@torrent-tv/proxy 2.87.4 → 2.87.6

package/services/encode/quality/QualityController.js

@@ -1,935 +1,935 @@
-/**
- * @file The quality budget of the outputs that exist: when a picture is asked to
- * move to another height, when its bitrate is capped by a viewer's measured link,
- * and what the player is told to follow.
- *
- * Moved out of the session manager whole (plan step 3). What it needs of the
- * rest of the proxy is the host object it is built with, and nothing else.
- */
-
-import { stat } from "node:fs/promises";
-import { logger } from "../../../utils/logger.js";
-import { ENCODE_RUN_STATE } from "../encode-run-state.js";
-import { LINK_SAFETY, linkCouldCarry, loadOf } from "./link-budget.js";
-import { qualityStateOf } from "./OutputQualityState.js";
-import { drainThreat } from "./drain-threat.js";
-import { visibleHeightCap } from "./visible-rung.js";
-
-// Realtime budget — runtime downswitch (software encoder only). Periodically
-// check each active software-transcode session's ffmpeg `speed`; when it stays
-// below realtime for a sustained window AND the input is not download-starved
-// (so the limit is the encoder, not the torrent), step down one resolution rung
-// and restart at the current segment. Conservative so it never thrashes: a long
-// sustained window, a post-action cooldown, a step cap, and no upswitch (v1).
-export const BUDGET_CHECK_INTERVAL_MS = 5_000;
-// Speed below this (cumulative ffmpeg average) counts as "slow"; recovery to
-// realtime resets the slow window (hysteresis).
-const BUDGET_SPEED_SLOW = 0.95;
-const BUDGET_SPEED_OK = 1.0;
-// Slow must persist this long before a downshift (absorbs warm-up + brief
-// complex scenes; the cumulative average won't dip this long unless the host
-// genuinely can't keep up).
-const BUDGET_SUSTAINED_MS = 15_000;
-// The step BACK UP has to be slower to fire than the step down, or the two
-// take turns: a rung that has just been left is by definition one the arithmetic
-// still thinks this machine can hold, so it would be asked for again as soon as
-// the cooldown expired. Four times the down window is a statement about how long
-// a machine has to look able before it is believed, not a measured quantity, and
-// it is written here rather than dressed up as one.
-const BUDGET_UP_SUSTAINED_MS = 60_000;
-// How long a request to the player to change variant stands before it is
-// treated as unanswered. A progress report is polled about every 1.5 s and the
-// switch itself needs the rung warmed, which is the cold start this host
-// measures; this is long enough for both and short enough that a browser which
-// cannot honour the request (no master playlist, a viewer on a manual pick) is
-// not chased for the rest of the film.
-const QUALITY_ASK_TTL_MS = 45_000;
-// The input counts as "keeping up" when the torrent downloads at least this
-// multiple of the source's average byte rate. Below it (and not yet fully
-// downloaded), a low speed is download-bound, not CPU-bound → do NOT downscale.
-const BUDGET_DOWNLOAD_OK_FACTOR = 1.0;
-// Viewer-link adaptation. Judged on each report a viewer makes, for that
-// viewer alone (roadmap item 98): when their link does not carry the stream
-// they are given AND their buffer, on its present trend, would run dry before
-// another output could have the piece they need (`drain-threat.js`), a smaller
-// output is prepared for them. A chosen window of slowness and a chosen buffer
-// threshold stood here, and a chosen wait after every action; all three are
-// gone. A manual viewer is never sent an automatic quality request.
-// Observed produced bitrate: average over this many recently completed
-// segments (the newest file on disk may still be written and is excluded).
-const LINK_OBSERVED_SEGMENTS = 5;
-
-/** @typedef {{ pathOf: (address: string, index: number) => string | null }} SegmentPathLookup */
-
-export class QualityController {
-  /** What this reads and asks of the rest of the proxy, and nothing else. @type {object} */
-  #host;
-
-  /** A budget pass is under way; a timer tick that lands meanwhile is skipped. */
-  #tickRunning = false;
-
-  /** Viewers whose report is being judged now (`noteViewerReported`). @type {Set<string>} */
-  #judging = new Set();
-
-  /**
-   * @param {object} host - `isLive`, `liveConsumers`, `liveRunsOf`, `producedNumbers`, `reportHostLoad`, `runStateOf`, `sampleDownloadRates`, `encodeCost`, `getSourceStats`, `outputs`, `qualityOffer`, `segmentDurationSec`, `segmentPaths`, `videoEncoder`, `prepareSameHeightSwitch`, `sameHeightSwitchPending`, `sameHeightSwitchDirection`, `cancelSameHeightSwitch`, `heightReadyFor`, `bufferOf`, `visiblePictureOf`, `expectedFirstSegmentMs`
-   * @param {SegmentPathLookup} host.segmentPaths - Lookup for completed
-   *   segment paths needed by quality decisions.
-   */
-  constructor(host) {
-    this.#host = host;
-  }
-
-  /**
-   * One pass of the quality budget: learn what this host is doing with each
-   * running encode, and act on it.
-   *
-   * Public because it is an operation with a name, not an implementation
-   * detail of a timer — and because a loop that decides what the viewer sees
-   * and can only be reached through `setInterval` is a loop nothing can check.
-   * The timer calls exactly this.
-   *
-   * @returns {Promise<void>}
-   */
-  async runQualityBudgetOnce() {
-    void this.#host.reportHostLoad();
-    // One tick at a time. Both halves await torrent statistics per source, so a
-    // slow or stuck answer would otherwise let the next tick in behind it — two
-    // passes over the same sessions, taking the same reading twice and acting
-    // on the same speed twice, and an earlier tick's rates landing on top of a
-    // later tick's.
-    if (this.#tickRunning === true) {
-      return;
-    }
-    this.#tickRunning = true;
-    try {
-      // Taken whatever the encoder is: the torrent's price is charged against
-      // this rate on every host, not only on the ones that re-encode.
-      await this.#host.sampleDownloadRates();
-      if (this.#host.videoEncoder?.kind !== "software") {
-        return;
-      }
-      await this.#realtimeBudgetPass();
-    } finally {
-      this.#tickRunning = false;
-    }
-  }
-
-  async #realtimeBudgetPass() {
-    const now = Date.now();
-    for (const session of this.#host.outputs.values()) {
-      // What this file costs to decode is learned from EVERY encoding session,
-      // before any of the budget's own conditions are consulted. Those exist to
-      // decide whether to step the quality, and they exclude most of what is
-      // worth measuring: a rung already at the foot of its ladder has nowhere
-      // to step, and a 240p variant IS its whole ladder — which is exactly the
-      // rung the field measured at 0.95x on 2026-08-15, learning nothing from
-      // three minutes of it because the loop had already skipped the session as
-      // un-actionable.
-      await this.#host.encodeCost.learnFrom(session);
-      if (
-        !session ||
-        !this.#host.isLive(session) ||
-        this.#host.runStateOf(session) === ENCODE_RUN_STATE.ENDED_FAILED ||
-        // Nothing is encoding, so there is no speed to judge. A variant the
-        // viewer has switched away from is left in exactly this state, and its
-        // last recorded speed would otherwise buy it a step — which restarts
-        // the encoder it was just stopped for.
-        this.#host.liveRunsOf(session).length === 0 ||
-        // A soundtrack published on its own carries no picture, so no quality
-        // step is its to make; its price is learned above and that is all.
-        session.spec.carries === "audio-only"
-      ) {
-        continue;
-      }
-      // A viewer's link is judged on each of their reports
-      // (`noteViewerReported`), not here: nothing about it changes between two
-      // reports, so a timer would only read the same statement again.
-      if (await this.#checkEncoderBudget(session, now)) {
-        continue;
-      }
-      await this.#checkStepUp(session, now);
-    }
-  }
-
-  /**
-   * The encoder-speed check for one session: sustained sub-realtime, and the
-   * encoder — not a download-starved input — is the limit.
-   *
-   * @param {HlsSession} session
-   * @param {number} now
-   * @returns {Promise<boolean>} True when a step was asked for this tick.
-   */
-  async #checkEncoderBudget(session, now) {
-    if (!session.spec.transcodesVideo) {
-      // A copy has no encoder to make cheaper. Whatever the machine is short
-      // of, moving this viewer to a RE-ENCODED rung costs it more, not less —
-      // so the copy path's only lever is the viewer's link, above.
-      return false;
-    }
-    const speed = this.#host.encodeCost.recentSpeedOf(session, now, BUDGET_CHECK_INTERVAL_MS * 2);
-    if (speed === null) {
-      return false; // no measurement yet
-    }
-    if (speed >= BUDGET_SPEED_OK) {
-      qualityStateOf(session).budgetSlowSince = 0; // recovered — reset the slow window
-      return false;
-    }
-    if (speed >= BUDGET_SPEED_SLOW) {
-      return false; // in the hysteresis band; neither slow nor ok
-    }
-    if (qualityStateOf(session).budgetSlowSince === 0) {
-      qualityStateOf(session).budgetSlowSince = now;
-      return false;
-    }
-    if (now - qualityStateOf(session).budgetSlowSince < BUDGET_SUSTAINED_MS) {
-      return false; // not sustained yet
-    }
-    const bound = await this.classifyTranscodeBound(session);
-    if (bound === "download") {
-      logger.info(
-        `[budget] transcode ${session.id} speed=${speed.toFixed(2)}x but download-limited ` +
-          `"${session.file.name}"; not stepping down (torrent is the bottleneck)`
-      );
-      qualityStateOf(session).budgetSlowSince = 0; // re-evaluate fresh; don't thrash on this
-      return false;
-    }
-    qualityStateOf(session).budgetSlowSince = 0;
-    qualityStateOf(session).budgetUpSince = 0;
-    const boundLabel = bound === "unknown" ? "assuming CPU-bound" : "CPU-bound";
-    // The machine is the output's reason, so every viewer with it on screen is
-    // asked — each to the rung their own picture bounds a re-encode by, where
-    // that is lower than the next rung down (roadmap item 98).
-    const reasonText = `${boundLabel} speed=${speed.toFixed(2)}x`;
-    const base = this.#host.outputs.pictureOf(session);
-    const watching = this.#host.presentOn(session).filter((consumerId) => this.#onScreenHere(session, consumerId));
-    if (watching.length === 0) {
-      return this.#askLowerHeight(session, reasonText);
-    }
-    let asked = false;
-    for (const consumerId of watching) {
-      if (this.#askLowerHeight(session, reasonText, [consumerId], { cap: this.#visibleCapOf(base, consumerId) })) {
-        asked = true;
-      }
-    }
-    return asked;
-  }
-
-  /**
-   * Ask the player to move down one offered rung.
-   *
-   * THE SIZE OF THE PICTURE IS NEVER REWRITTEN UNDERNEATH A RUNNING SESSION.
-   * The fMP4 init segment is fetched once — a player reads `#EXT-X-MAP` and
-   * never asks again — and `avc1` keeps SPS and PPS in it rather than in the
-   * fragments, so every fragment produced after a size change is decoded
-   * against parameter sets describing a picture that is no longer being made.
-   * Measured 2026-08-21 on two files: one browser went on reporting
-   * `size=1280x720` for three and a half minutes over a band of macroblock
-   * garbage after the encoder had left for 960x540; the other errored on the
-   * first mismatched fragment, closed the MediaSource and sat at `size=0x0`
-   * for four and a half minutes. Which of the two happens is the decoder's
-   * choice, not ours, and no layer reported an error either time.
-   *
-   * A change of resolution is a change of VARIANT, as the standard has it.
-   * Every height is already published in the master with its own init, so the
-   * step is made by ASKING the browser to move — the same act the manual menu
-   * performs, which has never had this fault.
-   *
-   * @param {HlsSession} session
-   * @param {string} reasonText
-   * @param {string[] | null} [onlyFor]
-   * @param {{ urgent?: boolean, cap?: number | null }} [options] - `urgent`
-   *   when the viewer's buffer would run dry first; `cap` the height the
-   *   picture they see bounds a re-encode by, preferred where it is lower than
-   *   the next rung down.
-   * @returns {boolean} True when an ask was recorded.
-   */
-  #askLowerHeight(session, reasonText, onlyFor = null, { urgent = false, cap = null } = {}) {
-    const base = this.#host.outputs.pictureOf(session);
-    const current = this.#host.outputs.variantHeightOf(session);
-    const offered = this.#host.qualityOffer.offeredHeights(base);
-    // The highest rung strictly below the one on screen that this host is still
-    // willing to serve. `offeredHeights` has already refused everything the
-    // machine cannot hold, so a rung that survives it is one worth moving to.
-    // Where the picture the viewer sees bounds a re-encode lower still, the
-    // highest rung within that bound is taken instead: they are shown nothing
-    // the rung between would have added (roadmap item 98).
-    const lower = this.#host.outputs.splicableHeights(base)
-      .filter((height) => height < current && offered.includes(height));
-    const next = (Number.isInteger(cap) && cap > 0 ? lower.find((height) => height <= cap) : undefined) ?? lower[0];
-    if (next === undefined) {
-      // Nothing lower — but "lower" is not the same question as "cheaper", and
-      // on a source that is COPIED the answer is above, not below. A copied
-      // rung costs no encoder at all, whatever its size, so when a re-encode
-      // cannot keep up it is both the fastest thing this host can serve AND the
-      // best picture it has.
-      //
-      // Field 2026-08-31, and it cost the viewer the whole film: an ultrafast
-      // 444x240 encode ran at 0.43-0.94x for fifty minutes while the source's
-      // own 1038p sat on offer beside it, copied and free. This line printed
-      // fifty times — "nothing lower is on offer; leaving the picture alone" —
-      // and the picture stood still 161 times for 940 seconds. The rescue was
-      // on the screen the whole time and the rule could only look down.
-      const copied = this.#host.qualityOffer.copiedHeightOf(base);
-      if (copied > 0 && copied !== current && offered.includes(copied)) {
-        logger.info(
-          `[budget] transcode ${session.id} ${reasonText} at ${current}p and nothing lower is on offer, ` +
-            `but ${copied}p is COPIED on this file — no encoder at all, and a better picture. ` +
-            `Asking for it instead of leaving the viewer on an encode that cannot keep up`
-        );
-        return this.#askQualityHeight(base, copied, reasonText, onlyFor, urgent);
-      }
-      logger.info(
-        `[budget] transcode ${session.id} ${reasonText} at ${current}p, but nothing lower is on offer ` +
-          `for "${session.file.name}"; leaving the picture alone`
-      );
-      return false;
-    }
-    return this.#askQualityHeight(base, next, reasonText, onlyFor, urgent);
-  }
-
-  /**
-   * Record a request to the viewer's player to move to another variant.
-   *
-   * The proxy cannot move a player between variants; it can only say which one
-   * it would rather serve. The request travels in every progress report, and
-   * the browser honours it ONLY in automatic mode — a height the viewer picked
-   * by hand is theirs, and nothing here may take it away.
-   *
-   * @param {HlsSession} base
-   * @param {number} height
-   * @param {string} reasonText
-   * @param {string[] | null} [onlyFor] - The viewers this ask is FOR. A reason
-   *   that belongs to one person's link is theirs alone: a thin link asks only
-   *   the viewer on it, never everybody watching the picture. Null for a reason
-   *   that belongs to the output — the machine cannot keep up with it — which
-   *   is every AUTO viewer's.
-   * @param {boolean} [urgent] - Their buffer would run dry before anything else
-   *   could arrive, so their page switches without waiting for a cushion.
-   * @returns {boolean}
-   */
-  #askQualityHeight(base, height, reasonText, onlyFor = null, urgent = false) {
-    if (!this.#host.outputs.publishesVariants(base)) {
-      // Said once for the session. Repeating it is not information: the answer
-      // is a property of the stream and cannot change while it plays.
-      if (qualityStateOf(base).saidNoVariants !== true) {
-        qualityStateOf(base).saidNoVariants = true;
-        logger.info(
-          `[budget] transcode ${base.id} would ask for ${height}p, but this stream publishes no ` +
-            `variants to move between; leaving the picture alone for the rest of the session`
-        );
-      }
-      return false;
-    }
-    const now = Date.now();
-    const asked = [];
-    const playing = [];
-    for (const consumerId of this.#host.consumersOn(base)) {
-      if (this.#host.qualityModeOf(base, consumerId) !== "auto") {
-        continue;
-      }
-      if (onlyFor && !onlyFor.includes(consumerId)) {
-        continue;
-      }
-      const onScreen = this.#host.stepOnScreenOf(base, consumerId);
-      const current = onScreen ? this.#host.outputs.get(onScreen) : base;
-      const currentHeight = this.#host.outputs.variantHeightOf(current ?? base);
-      playing.push(currentHeight);
-      if (currentHeight === height) {
-        this.#host.dropAskOf(base, consumerId);
-        continue;
-      }
-      const standing = this.#host.standingAskOf(base, consumerId);
-      if (standing && standing.height === height && now - standing.at < QUALITY_ASK_TTL_MS) {
-        continue;
-      }
-      if (this.#host.askQualityOf(base, consumerId, height, reasonText, now, urgent)) {
-        asked.push(consumerId);
-      }
-    }
-    if (asked.length === 0) {
-      return false;
-    }
-    logger.info(
-      `[budget] transcode ${base.id} asks the player to move ${playing.join("p/")}p → ${height}p${urgent ? " (urgent)" : ""}: ${reasonText} ` +
-        `"${base.file.name}" for ${asked.length} AUTO viewer(s) ` +
-        `(a change of size is a change of variant — its own init describes it)`
-    );
-    return true;
-  }
-
-  /**
-   * The step BACK UP, in two stages and one rung at a time.
-   *
-   * 1. ANOTHER LIMIT OF THE SAME HEIGHT: a viewer moved down to a lower limit
-   *    goes back up the limits of their height first, without their player
-   *    being told (roadmap item 97, step 12). A limit is part of an output, so
-   *    this is a move between outputs, prepared for one viewer.
-   * 2. ANOTHER HEIGHT, asked of the player in AUTO — only for a viewer with no
-   *    higher limit to go to on the height they watch, and only if their own
-   *    link admits the next height's whole load.
-   *
-   * Both follow one window: the machine and the viewer's link have held the
-   * output on screen, with room to spare, for four times as long as a step
-   * DOWN needs.
-   *
-   * @param {HlsSession} session
-   * @param {number} now
-   * @returns {Promise<void>}
-   */
-  async #checkStepUp(session, now) {
-    const base = this.#host.outputs.pictureOf(session);
-    const current = this.#host.outputs.variantHeightOf(session);
-    // What the machine and the link would have to look like for a step up, held
-    // for a window four times the one a step DOWN needs. Anything that fails
-    // resets it, so the window measures an unbroken stretch.
-    const spare = this.#roomToSpare(session, now);
-    // A step up being prepared for a viewer who no longer has room is let go:
-    // the conditions it was asked under have gone back (roadmap item 98).
-    for (const consumerId of this.#host.presentOn(session)) {
-      if (!spare.includes(consumerId)) {
-        this.#dropUpAsk(session, consumerId, "the room it was asked for has gone");
-      }
-    }
-    if (spare.length === 0) {
-      qualityStateOf(session).budgetUpSince = 0;
-      return;
-    }
-    if (qualityStateOf(session).budgetUpSince === 0) {
-      qualityStateOf(session).budgetUpSince = now;
-      return;
-    }
-    if (now - qualityStateOf(session).budgetUpSince < BUDGET_UP_SUSTAINED_MS) {
-      return;
-    }
-    qualityStateOf(session).budgetUpSince = 0;
-    const reasonText =
-      `the machine and the link have carried ${current}p for ` +
-      `${Math.round(BUDGET_UP_SUSTAINED_MS / 1000)}s with room to spare`;
-    const atTheirHighestLimit = [];
-    for (const consumerId of spare) {
-      const move = await this.#host.prepareSameHeightSwitch(session, consumerId, "up", reasonText);
-      if (move.started) {
-        continue;
-      }
-      // Refused because the MACHINE holds no more encoders: a higher height
-      // costs more than the limit that was just refused, so it is not asked for.
-      if (move.noPlace) {
-        logger.info(`[budget] transcode ${session.id} no step up for ${consumerId}: ${move.reason}`);
-        continue;
-      }
-      atTheirHighestLimit.push(consumerId);
-    }
-    // One rung at a time: the lowest height above the one on screen, never
-    // above the source (upscaling invents detail and costs more than the
-    // source itself). A second step follows a second unbroken window.
-    const higher = this.#host.qualityOffer.nextHeightUp(base, current);
-    if (higher === undefined) {
-      return;
-    }
-    // Only the viewers whose OWN link admits the next rung, and whose picture on
-    // screen is not already served by the rung they are on: a re-encode is
-    // never made taller than the picture they see (roadmap item 98). The copy
-    // of the source is not a re-encode, and going back to it is not bounded.
-    // Another viewer's fast link or large screen says nothing about theirs.
-    const copied = this.#host.qualityOffer.copiedHeightOf(base);
-    const carriers = atTheirHighestLimit.filter((consumerId) =>
-      this.#linkAdmitsHeight(base, session, consumerId, higher) &&
-      (higher === copied || this.#visibleCapOf(base, consumerId) === null || higher <= this.#visibleCapOf(base, consumerId))
-    );
-    if (carriers.length > 0) {
-      this.#askQualityHeight(base, higher, reasonText, carriers);
-    }
-  }
-
-  /**
-   * The viewers who have this session on screen with room to spare: the
-   * encoder ahead of realtime and the torrent not the limit — which are the
-   * OUTPUT's and hold for all of them or none — and, for each viewer on their
-   * own, a buffer that is not draining and no move of theirs already being
-   * prepared.
-   *
-   * @param {HlsSession} session
-   * @param {number} now
-   * @returns {string[]} Empty when nobody has room.
-   */
-  #roomToSpare(session, now) {
-    if (session.spec.transcodesVideo) {
-      const speed = this.#host.encodeCost.recentSpeedOf(session, now, BUDGET_CHECK_INTERVAL_MS * 2);
-      if (speed === null || speed < BUDGET_SPEED_OK) {
-        return [];
-      }
-    }
-    if (qualityStateOf(session).budgetSlowSince !== 0) {
-      return [];
-    }
-    // A buffer that drains over a whole segment's period is being spent faster
-    // than it is filled: there is no room for more.
-    return this.#host.presentOn(session).filter((consumerId) =>
-      !((this.#host.bufferOf(session, consumerId, this.#host.segmentDurationSec)?.slope ?? 0) < 0) &&
-      this.#onScreenHere(session, consumerId) &&
-      !this.#host.sameHeightSwitchPending(consumerId)
-    );
-  }
-
-  /**
-   * Whether this viewer's own link admits the whole load of a height nothing
-   * may have produced yet.
-   *
-   * Nothing measured their link: no ground to refuse, the same silence that
-   * stops `#checkViewerLink` from acting on them.
-   *
-   * @param {HlsSession} base
-   * @param {HlsSession} session
-   * @param {string} consumerId
-   * @param {number} height
-   * @returns {boolean}
-   */
-  #linkAdmitsHeight(base, session, consumerId, height) {
-    const report = this.#host.linkReportOf(session, consumerId);
-    const load = loadOf(
-      this.#host.qualityOffer.videoLoadFor(base, height, this.#host.videoEncoder?.kind ?? ""),
-      this.#host.viewerAudioLoadOf(base, consumerId)
-    );
-    return linkCouldCarry(report?.linkMbps ?? null, load).admitted;
-  }
-
-  /**
-   * A viewer reported on themselves: judge their link and the picture they
-   * see, for them alone, now (roadmap item 98).
-   *
-   * The report is the event that carries a change of either, so it is where
-   * they are judged — not a timer, which between two reports would only read
-   * the same statement again.
-   *
-   * @param {string} sessionId - The output the page addressed.
-   * @param {string} consumerId
-   * @returns {Promise<void>}
-   */
-  async noteViewerReported(sessionId, consumerId) {
-    const named = sessionId ? this.#host.outputs.get(sessionId) : null;
-    if (!named || !consumerId) {
-      return;
-    }
-    const base = this.#host.outputs.pictureOf(named);
-    const onScreen = this.#host.stepOnScreenOf(base, consumerId);
-    const session = (onScreen ? this.#host.outputs.get(onScreen) : null) ?? base;
-    if (!this.#host.isLive(session) || session.spec.carries === "audio-only") {
-      return;
-    }
-    // One judgement of a viewer at a time: reports can arrive while the last
-    // one is still reading its files.
-    if (this.#judging.has(consumerId)) {
-      return;
-    }
-    this.#judging.add(consumerId);
-    try {
-      const now = Date.now();
-      if (this.#host.videoEncoder?.kind === "software" &&
-        (await this.#checkViewerLink(session, consumerId, now))) {
-        return;
-      }
-      this.#checkVisiblePicture(session, consumerId, now);
-    } finally {
-      this.#judging.delete(consumerId);
-    }
-  }
-
-  /**
-   * This viewer's link against the stream they are given.
-   *
-   * THE CONDITION, both halves measured: their link does not carry the stream
-   * (the reading times the safety margin is below the observed bitrate), and
-   * their buffer, on its present trend, would run dry before another output
-   * could close the piece they need (`drain-threat.js`). A buffer that falls
-   * without that threat moves nothing.
-   *
-   * THE LEVERS, in order: another limit of the height on their screen (roadmap
-   * item 97, step 12), then a lower height, asked of their player as URGENT —
-   * their page switches as soon as the rung is ready, without waiting for a
-   * cushion that is shrinking. Where neither can be prepared they stay where
-   * they are, with no message: what is on screen goes on being delivered, and
-   * a buffer that runs dry is filled again before the picture moves.
-   *
-   * @param {HlsSession} session - The output on their screen.
-   * @param {string} consumerId
-   * @param {number} now
-   * @returns {Promise<boolean>} True when a move was started or asked for.
-   */
-  async #checkViewerLink(session, consumerId, now) {
-    if (!this.#onScreenHere(session, consumerId)) {
-      return false;
-    }
-    const report = this.#host.linkReportOf(session, consumerId);
-    if (!report) {
-      return false; // their link has not been measured: no ground to move them
-    }
-    const observed = await this.observedStreamMbps(session);
-    if (observed === null) {
-      return false; // not enough produced material to compare against
-    }
-    const buffer = this.#host.bufferOf(session, consumerId, this.#host.segmentDurationSec);
-    // How long another output of the mode on their screen has been seen taking
-    // to be ready here (roadmap item 97, step 14), and otherwise this host's
-    // time to a first segment. The observation refines WHEN a move is started;
-    // what the move may be — admission, the link, the viewer's mode — is
-    // decided below exactly as without it.
-    const observedMs = this.#host.observedPreparationMs?.(session) ?? null;
-    const expectedMs = Number.isFinite(observedMs) ? observedMs : (this.#host.expectedFirstSegmentMs?.() ?? null);
-    const { threat, secondsToEmpty } = drainThreat({
-      bufferedSec: buffer?.bufferedSec ?? 0,
-      slope: buffer?.slope ?? null,
-      reportGapSec: buffer?.reportGapSec ?? 0,
-      secondsToReady: Number.isFinite(expectedMs) && expectedMs >= 0 ? expectedMs / 1000 : null
-    });
-    const carries = report.linkMbps * LINK_SAFETY >= observed;
-    if (carries && !threat) {
-      return false;
-    }
-    // Whatever else happens, a step UP prepared for them is not what they need.
-    this.#dropUpAsk(session, consumerId, "their buffer is draining or their link does not carry the stream");
-    if (this.#host.sameHeightSwitchDirection(consumerId) === "up") {
-      this.#host.cancelSameHeightSwitch(consumerId, "their buffer is draining or their link does not carry the stream");
-    }
-    if (carries || !threat) {
-      return false;
-    }
-    if (this.#host.sameHeightSwitchPending(consumerId)) {
-      return false; // a move down is already being prepared for them
-    }
-    const reasonText =
-      `link=${report.linkMbps.toFixed(2)}Mbps stream=${observed.toFixed(2)}Mbps ` +
-      `buffer=${(buffer?.bufferedSec ?? 0).toFixed(1)}s empty in ${secondsToEmpty === null ? "?" : secondsToEmpty.toFixed(1)}s ` +
-      `for ${consumerId}`;
-    const move = await this.#host.prepareSameHeightSwitch(session, consumerId, "down", `viewer-link-bound ${reasonText}`);
-    if (move.started) {
-      return true;
-    }
-    logger.info(`[budget] transcode ${session.id} ${reasonText}: no lower limit to move to (${move.reason})`);
-    const base = this.#host.outputs.pictureOf(session);
-    if (this.#askLowerHeight(session, `viewer-link-bound ${reasonText}`, [consumerId], {
-      urgent: true,
-      cap: this.#visibleCapOf(base, consumerId)
-    })) {
-      return true;
-    }
-    logger.info(
-      `[budget] transcode ${session.id} ${reasonText}: nothing smaller can be prepared; ` +
-        `the viewer stays on what they are given`
-    );
-    return false;
-  }
-
-  /**
-   * The picture this viewer sees against the height they are given (roadmap
-   * item 98).
-   *
-   * A re-encode taller than the picture they see is moved down to a rung of
-   * the right height — but only onto one that is READY, the piece they will
-   * ask for next closed on it; their page then switches once they hold the
-   * cushion this file needs. With no such rung ready, nothing is started: the
-   * next judgement of their link or of the machine takes the bound into
-   * account (`#askLowerHeight`).
-   *
-   * A picture shorter than the one they see is moved up one rung, in the
-   * background, when the machine and their link have room; the request is
-   * dropped if that room goes.
-   *
-   * A copy of the source is left alone whatever its height: it is never
-   * re-encoded for being taller than the picture on screen.
-   *
-   * @param {HlsSession} session - The output on their screen.
-   * @param {string} consumerId
-   * @param {number} now
-   * @returns {void}
-   */
-  #checkVisiblePicture(session, consumerId, now) {
-    if (!session.spec.transcodesVideo || !this.#onScreenHere(session, consumerId)) {
-      return;
-    }
-    const base = this.#host.outputs.pictureOf(session);
-    const cap = this.#visibleCapOf(base, consumerId);
-    if (cap === null || !this.#host.outputs.publishesVariants(base)) {
-      return;
-    }
-    const current = this.#host.outputs.variantHeightOf(session);
-    const offered = this.#host.qualityOffer.offeredHeights(base);
-    if (current > cap) {
-      const target = this.#host.outputs.splicableHeights(base)
-        .find((height) => height <= cap && offered.includes(height));
-      if (target === undefined || !this.#host.heightReadyFor(base, consumerId, target)) {
-        return;
-      }
-      this.#askQualityHeight(base, target, `the picture they see (${cap}p) is smaller than ${current}p`, [consumerId]);
-      return;
-    }
-    if (current < cap) {
-      const higher = this.#host.qualityOffer.nextHeightUp(base, current);
-      const room = this.#roomToSpare(session, now).includes(consumerId);
-      if (higher === undefined || higher > cap || !room || !this.#linkAdmitsHeight(base, session, consumerId, higher)) {
-        return;
-      }
-      this.#askQualityHeight(base, higher, `the picture they see (${cap}p) is larger than ${current}p`, [consumerId]);
-    }
-  }
-
-  /**
-   * The height a re-encode is bounded by for this viewer, from the picture
-   * they see, or null when their page has not said.
-   *
-   * @param {HlsSession} base
-   * @param {string} consumerId
-   * @returns {number | null}
-   */
-  #visibleCapOf(base, consumerId) {
-    return visibleHeightCap(base.file.width, base.file.height, this.#host.visiblePictureOf(base, consumerId));
-  }
-
-  /**
-   * Let go of a request to move this viewer UP, if one stands.
-   *
-   * @param {HlsSession} session
-   * @param {string} consumerId
-   * @param {string} because
-   * @returns {void}
-   */
-  #dropUpAsk(session, consumerId, because) {
-    const base = this.#host.outputs.pictureOf(session);
-    const ask = this.#host.standingAskOf(base, consumerId);
-    const onScreen = this.#host.stepOnScreenOf(base, consumerId);
-    const current = this.#host.outputs.variantHeightOf((onScreen ? this.#host.outputs.get(onScreen) : null) ?? base);
-    if (ask && ask.height > current) {
-      this.#host.dropAskOf(base, consumerId);
-      logger.info(`[budget] transcode ${base.id} no longer asks ${consumerId} for ${ask.height}p: ${because}`);
-    }
-  }
-
-  /**
-   * Whether this output is the one on this viewer's screen.
-   *
-   * A viewer is registered on the picture for as long as they watch any step
-   * of it, so being present on an output does not mean watching it. What an
-   * output measures — its stream, its speed — is about the people who have it
-   * on screen, and a decision about a viewer's link is taken against the
-   * output they actually receive.
-   *
-   * @param {HlsSession} session
-   * @param {string} consumerId
-   * @returns {boolean}
-   */
-  #onScreenHere(session, consumerId) {
-    const base = this.#host.outputs.pictureOf(session);
-    const onScreen = this.#host.stepOnScreenOf(base, consumerId);
-    return (onScreen ?? base.id) === session.id;
-  }
-
-  /**
-   * Observed produced bitrate (Mbit/s) averaged over the last few COMPLETED
-   * segment files (the newest file may still be being written and is
-   * excluded). Transcode sessions only — their segment grid is uniform, so
-   * bytes / (count × segDur) is exact. Returns null when there is not enough
-   * material to measure.
-   *
-   * @param {HlsSession} session
-   * @returns {Promise<number | null>}
-   */
-  async observedStreamMbps(session) {
-    let names;
-    try {
-      names = this.#host.producedNumbers(session).map((index) => session.segmentFormat.segmentFileName(index));
-    } catch {
-      return null;
-    }
-    const indices = [];
-    for (const name of names) {
-      const index = session.segmentFormat.segmentIndexFromName(name);
-      if (index >= 0) {
-        indices.push(index);
-      }
-    }
-    if (indices.length < 3) {
-      return null; // need ≥2 completed segments after dropping the newest
-    }
-    indices.sort((a, b) => a - b);
-    const completed = indices.slice(0, -1).slice(-LINK_OBSERVED_SEGMENTS);
-    let bytes = 0;
-    try {
-      for (const index of completed) {
-        const segmentPath = this.#host.segmentPaths.pathOf(session.outputKey ?? "", index);
-        if (!segmentPath) {
-          break;
-        }
-        const st = await stat(segmentPath);
-        bytes += st.size;
-      }
-    } catch {
-      return null; // a segment vanished mid-measure (seek-restart cleanup)
-    }
-    return (bytes * 8) / (completed.length * this.#host.segmentDurationSec) / 1e6;
-  }
-
-  /**
-   * Decide whether a sustained sub-realtime transcode is limited by the encoder
-   * (CPU) or by a download-starved input. Compares the torrent's download rate
-   * with the source's average byte rate; a fully-downloaded file can never be
-   * download-bound. Returns "cpu" | "download" | "unknown" ("unknown" is treated
-   * as CPU by the caller — the common case, logged as such).
-   *
-   * @param {HlsSession} session
-   * @returns {Promise<"cpu" | "download" | "unknown">}
-   */
-  async classifyTranscodeBound(session) {
-    if (!this.#host.getSourceStats) {
-      return "unknown";
-    }
-    let stats;
-    try {
-      stats = await this.#host.getSourceStats(session.file.sourceKey, session.file.fileIndex);
-    } catch {
-      return "unknown";
-    }
-    if (!stats) {
-      return "unknown";
-    }
-    // A fully (or almost fully) downloaded file cannot be download-bound.
-    if (typeof stats.fileProgress === "number" && stats.fileProgress >= 0.999) {
-      return "cpu";
-    }
-    const duration = Number.isFinite(session.file.durationSeconds) ? session.file.durationSeconds : 0;
-    const length = Number.isFinite(stats.fileLength) && stats.fileLength > 0 ? stats.fileLength : 0;
-    const downloadSpeed = Number.isFinite(stats.downloadSpeed) ? stats.downloadSpeed : 0;
-    if (duration <= 0 || length <= 0) {
-      return "unknown"; // cannot compute the source byte rate
-    }
-    const sourceByteRate = length / duration;
-    return downloadSpeed >= sourceByteRate * BUDGET_DOWNLOAD_OK_FACTOR ? "cpu" : "download";
-  }
-
-  /**
-   * An encoder is about to start on this output.
-   *
-   * Any start resets the cumulative `speed` ffmpeg reports, so both of this
-   * budget's windows over it start again: the pair of readings speed is learned
-   * from, and the slow window — otherwise warm-up right after a seek reads as
-   * sustained sub-realtime and triggers a premature step down.
-   *
-   * @param {object} output
-   * @returns {void}
-   */
-  noteRunStarting(output) {
-    const state = qualityStateOf(output);
-    state.learnSample = null;
-    state.budgetSlowSince = 0;
-  }
-
-  /**
-   * The height this proxy is asking the player to move to, or 0.
-   *
-   * Cleared the moment the viewer is on it — the request has been answered —
-   * and dropped when it runs out, which is the only sign this side ever gets
-   * that a player could not or would not follow it. A browser on a manual pick
-   * ignores every request by design, so an unanswered one is not an error; it
-   * is said once and let go, rather than repeated for the rest of the film.
-   *
-   * @param {HlsSession} named - The session the browser addressed.
-   * @returns {number}
-   */
-  standingAskFor(named, consumerId = "") {
-    const base = this.#host.outputs.pictureOf(named);
-    if (this.#host.qualityModeOf(base, consumerId) !== "auto") {
-      this.#host.dropAskOf(base, consumerId);
-      return 0;
-    }
-    const ask = this.#host.standingAskOf(base, consumerId);
-    if (!ask) {
-      return 0;
-    }
-    const onScreen = this.#host.stepOnScreenOf(base, consumerId);
-    const current = onScreen ? this.#host.outputs.get(onScreen) : base;
-    if (this.#host.outputs.variantHeightOf(current ?? base) === ask.height) {
-      this.#host.dropAskOf(base, consumerId); // this viewer is there; nothing left to ask for
-      return 0;
-    }
-    if (Date.now() - ask.at > QUALITY_ASK_TTL_MS) {
-      this.#host.dropAskOf(base, consumerId);
-      logger.info(
-        `[budget] transcode ${base.id} asked viewer ${consumerId || "unnamed"} for ${ask.height}p and the player stayed where it was ` +
-          `(${ask.reason}); letting the request go`
-      );
-      return 0;
-    }
-    return ask.height;
-  }
-
-  /**
-   * Whether the request standing for this viewer is urgent — their buffer
-   * would run dry before anything else could arrive.
-   *
-   * @param {HlsSession} named
-   * @param {string} [consumerId]
-   * @returns {boolean}
-   */
-  standingAskIsUrgent(named, consumerId = "") {
-    if (this.standingAskFor(named, consumerId) === 0) {
-      return false;
-    }
-    return this.#host.standingAskOf(this.#host.outputs.pictureOf(named), consumerId)?.urgent === true;
-  }
-
-  heightsOnScreen(base) {
-    return [...this.variantsOnScreen(base)]
-      .map((id) => this.#host.outputs.get(id))
-      .filter((member) => member)
-      .map((member) => this.#host.outputs.variantHeightOf(member));
-  }
-
-  /**
-   * Every session of this family that a live viewer has on screen.
-   *
-   * The question "may this rung's encoder be stopped" has no single answer once
-   * two viewers watch one picture at two qualities: the rung one of them left is
-   * the rung the other is watching. Nothing may be stopped for being left unless
-   * nobody is left on it.
-   *
-   * @param {HlsSession} base
-   * @returns {Set<string>} Session ids.
-   */
-  variantsOnScreen(base) {
-    const live = this.#host.liveConsumers(base);
-    const onScreen = new Set();
-    for (const consumerId of this.#host.consumersOn(base)) {
-      if (consumerId && live.size > 0 && !live.has(consumerId)) {
-        continue;
-      }
-      // No step chosen is the picture itself, which is on screen too.
-      onScreen.add(this.#host.stepOnScreenOf(base, consumerId) ?? base.id);
-    }
-    if (onScreen.size === 0) {
-      onScreen.add(base.id);
-    }
-    return onScreen;
-  }
-
-  /**
-   * The heights this session's file will be served at, largest first, and the
-   * two lists a file would be served at before any session exists.
-   *
-   * Both are the quality layer's answers and are computed there. What is left
-   * here is the door: a route holds the session manager and asks it, and these
-   * go the day the route can ask the layer directly.
-   *
-   * @param {HlsSession} session
-   * @returns {number[]}
-   */
-  offeredHeights(session) {
-    return this.#host.qualityOffer.offeredHeights(session);
-  }
-
-  /**
-   * @param {object} mediaInfo
-   * @returns {{ copy: number[], transcode: number[] } | null}
-   */
-  predictOfferedHeights(mediaInfo) {
-    return this.#host.qualityOffer.predictOfferedHeights(mediaInfo);
-  }
-}
+/**
+ * @file The quality budget of the outputs that exist: when a picture is asked to
+ * move to another height, when its bitrate is capped by a viewer's measured link,
+ * and what the player is told to follow.
+ *
+ * Moved out of the session manager whole (plan step 3). What it needs of the
+ * rest of the proxy is the host object it is built with, and nothing else.
+ */
+
+import { stat } from "node:fs/promises";
+import { logger } from "../../../utils/logger.js";
+import { ENCODE_RUN_STATE } from "../encode-run-state.js";
+import { LINK_SAFETY, linkCouldCarry, loadOf } from "./link-budget.js";
+import { qualityStateOf } from "./OutputQualityState.js";
+import { drainThreat } from "./drain-threat.js";
+import { visibleHeightCap } from "./visible-rung.js";
+
+// Realtime budget — runtime downswitch (software encoder only). Periodically
+// check each active software-transcode session's ffmpeg `speed`; when it stays
+// below realtime for a sustained window AND the input is not download-starved
+// (so the limit is the encoder, not the torrent), step down one resolution rung
+// and restart at the current segment. Conservative so it never thrashes: a long
+// sustained window, a post-action cooldown, a step cap, and no upswitch (v1).
+export const BUDGET_CHECK_INTERVAL_MS = 5_000;
+// Speed below this (cumulative ffmpeg average) counts as "slow"; recovery to
+// realtime resets the slow window (hysteresis).
+const BUDGET_SPEED_SLOW = 0.95;
+const BUDGET_SPEED_OK = 1.0;
+// Slow must persist this long before a downshift (absorbs warm-up + brief
+// complex scenes; the cumulative average won't dip this long unless the host
+// genuinely can't keep up).
+const BUDGET_SUSTAINED_MS = 15_000;
+// The step BACK UP has to be slower to fire than the step down, or the two
+// take turns: a rung that has just been left is by definition one the arithmetic
+// still thinks this machine can hold, so it would be asked for again as soon as
+// the cooldown expired. Four times the down window is a statement about how long
+// a machine has to look able before it is believed, not a measured quantity, and
+// it is written here rather than dressed up as one.
+const BUDGET_UP_SUSTAINED_MS = 60_000;
+// How long a request to the player to change variant stands before it is
+// treated as unanswered. A progress report is polled about every 1.5 s and the
+// switch itself needs the rung warmed, which is the cold start this host
+// measures; this is long enough for both and short enough that a browser which
+// cannot honour the request (no master playlist, a viewer on a manual pick) is
+// not chased for the rest of the film.
+const QUALITY_ASK_TTL_MS = 45_000;
+// The input counts as "keeping up" when the torrent downloads at least this
+// multiple of the source's average byte rate. Below it (and not yet fully
+// downloaded), a low speed is download-bound, not CPU-bound → do NOT downscale.
+const BUDGET_DOWNLOAD_OK_FACTOR = 1.0;
+// Viewer-link adaptation. Judged on each report a viewer makes, for that
+// viewer alone (roadmap item 98): when their link does not carry the stream
+// they are given AND their buffer, on its present trend, would run dry before
+// another output could have the piece they need (`drain-threat.js`), a smaller
+// output is prepared for them. A chosen window of slowness and a chosen buffer
+// threshold stood here, and a chosen wait after every action; all three are
+// gone. A manual viewer is never sent an automatic quality request.
+// Observed produced bitrate: average over this many recently completed
+// segments (the newest file on disk may still be written and is excluded).
+const LINK_OBSERVED_SEGMENTS = 5;
+
+/** @typedef {{ pathOf: (address: string, index: number) => string | null }} SegmentPathLookup */
+
+export class QualityController {
+  /** What this reads and asks of the rest of the proxy, and nothing else. @type {object} */
+  #host;
+
+  /** A budget pass is under way; a timer tick that lands meanwhile is skipped. */
+  #tickRunning = false;
+
+  /** Viewers whose report is being judged now (`noteViewerReported`). @type {Set<string>} */
+  #judging = new Set();
+
+  /**
+   * @param {object} host - `isLive`, `liveConsumers`, `liveRunsOf`, `producedNumbers`, `reportHostLoad`, `runStateOf`, `sampleDownloadRates`, `encodeCost`, `getSourceStats`, `outputs`, `qualityOffer`, `segmentDurationSec`, `segmentPaths`, `videoEncoder`, `prepareSameHeightSwitch`, `sameHeightSwitchPending`, `sameHeightSwitchDirection`, `cancelSameHeightSwitch`, `heightReadyFor`, `bufferOf`, `visiblePictureOf`, `expectedFirstSegmentMs`
+   * @param {SegmentPathLookup} host.segmentPaths - Lookup for completed
+   *   segment paths needed by quality decisions.
+   */
+  constructor(host) {
+    this.#host = host;
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * One pass of the quality budget: learn what this host is doing with each
+   * running encode, and act on it.
+   *
+   * Public because it is an operation with a name, not an implementation
+   * detail of a timer — and because a loop that decides what the viewer sees
+   * and can only be reached through `setInterval` is a loop nothing can check.
+   * The timer calls exactly this.
+   *
+   * @returns {Promise<void>}
+   */
+  async runQualityBudgetOnce() {
+    void this.#host.reportHostLoad();
+    // One tick at a time. Both halves await torrent statistics per source, so a
+    // slow or stuck answer would otherwise let the next tick in behind it — two
+    // passes over the same sessions, taking the same reading twice and acting
+    // on the same speed twice, and an earlier tick's rates landing on top of a
+    // later tick's.
+    if (this.#tickRunning === true) {
+      return;
+    }
+    this.#tickRunning = true;
+    try {
+      // Taken whatever the encoder is: the torrent's price is charged against
+      // this rate on every host, not only on the ones that re-encode.
+      await this.#host.sampleDownloadRates();
+      if (this.#host.videoEncoder?.kind !== "software") {
+        return;
+      }
+      await this.#realtimeBudgetPass();
+    } finally {
+      this.#tickRunning = false;
+    }
+  }
+
+  async #realtimeBudgetPass() {
+    const now = Date.now();
+    for (const session of this.#host.outputs.values()) {
+      // What this file costs to decode is learned from EVERY encoding session,
+      // before any of the budget's own conditions are consulted. Those exist to
+      // decide whether to step the quality, and they exclude most of what is
+      // worth measuring: a rung already at the foot of its ladder has nowhere
+      // to step, and a 240p variant IS its whole ladder — which is exactly the
+      // rung the field measured at 0.95x on 2026-08-15, learning nothing from
+      // three minutes of it because the loop had already skipped the session as
+      // un-actionable.
+      await this.#host.encodeCost.learnFrom(session);
+      if (
+        !session ||
+        !this.#host.isLive(session) ||
+        this.#host.runStateOf(session) === ENCODE_RUN_STATE.ENDED_FAILED ||
+        // Nothing is encoding, so there is no speed to judge. A variant the
+        // viewer has switched away from is left in exactly this state, and its
+        // last recorded speed would otherwise buy it a step — which restarts
+        // the encoder it was just stopped for.
+        this.#host.liveRunsOf(session).length === 0 ||
+        // A soundtrack published on its own carries no picture, so no quality
+        // step is its to make; its price is learned above and that is all.
+        session.spec.carries === "audio-only"
+      ) {
+        continue;
+      }
+      // A viewer's link is judged on each of their reports
+      // (`noteViewerReported`), not here: nothing about it changes between two
+      // reports, so a timer would only read the same statement again.
+      if (await this.#checkEncoderBudget(session, now)) {
+        continue;
+      }
+      await this.#checkStepUp(session, now);
+    }
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * The encoder-speed check for one session: sustained sub-realtime, and the
+   * encoder — not a download-starved input — is the limit.
+   *
+   * @param {HlsSession} session
+   * @param {number} now
+   * @returns {Promise<boolean>} True when a step was asked for this tick.
+   */
+  async #checkEncoderBudget(session, now) {
+    if (!session.spec.transcodesVideo) {
+      // A copy has no encoder to make cheaper. Whatever the machine is short
+      // of, moving this viewer to a RE-ENCODED rung costs it more, not less —
+      // so the copy path's only lever is the viewer's link, above.
+      return false;
+    }
+    const speed = this.#host.encodeCost.recentSpeedOf(session, now, BUDGET_CHECK_INTERVAL_MS * 2);
+    if (speed === null) {
+      return false; // no measurement yet
+    }
+    if (speed >= BUDGET_SPEED_OK) {
+      qualityStateOf(session).budgetSlowSince = 0; // recovered — reset the slow window
+      return false;
+    }
+    if (speed >= BUDGET_SPEED_SLOW) {
+      return false; // in the hysteresis band; neither slow nor ok
+    }
+    if (qualityStateOf(session).budgetSlowSince === 0) {
+      qualityStateOf(session).budgetSlowSince = now;
+      return false;
+    }
+    if (now - qualityStateOf(session).budgetSlowSince < BUDGET_SUSTAINED_MS) {
+      return false; // not sustained yet
+    }
+    const bound = await this.classifyTranscodeBound(session);
+    if (bound === "download") {
+      logger.info(
+        `[budget] transcode ${session.id} speed=${speed.toFixed(2)}x but download-limited ` +
+          `"${session.file.name}"; not stepping down (torrent is the bottleneck)`
+      );
+      qualityStateOf(session).budgetSlowSince = 0; // re-evaluate fresh; don't thrash on this
+      return false;
+    }
+    qualityStateOf(session).budgetSlowSince = 0;
+    qualityStateOf(session).budgetUpSince = 0;
+    const boundLabel = bound === "unknown" ? "assuming CPU-bound" : "CPU-bound";
+    // The machine is the output's reason, so every viewer with it on screen is
+    // asked — each to the rung their own picture bounds a re-encode by, where
+    // that is lower than the next rung down (roadmap item 98).
+    const reasonText = `${boundLabel} speed=${speed.toFixed(2)}x`;
+    const base = this.#host.outputs.pictureOf(session);
+    const watching = this.#host.presentOn(session).filter((consumerId) => this.#onScreenHere(session, consumerId));
+    if (watching.length === 0) {
+      return this.#askLowerHeight(session, reasonText);
+    }
+    let asked = false;
+    for (const consumerId of watching) {
+      if (this.#askLowerHeight(session, reasonText, [consumerId], { cap: this.#visibleCapOf(base, consumerId) })) {
+        asked = true;
+      }
+    }
+    return asked;
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Ask the player to move down one offered rung.
+   *
+   * THE SIZE OF THE PICTURE IS NEVER REWRITTEN UNDERNEATH A RUNNING SESSION.
+   * The fMP4 init segment is fetched once — a player reads `#EXT-X-MAP` and
+   * never asks again — and `avc1` keeps SPS and PPS in it rather than in the
+   * fragments, so every fragment produced after a size change is decoded
+   * against parameter sets describing a picture that is no longer being made.
+   * Measured 2026-08-21 on two files: one browser went on reporting
+   * `size=1280x720` for three and a half minutes over a band of macroblock
+   * garbage after the encoder had left for 960x540; the other errored on the
+   * first mismatched fragment, closed the MediaSource and sat at `size=0x0`
+   * for four and a half minutes. Which of the two happens is the decoder's
+   * choice, not ours, and no layer reported an error either time.
+   *
+   * A change of resolution is a change of VARIANT, as the standard has it.
+   * Every height is already published in the master with its own init, so the
+   * step is made by ASKING the browser to move — the same act the manual menu
+   * performs, which has never had this fault.
+   *
+   * @param {HlsSession} session
+   * @param {string} reasonText
+   * @param {string[] | null} [onlyFor]
+   * @param {{ urgent?: boolean, cap?: number | null }} [options] - `urgent`
+   *   when the viewer's buffer would run dry first; `cap` the height the
+   *   picture they see bounds a re-encode by, preferred where it is lower than
+   *   the next rung down.
+   * @returns {boolean} True when an ask was recorded.
+   */
+  #askLowerHeight(session, reasonText, onlyFor = null, { urgent = false, cap = null } = {}) {
+    const base = this.#host.outputs.pictureOf(session);
+    const current = this.#host.outputs.variantHeightOf(session);
+    const offered = this.#host.qualityOffer.offeredHeights(base);
+    // The highest rung strictly below the one on screen that this host is still
+    // willing to serve. `offeredHeights` has already refused everything the
+    // machine cannot hold, so a rung that survives it is one worth moving to.
+    // Where the picture the viewer sees bounds a re-encode lower still, the
+    // highest rung within that bound is taken instead: they are shown nothing
+    // the rung between would have added (roadmap item 98).
+    const lower = this.#host.outputs.splicableHeights(base)
+      .filter((height) => height < current && offered.includes(height));
+    const next = (Number.isInteger(cap) && cap > 0 ? lower.find((height) => height <= cap) : undefined) ?? lower[0];
+    if (next === undefined) {
+      // Nothing lower — but "lower" is not the same question as "cheaper", and
+      // on a source that is COPIED the answer is above, not below. A copied
+      // rung costs no encoder at all, whatever its size, so when a re-encode
+      // cannot keep up it is both the fastest thing this host can serve AND the
+      // best picture it has.
+      //
+      // Field 2026-08-31, and it cost the viewer the whole film: an ultrafast
+      // 444x240 encode ran at 0.43-0.94x for fifty minutes while the source's
+      // own 1038p sat on offer beside it, copied and free. This line printed
+      // fifty times — "nothing lower is on offer; leaving the picture alone" —
+      // and the picture stood still 161 times for 940 seconds. The rescue was
+      // on the screen the whole time and the rule could only look down.
+      const copied = this.#host.qualityOffer.copiedHeightOf(base);
+      if (copied > 0 && copied !== current && offered.includes(copied)) {
+        logger.info(
+          `[budget] transcode ${session.id} ${reasonText} at ${current}p and nothing lower is on offer, ` +
+            `but ${copied}p is COPIED on this file — no encoder at all, and a better picture. ` +
+            `Asking for it instead of leaving the viewer on an encode that cannot keep up`
+        );
+        return this.#askQualityHeight(base, copied, reasonText, onlyFor, urgent);
+      }
+      logger.info(
+        `[budget] transcode ${session.id} ${reasonText} at ${current}p, but nothing lower is on offer ` +
+          `for "${session.file.name}"; leaving the picture alone`
+      );
+      return false;
+    }
+    return this.#askQualityHeight(base, next, reasonText, onlyFor, urgent);
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Record a request to the viewer's player to move to another variant.
+   *
+   * The proxy cannot move a player between variants; it can only say which one
+   * it would rather serve. The request travels in every progress report, and
+   * the browser honours it ONLY in automatic mode — a height the viewer picked
+   * by hand is theirs, and nothing here may take it away.
+   *
+   * @param {HlsSession} base
+   * @param {number} height
+   * @param {string} reasonText
+   * @param {string[] | null} [onlyFor] - The viewers this ask is FOR. A reason
+   *   that belongs to one person's link is theirs alone: a thin link asks only
+   *   the viewer on it, never everybody watching the picture. Null for a reason
+   *   that belongs to the output — the machine cannot keep up with it — which
+   *   is every AUTO viewer's.
+   * @param {boolean} [urgent] - Their buffer would run dry before anything else
+   *   could arrive, so their page switches without waiting for a cushion.
+   * @returns {boolean}
+   */
+  #askQualityHeight(base, height, reasonText, onlyFor = null, urgent = false) {
+    if (!this.#host.outputs.publishesVariants(base)) {
+      // Said once for the session. Repeating it is not information: the answer
+      // is a property of the stream and cannot change while it plays.
+      if (qualityStateOf(base).saidNoVariants !== true) {
+        qualityStateOf(base).saidNoVariants = true;
+        logger.info(
+          `[budget] transcode ${base.id} would ask for ${height}p, but this stream publishes no ` +
+            `variants to move between; leaving the picture alone for the rest of the session`
+        );
+      }
+      return false;
+    }
+    const now = Date.now();
+    const asked = [];
+    const playing = [];
+    for (const consumerId of this.#host.consumersOn(base)) {
+      if (this.#host.qualityModeOf(base, consumerId) !== "auto") {
+        continue;
+      }
+      if (onlyFor && !onlyFor.includes(consumerId)) {
+        continue;
+      }
+      const onScreen = this.#host.stepOnScreenOf(base, consumerId);
+      const current = onScreen ? this.#host.outputs.get(onScreen) : base;
+      const currentHeight = this.#host.outputs.variantHeightOf(current ?? base);
+      playing.push(currentHeight);
+      if (currentHeight === height) {
+        this.#host.dropAskOf(base, consumerId);
+        continue;
+      }
+      const standing = this.#host.standingAskOf(base, consumerId);
+      if (standing && standing.height === height && now - standing.at < QUALITY_ASK_TTL_MS) {
+        continue;
+      }
+      if (this.#host.askQualityOf(base, consumerId, height, reasonText, now, urgent)) {
+        asked.push(consumerId);
+      }
+    }
+    if (asked.length === 0) {
+      return false;
+    }
+    logger.info(
+      `[budget] transcode ${base.id} asks the player to move ${playing.join("p/")}p → ${height}p${urgent ? " (urgent)" : ""}: ${reasonText} ` +
+        `"${base.file.name}" for ${asked.length} AUTO viewer(s) ` +
+        `(a change of size is a change of variant — its own init describes it)`
+    );
+    return true;
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * The step BACK UP, in two stages and one rung at a time.
+   *
+   * 1. ANOTHER LIMIT OF THE SAME HEIGHT: a viewer moved down to a lower limit
+   *    goes back up the limits of their height first, without their player
+   *    being told (roadmap item 97, step 12). A limit is part of an output, so
+   *    this is a move between outputs, prepared for one viewer.
+   * 2. ANOTHER HEIGHT, asked of the player in AUTO — only for a viewer with no
+   *    higher limit to go to on the height they watch, and only if their own
+   *    link admits the next height's whole load.
+   *
+   * Both follow one window: the machine and the viewer's link have held the
+   * output on screen, with room to spare, for four times as long as a step
+   * DOWN needs.
+   *
+   * @param {HlsSession} session
+   * @param {number} now
+   * @returns {Promise<void>}
+   */
+  async #checkStepUp(session, now) {
+    const base = this.#host.outputs.pictureOf(session);
+    const current = this.#host.outputs.variantHeightOf(session);
+    // What the machine and the link would have to look like for a step up, held
+    // for a window four times the one a step DOWN needs. Anything that fails
+    // resets it, so the window measures an unbroken stretch.
+    const spare = this.#roomToSpare(session, now);
+    // A step up being prepared for a viewer who no longer has room is let go:
+    // the conditions it was asked under have gone back (roadmap item 98).
+    for (const consumerId of this.#host.presentOn(session)) {
+      if (!spare.includes(consumerId)) {
+        this.#dropUpAsk(session, consumerId, "the room it was asked for has gone");
+      }
+    }
+    if (spare.length === 0) {
+      qualityStateOf(session).budgetUpSince = 0;
+      return;
+    }
+    if (qualityStateOf(session).budgetUpSince === 0) {
+      qualityStateOf(session).budgetUpSince = now;
+      return;
+    }
+    if (now - qualityStateOf(session).budgetUpSince < BUDGET_UP_SUSTAINED_MS) {
+      return;
+    }
+    qualityStateOf(session).budgetUpSince = 0;
+    const reasonText =
+      `the machine and the link have carried ${current}p for ` +
+      `${Math.round(BUDGET_UP_SUSTAINED_MS / 1000)}s with room to spare`;
+    const atTheirHighestLimit = [];
+    for (const consumerId of spare) {
+      const move = await this.#host.prepareSameHeightSwitch(session, consumerId, "up", reasonText);
+      if (move.started) {
+        continue;
+      }
+      // Refused because the MACHINE holds no more encoders: a higher height
+      // costs more than the limit that was just refused, so it is not asked for.
+      if (move.noPlace) {
+        logger.info(`[budget] transcode ${session.id} no step up for ${consumerId}: ${move.reason}`);
+        continue;
+      }
+      atTheirHighestLimit.push(consumerId);
+    }
+    // One rung at a time: the lowest height above the one on screen, never
+    // above the source (upscaling invents detail and costs more than the
+    // source itself). A second step follows a second unbroken window.
+    const higher = this.#host.qualityOffer.nextHeightUp(base, current);
+    if (higher === undefined) {
+      return;
+    }
+    // Only the viewers whose OWN link admits the next rung, and whose picture on
+    // screen is not already served by the rung they are on: a re-encode is
+    // never made taller than the picture they see (roadmap item 98). The copy
+    // of the source is not a re-encode, and going back to it is not bounded.
+    // Another viewer's fast link or large screen says nothing about theirs.
+    const copied = this.#host.qualityOffer.copiedHeightOf(base);
+    const carriers = atTheirHighestLimit.filter((consumerId) =>
+      this.#linkAdmitsHeight(base, session, consumerId, higher) &&
+      (higher === copied || this.#visibleCapOf(base, consumerId) === null || higher <= this.#visibleCapOf(base, consumerId))
+    );
+    if (carriers.length > 0) {
+      this.#askQualityHeight(base, higher, reasonText, carriers);
+    }
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * The viewers who have this session on screen with room to spare: the
+   * encoder ahead of realtime and the torrent not the limit — which are the
+   * OUTPUT's and hold for all of them or none — and, for each viewer on their
+   * own, a buffer that is not draining and no move of theirs already being
+   * prepared.
+   *
+   * @param {HlsSession} session
+   * @param {number} now
+   * @returns {string[]} Empty when nobody has room.
+   */
+  #roomToSpare(session, now) {
+    if (session.spec.transcodesVideo) {
+      const speed = this.#host.encodeCost.recentSpeedOf(session, now, BUDGET_CHECK_INTERVAL_MS * 2);
+      if (speed === null || speed < BUDGET_SPEED_OK) {
+        return [];
+      }
+    }
+    if (qualityStateOf(session).budgetSlowSince !== 0) {
+      return [];
+    }
+    // A buffer that drains over a whole segment's period is being spent faster
+    // than it is filled: there is no room for more.
+    return this.#host.presentOn(session).filter((consumerId) =>
+      !((this.#host.bufferOf(session, consumerId, this.#host.segmentDurationSec)?.slope ?? 0) < 0) &&
+      this.#onScreenHere(session, consumerId) &&
+      !this.#host.sameHeightSwitchPending(consumerId)
+    );
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Whether this viewer's own link admits the whole load of a height nothing
+   * may have produced yet.
+   *
+   * Nothing measured their link: no ground to refuse, the same silence that
+   * stops `#checkViewerLink` from acting on them.
+   *
+   * @param {HlsSession} base
+   * @param {HlsSession} session
+   * @param {string} consumerId
+   * @param {number} height
+   * @returns {boolean}
+   */
+  #linkAdmitsHeight(base, session, consumerId, height) {
+    const report = this.#host.linkReportOf(session, consumerId);
+    const load = loadOf(
+      this.#host.qualityOffer.videoLoadFor(base, height, this.#host.videoEncoder?.kind ?? ""),
+      this.#host.viewerAudioLoadOf(base, consumerId)
+    );
+    return linkCouldCarry(report?.linkMbps ?? null, load).admitted;
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * A viewer reported on themselves: judge their link and the picture they
+   * see, for them alone, now (roadmap item 98).
+   *
+   * The report is the event that carries a change of either, so it is where
+   * they are judged — not a timer, which between two reports would only read
+   * the same statement again.
+   *
+   * @param {string} sessionId - The output the page addressed.
+   * @param {string} consumerId
+   * @returns {Promise<void>}
+   */
+  async noteViewerReported(sessionId, consumerId) {
+    const named = sessionId ? this.#host.outputs.get(sessionId) : null;
+    if (!named || !consumerId) {
+      return;
+    }
+    const base = this.#host.outputs.pictureOf(named);
+    const onScreen = this.#host.stepOnScreenOf(base, consumerId);
+    const session = (onScreen ? this.#host.outputs.get(onScreen) : null) ?? base;
+    if (!this.#host.isLive(session) || session.spec.carries === "audio-only") {
+      return;
+    }
+    // One judgement of a viewer at a time: reports can arrive while the last
+    // one is still reading its files.
+    if (this.#judging.has(consumerId)) {
+      return;
+    }
+    this.#judging.add(consumerId);
+    try {
+      const now = Date.now();
+      if (this.#host.videoEncoder?.kind === "software" &&
+        (await this.#checkViewerLink(session, consumerId, now))) {
+        return;
+      }
+      this.#checkVisiblePicture(session, consumerId, now);
+    } finally {
+      this.#judging.delete(consumerId);
+    }
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * This viewer's link against the stream they are given.
+   *
+   * THE CONDITION, both halves measured: their link does not carry the stream
+   * (the reading times the safety margin is below the observed bitrate), and
+   * their buffer, on its present trend, would run dry before another output
+   * could close the piece they need (`drain-threat.js`). A buffer that falls
+   * without that threat moves nothing.
+   *
+   * THE LEVERS, in order: another limit of the height on their screen (roadmap
+   * item 97, step 12), then a lower height, asked of their player as URGENT —
+   * their page switches as soon as the rung is ready, without waiting for a
+   * cushion that is shrinking. Where neither can be prepared they stay where
+   * they are, with no message: what is on screen goes on being delivered, and
+   * a buffer that runs dry is filled again before the picture moves.
+   *
+   * @param {HlsSession} session - The output on their screen.
+   * @param {string} consumerId
+   * @param {number} now
+   * @returns {Promise<boolean>} True when a move was started or asked for.
+   */
+  async #checkViewerLink(session, consumerId, now) {
+    if (!this.#onScreenHere(session, consumerId)) {
+      return false;
+    }
+    const report = this.#host.linkReportOf(session, consumerId);
+    if (!report) {
+      return false; // their link has not been measured: no ground to move them
+    }
+    const observed = await this.observedStreamMbps(session);
+    if (observed === null) {
+      return false; // not enough produced material to compare against
+    }
+    const buffer = this.#host.bufferOf(session, consumerId, this.#host.segmentDurationSec);
+    // How long another output of the mode on their screen has been seen taking
+    // to be ready here (roadmap item 97, step 14), and otherwise this host's
+    // time to a first segment. The observation refines WHEN a move is started;
+    // what the move may be — admission, the link, the viewer's mode — is
+    // decided below exactly as without it.
+    const observedMs = this.#host.observedPreparationMs?.(session) ?? null;
+    const expectedMs = Number.isFinite(observedMs) ? observedMs : (this.#host.expectedFirstSegmentMs?.() ?? null);
+    const { threat, secondsToEmpty } = drainThreat({
+      bufferedSec: buffer?.bufferedSec ?? 0,
+      slope: buffer?.slope ?? null,
+      reportGapSec: buffer?.reportGapSec ?? 0,
+      secondsToReady: Number.isFinite(expectedMs) && expectedMs >= 0 ? expectedMs / 1000 : null
+    });
+    const carries = report.linkMbps * LINK_SAFETY >= observed;
+    if (carries && !threat) {
+      return false;
+    }
+    // Whatever else happens, a step UP prepared for them is not what they need.
+    this.#dropUpAsk(session, consumerId, "their buffer is draining or their link does not carry the stream");
+    if (this.#host.sameHeightSwitchDirection(consumerId) === "up") {
+      this.#host.cancelSameHeightSwitch(consumerId, "their buffer is draining or their link does not carry the stream");
+    }
+    if (carries || !threat) {
+      return false;
+    }
+    if (this.#host.sameHeightSwitchPending(consumerId)) {
+      return false; // a move down is already being prepared for them
+    }
+    const reasonText =
+      `link=${report.linkMbps.toFixed(2)}Mbps stream=${observed.toFixed(2)}Mbps ` +
+      `buffer=${(buffer?.bufferedSec ?? 0).toFixed(1)}s empty in ${secondsToEmpty === null ? "?" : secondsToEmpty.toFixed(1)}s ` +
+      `for ${consumerId}`;
+    const move = await this.#host.prepareSameHeightSwitch(session, consumerId, "down", `viewer-link-bound ${reasonText}`);
+    if (move.started) {
+      return true;
+    }
+    logger.info(`[budget] transcode ${session.id} ${reasonText}: no lower limit to move to (${move.reason})`);
+    const base = this.#host.outputs.pictureOf(session);
+    if (this.#askLowerHeight(session, `viewer-link-bound ${reasonText}`, [consumerId], {
+      urgent: true,
+      cap: this.#visibleCapOf(base, consumerId)
+    })) {
+      return true;
+    }
+    logger.info(
+      `[budget] transcode ${session.id} ${reasonText}: nothing smaller can be prepared; ` +
+        `the viewer stays on what they are given`
+    );
+    return false;
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * The picture this viewer sees against the height they are given (roadmap
+   * item 98).
+   *
+   * A re-encode taller than the picture they see is moved down to a rung of
+   * the right height — but only onto one that is READY, the piece they will
+   * ask for next closed on it; their page then switches once they hold the
+   * cushion this file needs. With no such rung ready, nothing is started: the
+   * next judgement of their link or of the machine takes the bound into
+   * account (`#askLowerHeight`).
+   *
+   * A picture shorter than the one they see is moved up one rung, in the
+   * background, when the machine and their link have room; the request is
+   * dropped if that room goes.
+   *
+   * A copy of the source is left alone whatever its height: it is never
+   * re-encoded for being taller than the picture on screen.
+   *
+   * @param {HlsSession} session - The output on their screen.
+   * @param {string} consumerId
+   * @param {number} now
+   * @returns {void}
+   */
+  #checkVisiblePicture(session, consumerId, now) {
+    if (!session.spec.transcodesVideo || !this.#onScreenHere(session, consumerId)) {
+      return;
+    }
+    const base = this.#host.outputs.pictureOf(session);
+    const cap = this.#visibleCapOf(base, consumerId);
+    if (cap === null || !this.#host.outputs.publishesVariants(base)) {
+      return;
+    }
+    const current = this.#host.outputs.variantHeightOf(session);
+    const offered = this.#host.qualityOffer.offeredHeights(base);
+    if (current > cap) {
+      const target = this.#host.outputs.splicableHeights(base)
+        .find((height) => height <= cap && offered.includes(height));
+      if (target === undefined || !this.#host.heightReadyFor(base, consumerId, target)) {
+        return;
+      }
+      this.#askQualityHeight(base, target, `the picture they see (${cap}p) is smaller than ${current}p`, [consumerId]);
+      return;
+    }
+    if (current < cap) {
+      const higher = this.#host.qualityOffer.nextHeightUp(base, current);
+      const room = this.#roomToSpare(session, now).includes(consumerId);
+      if (higher === undefined || higher > cap || !room || !this.#linkAdmitsHeight(base, session, consumerId, higher)) {
+        return;
+      }
+      this.#askQualityHeight(base, higher, `the picture they see (${cap}p) is larger than ${current}p`, [consumerId]);
+    }
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * The height a re-encode is bounded by for this viewer, from the picture
+   * they see, or null when their page has not said.
+   *
+   * @param {HlsSession} base
+   * @param {string} consumerId
+   * @returns {number | null}
+   */
+  #visibleCapOf(base, consumerId) {
+    return visibleHeightCap(base.file.width, base.file.height, this.#host.visiblePictureOf(base, consumerId));
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Let go of a request to move this viewer UP, if one stands.
+   *
+   * @param {HlsSession} session
+   * @param {string} consumerId
+   * @param {string} because
+   * @returns {void}
+   */
+  #dropUpAsk(session, consumerId, because) {
+    const base = this.#host.outputs.pictureOf(session);
+    const ask = this.#host.standingAskOf(base, consumerId);
+    const onScreen = this.#host.stepOnScreenOf(base, consumerId);
+    const current = this.#host.outputs.variantHeightOf((onScreen ? this.#host.outputs.get(onScreen) : null) ?? base);
+    if (ask && ask.height > current) {
+      this.#host.dropAskOf(base, consumerId);
+      logger.info(`[budget] transcode ${base.id} no longer asks ${consumerId} for ${ask.height}p: ${because}`);
+    }
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Whether this output is the one on this viewer's screen.
+   *
+   * A viewer is registered on the picture for as long as they watch any step
+   * of it, so being present on an output does not mean watching it. What an
+   * output measures — its stream, its speed — is about the people who have it
+   * on screen, and a decision about a viewer's link is taken against the
+   * output they actually receive.
+   *
+   * @param {HlsSession} session
+   * @param {string} consumerId
+   * @returns {boolean}
+   */
+  #onScreenHere(session, consumerId) {
+    const base = this.#host.outputs.pictureOf(session);
+    const onScreen = this.#host.stepOnScreenOf(base, consumerId);
+    return (onScreen ?? base.id) === session.id;
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Observed produced bitrate (Mbit/s) averaged over the last few COMPLETED
+   * segment files (the newest file may still be being written and is
+   * excluded). Transcode sessions only — their segment grid is uniform, so
+   * bytes / (count × segDur) is exact. Returns null when there is not enough
+   * material to measure.
+   *
+   * @param {HlsSession} session
+   * @returns {Promise<number | null>}
+   */
+  async observedStreamMbps(session) {
+    let names;
+    try {
+      names = this.#host.producedNumbers(session).map((index) => session.segmentFormat.segmentFileName(index));
+    } catch {
+      return null;
+    }
+    const indices = [];
+    for (const name of names) {
+      const index = session.segmentFormat.segmentIndexFromName(name);
+      if (index >= 0) {
+        indices.push(index);
+      }
+    }
+    if (indices.length < 3) {
+      return null; // need ≥2 completed segments after dropping the newest
+    }
+    indices.sort((a, b) => a - b);
+    const completed = indices.slice(0, -1).slice(-LINK_OBSERVED_SEGMENTS);
+    let bytes = 0;
+    try {
+      for (const index of completed) {
+        const segmentPath = this.#host.segmentPaths.pathOf(session.outputKey ?? "", index);
+        if (!segmentPath) {
+          break;
+        }
+        const st = await stat(segmentPath);
+        bytes += st.size;
+      }
+    } catch {
+      return null; // a segment vanished mid-measure (seek-restart cleanup)
+    }
+    return (bytes * 8) / (completed.length * this.#host.segmentDurationSec) / 1e6;
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Decide whether a sustained sub-realtime transcode is limited by the encoder
+   * (CPU) or by a download-starved input. Compares the torrent's download rate
+   * with the source's average byte rate; a fully-downloaded file can never be
+   * download-bound. Returns "cpu" | "download" | "unknown" ("unknown" is treated
+   * as CPU by the caller — the common case, logged as such).
+   *
+   * @param {HlsSession} session
+   * @returns {Promise<"cpu" | "download" | "unknown">}
+   */
+  async classifyTranscodeBound(session) {
+    if (!this.#host.getSourceStats) {
+      return "unknown";
+    }
+    let stats;
+    try {
+      stats = await this.#host.getSourceStats(session.file.sourceKey, session.file.fileIndex);
+    } catch {
+      return "unknown";
+    }
+    if (!stats) {
+      return "unknown";
+    }
+    // A fully (or almost fully) downloaded file cannot be download-bound.
+    if (typeof stats.fileProgress === "number" && stats.fileProgress >= 0.999) {
+      return "cpu";
+    }
+    const duration = Number.isFinite(session.file.durationSeconds) ? session.file.durationSeconds : 0;
+    const length = Number.isFinite(stats.fileLength) && stats.fileLength > 0 ? stats.fileLength : 0;
+    const downloadSpeed = Number.isFinite(stats.downloadSpeed) ? stats.downloadSpeed : 0;
+    if (duration <= 0 || length <= 0) {
+      return "unknown"; // cannot compute the source byte rate
+    }
+    const sourceByteRate = length / duration;
+    return downloadSpeed >= sourceByteRate * BUDGET_DOWNLOAD_OK_FACTOR ? "cpu" : "download";
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * An encoder is about to start on this output.
+   *
+   * Any start resets the cumulative `speed` ffmpeg reports, so both of this
+   * budget's windows over it start again: the pair of readings speed is learned
+   * from, and the slow window — otherwise warm-up right after a seek reads as
+   * sustained sub-realtime and triggers a premature step down.
+   *
+   * @param {object} output
+   * @returns {void}
+   */
+  noteRunStarting(output) {
+    const state = qualityStateOf(output);
+    state.learnSample = null;
+    state.budgetSlowSince = 0;
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * The height this proxy is asking the player to move to, or 0.
+   *
+   * Cleared the moment the viewer is on it — the request has been answered —
+   * and dropped when it runs out, which is the only sign this side ever gets
+   * that a player could not or would not follow it. A browser on a manual pick
+   * ignores every request by design, so an unanswered one is not an error; it
+   * is said once and let go, rather than repeated for the rest of the film.
+   *
+   * @param {HlsSession} named - The session the browser addressed.
+   * @returns {number}
+   */
+  standingAskFor(named, consumerId = "") {
+    const base = this.#host.outputs.pictureOf(named);
+    if (this.#host.qualityModeOf(base, consumerId) !== "auto") {
+      this.#host.dropAskOf(base, consumerId);
+      return 0;
+    }
+    const ask = this.#host.standingAskOf(base, consumerId);
+    if (!ask) {
+      return 0;
+    }
+    const onScreen = this.#host.stepOnScreenOf(base, consumerId);
+    const current = onScreen ? this.#host.outputs.get(onScreen) : base;
+    if (this.#host.outputs.variantHeightOf(current ?? base) === ask.height) {
+      this.#host.dropAskOf(base, consumerId); // this viewer is there; nothing left to ask for
+      return 0;
+    }
+    if (Date.now() - ask.at > QUALITY_ASK_TTL_MS) {
+      this.#host.dropAskOf(base, consumerId);
+      logger.info(
+        `[budget] transcode ${base.id} asked viewer ${consumerId || "unnamed"} for ${ask.height}p and the player stayed where it was ` +
+          `(${ask.reason}); letting the request go`
+      );
+      return 0;
+    }
+    return ask.height;
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Whether the request standing for this viewer is urgent — their buffer
+   * would run dry before anything else could arrive.
+   *
+   * @param {HlsSession} named
+   * @param {string} [consumerId]
+   * @returns {boolean}
+   */
+  standingAskIsUrgent(named, consumerId = "") {
+    if (this.standingAskFor(named, consumerId) === 0) {
+      return false;
+    }
+    return this.#host.standingAskOf(this.#host.outputs.pictureOf(named), consumerId)?.urgent === true;
+  }
+
+  heightsOnScreen(base) {
+    return [...this.variantsOnScreen(base)]
+      .map((id) => this.#host.outputs.get(id))
+      .filter((member) => member)
+      .map((member) => this.#host.outputs.variantHeightOf(member));
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Every session of this family that a live viewer has on screen.
+   *
+   * The question "may this rung's encoder be stopped" has no single answer once
+   * two viewers watch one picture at two qualities: the rung one of them left is
+   * the rung the other is watching. Nothing may be stopped for being left unless
+   * nobody is left on it.
+   *
+   * @param {HlsSession} base
+   * @returns {Set<string>} Session ids.
+   */
+  variantsOnScreen(base) {
+    const live = this.#host.liveConsumers(base);
+    const onScreen = new Set();
+    for (const consumerId of this.#host.consumersOn(base)) {
+      if (consumerId && live.size > 0 && !live.has(consumerId)) {
+        continue;
+      }
+      // No step chosen is the picture itself, which is on screen too.
+      onScreen.add(this.#host.stepOnScreenOf(base, consumerId) ?? base.id);
+    }
+    if (onScreen.size === 0) {
+      onScreen.add(base.id);
+    }
+    return onScreen;
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * The heights this session's file will be served at, largest first, and the
+   * two lists a file would be served at before any session exists.
+   *
+   * Both are the quality layer's answers and are computed there. What is left
+   * here is the door: a route holds the session manager and asks it, and these
+   * go the day the route can ask the layer directly.
+   *
+   * @param {HlsSession} session
+   * @returns {number[]}
+   */
+  offeredHeights(session) {
+    return this.#host.qualityOffer.offeredHeights(session);
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * @param {object} mediaInfo
+   * @returns {{ copy: number[], transcode: number[] } | null}
+   */
+  predictOfferedHeights(mediaInfo) {
+    return this.#host.qualityOffer.predictOfferedHeights(mediaInfo);
+  }
+}