the gate at about 150 s, after the previous 120 s budget
  * had already rejected; and a real Galaxy S7 joining fresh through relay.sereus.org took 178 s.
  *
- * 300 s clears the worst harness sample (82 s, a fresh join at the supported link on 1.7.0; the
- * worst on 1.8.0 is 64 s) by about 3.6x, the reporter's re-attach by 2x and the device join by
- * about 1.7x. Kept at 300 s on 2026-09-29, and again after the 1.8.0 re-measure the same day,
- * by the rule that re-measure applied and the next one should: keep it while the
- * worst harness sample is at most 100 s, which holds a margin of at least 3x; otherwise raise
- * it to 3x the worst sample, rounded up to the next whole minute. 240 s was rejected earlier:
- * it clears the device join by only 1.35x, and that sample was not a re-attach. History: the
- * original 30 s sat INSIDE the 1000 ms fresh band and refused about half of those joins while
- * their sync was progressing normally; 120 s was sized from fresh joins only and refused the
- * reporter's re-attach.
+ * 360 s clears the worst harness sample (105.9 s, a re-attach over an empty store at the
+ * supported link on 1.17.0) by about 3.4x, the reporter's re-attach by 2.4x and the device join
+ * by about 2x. Set by the rule every re-measure applies: keep it while the worst harness sample
+ * is at most 100 s, which holds a margin of at least 3x; otherwise raise it to 3x the worst
+ * sample, rounded up to the next whole minute. The 1.17.0 sample crossed 100 s, and 3x 105.9 s
+ * is 318 s, so 360 s (2026-10-21); the 1.7.0 and 1.8.0 re-measures (worst 82 s and 64 s) had
+ * kept the 300 s before it. 240 s was rejected earlier: it clears the device join by only 1.35x,
+ * and that sample was not a re-attach. History: the original 30 s sat INSIDE the 1000 ms fresh
+ * band and refused about half of those joins while their sync was progressing normally; 120 s
+ * was sized from fresh joins only and refused the reporter's re-attach.
  *
- * NOTE: accepted tradeoff — what 300 s costs. This wait is what an app's `addStrand` sits in
- * before it is told "not yet", so a strand none of whose members is reachable at all takes five
+ * NOTE: accepted tradeoff — what 360 s costs. This wait is what an app's `addStrand` sits in
+ * before it is told "not yet", so a strand none of whose members is reachable at all takes six
  * minutes to report instead of two. The slow report was weighed against refusing attaches that
  * were working, and the refusal is the worse failure. The cost is bounded — the rejection is
  * retryable, the strand stays launched and keeps probing, and `strand:writable` fires the
@@ -182,7 +231,7 @@ export const DEFAULT_STRAND_FIRST_SYNC_POLL_MS = 500;
  * sync that is actually in progress — worth more the longer this budget gets.
  */
 // eslint-disable-next-line no-restricted-syntax -- measured, not derived: the bands above, from integration-tests' strand-reattach-first-sync-measure.integration.ts; a whole first sync has no round-trip count
-export const DEFAULT_STRAND_FIRST_SYNC_TIMEOUT_MS = 300_000;
+export const DEFAULT_STRAND_FIRST_SYNC_TIMEOUT_MS = 360_000;
 
 /** Embedder-facing tuning for the gate, threaded from `CadreNodeConfig.strandFirstSync`. */
 export interface StrandFirstSyncConfig {
@@ -192,8 +241,11 @@ export interface StrandFirstSyncConfig {
    * {@link DEFAULT_STRAND_FIRST_SYNC_TIMEOUT_MS}.
    */
   timeoutMs?: number;
-  /** Probe cadence while gated. Default {@link DEFAULT_STRAND_FIRST_SYNC_POLL_MS}. */
-  pollIntervalMs?: number;
+  /**
+   * While gated, probe this long after the last probe settled when no data has landed in the
+   * strand's store. Default {@link DEFAULT_STRAND_FIRST_SYNC_BACKSTOP_MS}.
+   */
+  backstopMs?: number;
 }
 
 /**
@@ -223,15 +275,43 @@ export class StrandAwaitingFirstSyncError extends Error {
 }
 
 /**
- * Whether this machine holds the strand's `Strand.Header` row — the "has synced at least
- * once (or founded)" signal. A read, never a write: it cannot invent the collection. A
- * throwing read (an unreachable cohort mid-sync, a store still hydrating) reports `false`
- * with a log, since the caller's only response to either answer is "probe again".
+ * What one gate has established, kept for the gate's lifetime so a later probe reads only what
+ * is still missing: whether the Header is held, and the tables (qualified, `'App.Message'`)
+ * whose probe read settled. It only ever gains entries; a collection this machine holds stays
+ * held.
  */
-export async function strandHeaderHeld(db: Database, label: string): Promise<boolean> {
+interface FirstSyncProgress {
+  header: boolean;
+  tables: Set<string>;
+}
+
+/** A table the probe reads. */
+interface ProbedTable {
+  schema: string;
+  name: string;
+}
+
+const STRAND_HEADER: ProbedTable = { schema: 'Strand', name: 'Header' };
+
+function qualifiedName(table: ProbedTable): string {
+  return `${table.schema}.${table.name}`;
+}
+
+/** The read `openTables` in `quereus-plugin-sereus/src/empty-collections.ts` opens a collection with. */
+function probeSql(table: ProbedTable): string {
+  return `select 1 from ${table.schema}."${table.name}" limit 1`;
+}
+
+/**
+ * Whether this machine holds the strand's `Strand.Header` row — the "has synced at least once
+ * (or founded)" signal: held when the read returns a row. A throwing read (an unreachable cohort
+ * mid-sync, a store still hydrating) reports `false` with a log, since the caller's only
+ * response to either answer is "probe again".
+ */
+async function headerHeld(db: Database, label: string): Promise<boolean> {
   try {
-    for await (const row of db.eval('select count(1) as Count from Strand.Header')) {
-      return ((row.Count as number) ?? 0) > 0;
+    for await (const _row of db.eval(probeSql(STRAND_HEADER))) {
+      return true;
     }
     return false;
   } catch (error) {
@@ -241,78 +321,156 @@ export async function strandHeaderHeld(db: Database, label: string): Promise<boo
   }
 }
 
-/** The tables the sApp declared in the `App` schema, by name; views excluded. */
-function appTableNames(db: Database): string[] {
-  const app = db.schemaManager.getSchema('App');
-  return app ? Array.from(app.getAllTables()).filter((table) => !table.isView).map((table) => table.name) : [];
-}
-
 /**
- * Whether a read of every `App` table settles on this machine — the "each app collection
- * has been fetched from the cohort, or is authoritatively absent" signal. Only a throwing
- * read (an unreachable cohort) reports `false`; an empty table is a settled read.
+ * Whether a read of `table` settles on this machine — its collection has been fetched from the
+ * cohort, or is authoritatively absent. Only a throwing read (an unreachable cohort, a block not
+ * yet arrived) reports `false`; an empty table is a settled read, because the founder commits
+ * an empty collection for every declared table.
  */
-export async function appTablesReadable(db: Database, label: string): Promise<boolean> {
-  for (const table of appTableNames(db)) {
-    try {
-      for await (const _row of db.eval(`select count(1) as Count from App."${table}"`)) {
-        break;
-      }
-    } catch (error) {
-      log('[%s] App.%s probe failed (treated as not yet synced): %s', label, table,
-        error instanceof Error ? error.message : String(error));
-      return false;
+async function tableReadable(db: Database, table: ProbedTable, label: string): Promise<boolean> {
+  try {
+    for await (const _row of db.eval(probeSql(table))) {
+      break;
     }
+    return true;
+  } catch (error) {
+    log('[%s] %s probe failed (treated as not yet synced): %s', label, qualifiedName(table),
+      error instanceof Error ? error.message : String(error));
+    return false;
   }
-  return true;
+}
+
+/** The tables `schemaName` declares, views excluded; none when the schema is absent. */
+function schemaTables(db: Database, schemaName: string): ProbedTable[] {
+  const schema = db.schemaManager.getSchema(schemaName);
+  return schema
+    ? Array.from(schema.getAllTables()).filter((table) => !table.isView).map((table) => ({ schema: schemaName, name: table.name }))
+    : [];
+}
+
+/**
+ * Every table this machine may write, in probe order: the membership tables in `Strand` (a fixed
+ * set every strand has) and then the sApp's in `App`. The Header is left out, compared
+ * case-insensitively as SQL identifiers are, because it is read first and alone, and its read
+ * means something else (held = a row came back).
+ */
+function writableTables(db: Database): ProbedTable[] {
+  const header = STRAND_HEADER.name.toLowerCase();
+  return [
+    ...schemaTables(db, STRAND_HEADER.schema).filter((table) => table.name.toLowerCase() !== header),
+    ...schemaTables(db, 'App')
+  ];
 }
 
 /**
- * The gate's whole probe: the Header is held AND every app table has been read once. The
- * app tables are read only once the Header is — a joiner with no peer would otherwise pay
- * one failing network read per table per probe for nothing.
+ * The gate's whole probe: the Header is held AND a read of every other `Strand` table and every
+ * `App` table has settled. Reads only what `progress` does not record yet, and records what it
+ * establishes.
+ *
+ * The Header is read first and alone: a joiner with no peer would otherwise pay one failing
+ * network read per table for nothing. The tables are then read one after another, stopping at
+ * the first that fails — the next probe starts there, and while the cohort is unreachable every
+ * read of a block this machine lacks fails the same way, each after a consult.
+ *
+ * NOTE: the reads are serialized (Quereus's default), not `readConcurrency: 'committed'`, though
+ * committed reads would let the table reads overlap. The Optimystic plugin's committed read
+ * serves the tree the table already holds and never refreshes it from the network, and schema
+ * apply initializes every table when the joiner has no catalog to hydrate, over an empty
+ * collection staged in memory when no peer could answer. A committed probe of such a table reads
+ * that empty collection as settled and opens the gate onto a fork. A serialized read refreshes
+ * the tree first (`Collection.update`), which adopts the founder's log once a peer holds it.
+ * Revisit if the plugin's committed read ever refreshes a tree it has never synced, or the gate
+ * can ask Optimystic directly whether a collection is held.
  */
-export async function strandFirstSyncComplete(db: Database, label: string): Promise<boolean> {
-  return await strandHeaderHeld(db, label) && await appTablesReadable(db, label);
+async function strandFirstSyncComplete(db: Database, label: string, progress: FirstSyncProgress): Promise<boolean> {
+  if (!progress.header) {
+    if (!await headerHeld(db, label)) {
+      return false;
+    }
+    progress.header = true;
+  }
+  for (const table of writableTables(db)) {
+    const name = qualifiedName(table);
+    if (progress.tables.has(name)) {
+      continue;
+    }
+    if (!await tableReadable(db, table, label)) {
+      return false;
+    }
+    progress.tables.add(name);
+  }
+  return true;
 }
 
 export interface StrandFirstSyncGateDeps {
   /** Log tag naming which strand this gate holds (the strand id). */
   label: string;
-  /** The initialized database being held back from the app until the Header is held. */
+  /** The initialized database being held back from the app until the first sync completes. */
   database: StrandDatabase;
   /**
-   * Called exactly once, on the gate's own probe loop, when the first sync completes.
-   * NOT called by {@link StrandFirstSyncGate.open} — a caller that force-opens the gate
-   * (a founder bootstrap it just ran) publishes the database itself.
+   * Called exactly once, from the gate's own probe, when the first sync completes. NOT called
+   * by {@link StrandFirstSyncGate.open} — a caller that force-opens the gate (a founder
+   * bootstrap it just ran) publishes the database itself.
    */
   onHeaderHeld: () => void;
-  /** Timer seam for the probe loop; omit for real (unref'd) timeouts. */
+  /**
+   * Subscribe `onChange` to every block landing in this strand's store — a push such as join
+   * backfill, a fetched block, a commit — and return the unsubscribe. `buildStrandDatabase`
+   * passes the strand node's `storageRepo.onAnyCollectionChange`. Omitted (test doubles, a node
+   * without it), the gate probes on its backstop alone.
+   */
+  subscribeStorageChanges?: (onChange: () => void) => () => void;
+  /** Timer seam for the probe schedule; omit for real (unref'd) timeouts. */
   scheduler?: TimeoutScheduler;
 }
 
 /**
- * Holds one launch's `StrandDatabase` until {@link strandFirstSyncComplete}. Probes are
- * sequential (the next is scheduled only after the previous read settles), so a slow
- * network read never stacks probes.
+ * Holds one launch's `StrandDatabase` until the first sync completes: the `Strand.Header` row is
+ * held and a read of every `Strand` and `App` table has settled. What a probe established is
+ * remembered for the gate's lifetime, so a later probe — the gate's own, after the caller's
+ * {@link probeOnce} — reads only what is still missing. A gate lives for one database build, so a
+ * hibernation wake or a deferred-join retry starts over, and over a store that holds everything
+ * every read answers locally.
+ *
+ * While armed it probes when data lands in the strand's store
+ * ({@link StrandFirstSyncGateDeps.subscribeStorageChanges}, coalesced over
+ * `TABLE_CHANGE_COALESCE_MS`), and {@link StrandFirstSyncConfig.backstopMs} after its last probe
+ * settled when nothing has. Probes run on `scheduleRuns`: one at a time, and data landing during
+ * one produces exactly one more.
+ *
+ * The wake source is the node's storage-wide change feed rather than a table watch
+ * (`StrandDatabase.watchTables`): the Optimystic plugin arms a table's replicated-change bridge
+ * only after the table initializes successfully, and the tables the gate waits on are the ones
+ * whose collection could not be fetched yet, so a table watch would not hear the push that
+ * delivers them. Each strand has its own libp2p node and store, so the feed hears this strand
+ * only.
  *
  * NOTE: a probe's reads dial the founder, through the relay when that is the only route, even
  * while the founder is unreachable: one run of `joiner-first-commit-over-slow-relay` logged 17
  * `hop connect denied` at the relay in about 10 s, each a few frames on the joiner's relay
- * connection. If that connection ever shows saturated while no strand member is connected, hold
- * the probe while the strand member redial (`strand-peer-redial.ts`) reports none connected.
+ * connection, when the gate re-probed every 500 ms and re-read every table. It now probes on
+ * arrivals and a 2 s backstop and skips what it holds, so expect fewer. If that connection ever
+ * shows saturated while no strand member is connected, hold the probe while the strand member
+ * redial (`strand-peer-redial.ts`) reports none connected.
  */
 export class StrandFirstSyncGate {
   private readonly scheduler: TimeoutScheduler;
-  private readonly pollIntervalMs: number;
-  private timer: unknown;
+  private readonly backstopMs: number;
+  private readonly progress: FirstSyncProgress = { header: false, tables: new Set() };
+  private probes: TableChangeWatch | undefined;
+  private unsubscribeStorage: (() => void) | undefined;
+  private listening = false;
+  /**
+   * Data landed since the last probe started (or, before any probe, since {@link listen}), so one
+   * is already due and will read it.
+   */
+  private landedSinceProbe = false;
   private stopped = false;
   private opened = false;
-  private probing = false;
 
   constructor(private readonly deps: StrandFirstSyncGateDeps, config?: StrandFirstSyncConfig) {
     this.scheduler = deps.scheduler ?? defaultTimeoutScheduler;
-    this.pollIntervalMs = config?.pollIntervalMs ?? DEFAULT_STRAND_FIRST_SYNC_POLL_MS;
+    this.backstopMs = config?.backstopMs ?? DEFAULT_STRAND_FIRST_SYNC_BACKSTOP_MS;
   }
 
   /** The database this gate is holding back. */
@@ -320,24 +478,53 @@ export class StrandFirstSyncGate {
     return this.deps.database;
   }
 
-  /** True once the Header was seen (or the gate was force-opened); the loop is then done. */
+  /** True once the first sync completed (or the gate was force-opened); probing is then done. */
   get isOpen(): boolean {
     return this.opened;
   }
 
-  /** Arm the probe loop. The first probe runs after one interval — the caller already probed once. */
+  /** Whether a block landed since the last probe started, or since {@link listen} when none has. */
+  get heardDataSinceProbe(): boolean {
+    return this.landedSinceProbe;
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Subscribe to the storage change feed ahead of {@link start}, so a block landing before the
+   * gate is armed is heard: {@link heardDataSinceProbe} reports it, and `start` then probes at
+   * once. For a first join, which skips the caller's first probe unless a member's push already
+   * landed while the database was initializing.
+   */
+  listen(): void {
+    if (this.stopped || this.opened || this.listening) return;
+    this.listening = true;
+    this.unsubscribeStorage = this.subscribeStorage();
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Arm the probe schedule. It probes when data lands, or one backstop later; and at once when
+   * data already landed since the last probe (or since {@link listen}). Without `listen`, data
+   * that landed between the caller's probe and this call raised no event the gate heard, so
+   * that first backstop is what catches it.
+   */
   start(): void {
-    if (this.stopped || this.opened || this.timer !== undefined) return;
-    this.schedule();
-    log('[%s] first-sync gate armed: no Strand.Header held yet; probing every %dms',
-      this.deps.label, this.pollIntervalMs);
+    if (this.stopped || this.opened || this.probes !== undefined) return;
+    this.probes = scheduleRuns(() => this.probe(), {
+      label: `first-sync:${this.deps.label}`,
+      backstopMs: this.backstopMs,
+      scheduler: this.scheduler,
+    });
+    this.listen();
+    if (this.landedSinceProbe) {
+      this.probes.trigger(TABLE_CHANGE_COALESCE_MS);
+    }
+    log('[%s] first-sync gate armed: probing when data lands, and %dms after the last probe otherwise',
+      this.deps.label, this.backstopMs);
   }
 
   /**
-   * Open without the probe loop: the caller is publishing the database itself — a launch
-   * whose first probe passed (or a founder's), which never armed the loop, or a founder
-   * bootstrap just run against the gated database. Stops the loop; `onHeaderHeld` is NOT
-   * invoked.
+   * Open without probing: the caller is publishing the database itself — a launch whose first
+   * probe passed (or a founder's), which never armed the schedule, or a founder bootstrap just
+   * run against the gated database. Stops probing; `onHeaderHeld` is NOT invoked.
    */
   open(): void {
     if (this.opened) return;
@@ -346,54 +533,67 @@ export class StrandFirstSyncGate {
     log('[%s] database published by the caller; first-sync gate not needed or force-opened', this.deps.label);
   }
 
-  /** Disarm the loop; a probe already in flight completes and is then ignored. */
+  /** Disarm: unsubscribe and drop the schedule; a probe already in flight completes and is then ignored. */
   stop(): void {
     this.stopped = true;
-    if (this.timer !== undefined) {
-      this.scheduler.clearTimeout(this.timer);
-      this.timer = undefined;
-    }
-  }
-
-  private schedule(): void {
-    this.timer = this.scheduler.setTimeout(() => {
-      this.timer = undefined;
-      void this.probe();
-    }, this.pollIntervalMs);
-  }
-
-  private async probe(): Promise<void> {
-    if (this.stopped || this.opened || this.probing) return;
-    this.probing = true;
-    const held = await this.probeHeld();
-    // Re-check after the await: a release or a force-open may have landed mid-read.
-    if (this.stopped || this.opened) return;
-    if (!held) {
-      this.schedule();
-      return;
-    }
-    this.opened = true;
-    this.stop();
-    log('[%s] first-sync gate opened: Strand.Header and every App table read from a peer', this.deps.label);
-    this.deps.onHeaderHeld();
+    this.unsubscribeStorage?.();
+    this.unsubscribeStorage = undefined;
+    this.probes?.dispose();
+    this.probes = undefined;
   }
 
   /**
-   * One probe's answer, with a throw from OUTSIDE {@link strandFirstSyncComplete}'s own read
-   * guards — the `App` schema lookup, or `getDatabase()` itself — reported as "not yet" like
-   * any failing read. The loop is scheduled from `void this.probe()`, so an escaping rejection
-   * would be unhandled AND leave nothing scheduled: the strand would stay gated for the whole
-   * `timeoutMs` and never recover, which is the one failure this gate must not have.
+   * One probe's answer, reading only what this gate has not yet seen settled. A throw from
+   * OUTSIDE the probe's own read guards — a schema lookup, or `getDatabase()` itself — is
+   * reported as "not yet" like any failing read, so the caller's first probe cannot fail the
+   * launch over it and the gate's log says what happened.
    */
-  private async probeHeld(): Promise<boolean> {
+  async probeOnce(): Promise<boolean> {
+    this.landedSinceProbe = false;
     try {
-      return await strandFirstSyncComplete(this.deps.database.getDatabase(), this.deps.label);
+      return await strandFirstSyncComplete(this.deps.database.getDatabase(), this.deps.label, this.progress);
     } catch (error) {
       log('[%s] first-sync probe threw (treated as not yet synced): %s', this.deps.label,
         error instanceof Error ? error.message : String(error));
       return false;
-    } finally {
-      this.probing = false;
     }
   }
+
+  /**
+   * NOTE: a probe's own reads can land blocks (a fetched block, a read-repair), which fires this
+   * feed and schedules one follow-up probe. Each follow-up means a block newly arrived, so they
+   * stop when nothing new lands; if gated launches ever show probe storms in the logs, ignore
+   * events while a probe is in flight.
+   */
+  private subscribeStorage(): (() => void) | undefined {
+    const subscribe = this.deps.subscribeStorageChanges;
+    if (!subscribe) {
+      log('[%s] no storage change feed on this node; probing every %dms only', this.deps.label, this.backstopMs);
+      return undefined;
+    }
+    return subscribe(() => this.onDataLanded());
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Called synchronously by the store after each block lands, so it only arms a timer. A push
+   * lands its blocks one by one; only the first since the last probe started arms one, since
+   * that probe has not started yet and will read the rest.
+   */
+  private onDataLanded(): void {
+    if (this.landedSinceProbe) return;
+    this.landedSinceProbe = true;
+    this.probes?.trigger(TABLE_CHANGE_COALESCE_MS);
+  }
+
+  private async probe(): Promise<void> {
+    if (this.stopped || this.opened) return;
+    log('[%s] first-sync probe (%s)', this.deps.label, this.landedSinceProbe ? 'data landed' : 'backstop');
+    const held = await this.probeOnce();
+    // Re-check after the await: a release or a force-open may have landed mid-read.
+    if (this.stopped || this.opened || !held) return;
+    this.opened = true;
+    this.stop();
+    log('[%s] first-sync gate opened: Strand.Header, every Strand table and every App table read from a peer', this.deps.label);
+    this.deps.onHeaderHeld();
+  }
 }