@torrent-tv/proxy 2.89.7 → 2.89.8

package/services/encode/quality/QualityController.js

@@ -1,758 +1,758 @@
-/**
- * @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 { logger } from "../../../utils/logger.js";
-import { linkCouldCarry, loadOf } from "./link-budget.js";
-import { qualityStateOf } from "./OutputQualityState.js";
-import { drainThreat } from "./drain-threat.js";
-import { visibleHeightCap } from "./visible-rung.js";
-
-// How often the host's load and the torrents' download rates are sampled.
-// A sampling period of the machine, not a quality decision: every decision
-// about a viewer's quality is taken on that viewer's report.
-export const BUDGET_CHECK_INTERVAL_MS = 5_000;
-// Every quality step is judged on a report a viewer makes, for that viewer
-// alone (roadmap item 98). DOWN: their buffer, on its present trend, would run
-// dry before another output could have the piece they need (`drain-threat.js`),
-// and the reason is one a smaller output removes — their link carries less
-// than the stream, or this machine makes the picture slower than realtime
-// over its own working time (`RunClock`). UP: their buffer is not draining,
-// holds the time another output takes to be ready, the machine makes the
-// picture at least at realtime, and their link carries the next height. A
-// chosen threshold of slowness, a chosen window to sustain it, a window four
-// times as long before stepping back up, a safety share of the link and a
-// chosen test for a download-starved input stood here; all are gone. A manual
-// viewer is never sent an automatic quality request.
-
-/** @typedef {{ pathOf: (address: string, index: number) => string | null, sizesOf: (address: string) => Map<number, number> }} SegmentPathLookup */
-
-export class QualityController {
-  /** What this reads and asks of the rest of the proxy, and nothing else. @type {object} */
-  #host;
-
-  /** A sampling 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();
-
-  /**
-   * Viewers whose standing request the judgement of their current report asked
-   * for again. A request stands for as long as the conditions it was asked
-   * under hold, and only a judgement can say they do; one it did not repeat is
-   * let go. @type {Set<string>}
-   */
-  #affirmed = new Set();
-
-  /**
-   * @param {object} host - `isLive`, `liveConsumers`, `liveRunsOf`, `producedNumbers`, `reportHostLoad`, `runStateOf`, `sampleDownloadRates`, `encodeCost`, `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 sampling pass: the host's load and the torrents' download rates.
-   *
-   * Public because it is an operation with a name, not an implementation detail
-   * of a timer. It decides nothing about any viewer: an encoder's price is
-   * learned when it closes a piece (`EncodeCost.learnFrom`), and a quality step
-   * is judged on a viewer's report (`noteViewerReported`).
-   *
-   * @returns {Promise<void>}
-   */
-  async runQualityBudgetOnce() {
-    void this.#host.reportHostLoad();
-    // One tick at a time: the rates await torrent statistics per source, so a
-    // slow answer would otherwise let the next tick in behind it and take the
-    // same reading twice.
-    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();
-    } finally {
-      this.#tickRunning = false;
-    }
-  }
-
-  /**
-   * This output's processing speed now, over its run's own working time, or
-   * null when no run has measured one. Copying and re-encoding alike; a copy
-   * has no encoder a smaller picture would relieve, which is decided where
-   * this is asked.
-   *
-   * @param {HlsSession} session
-   * @returns {number | null}
-   */
-  #processingSpeedOf(session) {
-    return this.#host.encodeCost.latestSpeedReadingOf(session)?.speed ?? null;
-  }
-
-  /**
-   * How long another output of the mode on this viewer's screen takes to be
-   * ready here, in seconds: as observed on this host (roadmap item 97, step
-   * 14), and otherwise this host's time to a first segment. Null when neither
-   * has been measured.
-   *
-   * @param {HlsSession} session
-   * @returns {number | null}
-   */
-  #secondsToReady(session) {
-    const observedMs = this.#host.observedPreparationMs?.(session) ?? null;
-    const expectedMs = Number.isFinite(observedMs) ? observedMs : (this.#host.expectedFirstSegmentMs?.() ?? null);
-    return Number.isFinite(expectedMs) && expectedMs >= 0 ? expectedMs / 1000 : null;
-  }
-
-  /**
-   * 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 affirmed = [];
-    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) {
-        this.#affirmed.add(consumerId);
-        affirmed.push(consumerId);
-        continue;
-      }
-      if (this.#host.askQualityOf(base, consumerId, height, reasonText, now, urgent)) {
-        this.#affirmed.add(consumerId);
-        asked.push(consumerId);
-      }
-    }
-    if (asked.length === 0) {
-      // Asked already and asked again: true, so a caller does not go on to say
-      // that nothing could be prepared; nothing new is written.
-      return affirmed.length > 0;
-    }
-    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, consumerId) {
-    if (!this.#roomToSpare(session, consumerId)) {
-      // 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).
-      this.#dropUpAsk(session, consumerId, "the room it was asked for has gone");
-      return;
-    }
-    const base = this.#host.outputs.pictureOf(session);
-    const current = this.#host.outputs.variantHeightOf(session);
-    const reasonText = `the machine and the link carry ${current}p with room to spare`;
-    const move = await this.#host.prepareSameHeightSwitch(session, consumerId, "up", reasonText);
-    if (move.started) {
-      return;
-    }
-    // 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}`);
-      return;
-    }
-    // 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 rung this host has been measured failing at is not offered
-    // (`QualityOffer`), so the step back up cannot return to it.
-    const higher = this.#host.qualityOffer.nextHeightUp(base, current);
-    if (higher === undefined) {
-      return;
-    }
-    // Only where their OWN link admits the next rung, and the picture on their
-    // 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.
-    const copied = this.#host.qualityOffer.copiedHeightOf(base);
-    const cap = this.#visibleCapOf(base, consumerId);
-    if (this.#linkAdmitsHeight(base, session, consumerId, higher) &&
-      (higher === copied || cap === null || higher <= cap)) {
-      this.#askQualityHeight(base, higher, reasonText, [consumerId]);
-    }
-  }
-
-  /**
-   * Whether this viewer has room for more, every term measured: the picture on
-   * their screen is made at least at realtime over its run's own working time
-   * (a copy is not limited by an encoder), their buffer is not draining, it
-   * holds at least the time another output takes to be ready here, and no move
-   * of theirs is already being prepared.
-   *
-   * @param {HlsSession} session
-   * @param {string} consumerId
-   * @returns {boolean}
-   */
-  #roomToSpare(session, consumerId) {
-    if (!this.#onScreenHere(session, consumerId) || this.#host.sameHeightSwitchPending(consumerId)) {
-      return false;
-    }
-    if (session.spec.transcodesVideo) {
-      const speed = this.#processingSpeedOf(session);
-      if (speed === null || speed < 1) {
-        return false;
-      }
-    }
-    const buffer = this.#host.bufferOf(session, consumerId, this.#host.segmentDurationSec);
-    if (!buffer || !Number.isFinite(buffer.slope) || buffer.slope < 0) {
-      return false;
-    }
-    const secondsToReady = this.#secondsToReady(session);
-    return secondsToReady !== null && (buffer.bufferedSec ?? 0) >= secondsToReady;
-  }
-
-  /**
-   * 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 `#checkSupply` from blaming their link.
-   *
-   * @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);
-    this.#affirmed.delete(consumerId);
-    const standingBefore = this.#host.standingAskOf(base, consumerId);
-    try {
-      await this.#judge(session, consumerId);
-      // A request this judgement did not ask for again no longer has the
-      // conditions it was asked under: their buffer stopped draining, the room
-      // for a step up went, or the smaller picture is no longer smaller. It is
-      // let go here, and their page drops the move it was preparing.
-      const standing = this.#host.standingAskOf(base, consumerId);
-      // The same request, not one made meanwhile: compared by what it is, since
-      // it is read as a copy.
-      const unchanged = standing && standingBefore &&
-        standing.height === standingBefore.height && standing.at === standingBefore.at;
-      if (unchanged && !this.#affirmed.has(consumerId)) {
-        this.#host.dropAskOf(base, consumerId);
-        logger.info(
-          `[budget] transcode ${base.id} no longer asks ${consumerId} for ${standing.height}p: ` +
-            `the conditions it was asked under (${standing.reason}) no longer hold`
-        );
-      }
-    } finally {
-      this.#affirmed.delete(consumerId);
-      this.#judging.delete(consumerId);
-    }
-  }
-
-  /**
-   * One judgement of one viewer's report, in order: what they are given against
-   * what keeps up, the picture they see, and the room for more.
-   *
-   * @param {HlsSession} session - The output on their screen.
-   * @param {string} consumerId
-   * @returns {Promise<void>}
-   */
-  async #judge(session, consumerId) {
-    if (this.#host.videoEncoder?.kind === "software" &&
-      (await this.#checkSupply(session, consumerId))) {
-      return;
-    }
-    if (this.#checkVisiblePicture(session, consumerId)) {
-      return;
-    }
-    if (this.#host.videoEncoder?.kind === "software") {
-      await this.#checkStepUp(session, consumerId);
-    }
-  }
-
-  /**
-   * Whether this viewer's buffer can keep up with what they are given.
-   *
-   * THE CONDITION, every term measured: their buffer, on its present trend,
-   * would run dry before another output could close the piece they need
-   * (`drain-threat.js`), AND a smaller output removes the reason — their link
-   * carries less than the stream they are given, or this machine makes the
-   * picture slower than realtime over its run's own working time. A buffer
-   * that falls without that threat moves nothing; a threat neither reason
-   * explains (the swarm is short) is not answered with a smaller picture, which
-   * reads the same input.
-   *
-   * THE LEVERS, in order: for the link, another limit of the height on their
-   * screen (roadmap item 97, step 12), then a lower height; for the machine, a
-   * lower height. A lower height is 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 nothing can be prepared they stay where they are,
-   * with no message.
-   *
-   * @param {HlsSession} session - The output on their screen.
-   * @param {string} consumerId
-   * @returns {Promise<boolean>} True when a move was started or asked for.
-   */
-  async #checkSupply(session, consumerId) {
-    if (!this.#onScreenHere(session, consumerId)) {
-      return false;
-    }
-    const buffer = this.#host.bufferOf(session, consumerId, this.#host.segmentDurationSec);
-    const { threat, secondsToEmpty } = drainThreat({
-      bufferedSec: buffer?.bufferedSec ?? 0,
-      slope: buffer?.slope ?? null,
-      reportGapSec: buffer?.reportGapSec ?? 0,
-      secondsToReady: this.#secondsToReady(session)
-    });
-    if (!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");
-    if (this.#host.sameHeightSwitchDirection(consumerId) === "up") {
-      this.#host.cancelSameHeightSwitch(consumerId, "their buffer is draining");
-    }
-    const report = this.#host.linkReportOf(session, consumerId);
-    const observed = report ? await this.observedStreamMbps(session) : null;
-    const linkShort = report !== null && report !== undefined && observed !== null && report.linkMbps < observed;
-    const speed = session.spec.transcodesVideo ? this.#processingSpeedOf(session) : null;
-    const machineShort = speed !== null && speed < 1;
-    if (!linkShort && !machineShort) {
-      return false;
-    }
-    if (this.#host.sameHeightSwitchPending(consumerId)) {
-      return false; // a move down is already being prepared for them
-    }
-    const reasonText =
-      (linkShort ? `link=${report.linkMbps.toFixed(2)}Mbps stream=${observed.toFixed(2)}Mbps ` : "") +
-      (machineShort ? `CPU-bound speed=${speed.toFixed(2)}x ` : "") +
-      `buffer=${(buffer?.bufferedSec ?? 0).toFixed(1)}s empty in ${secondsToEmpty === null ? "?" : secondsToEmpty.toFixed(1)}s ` +
-      `for ${consumerId}`;
-    if (linkShort) {
-      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, `${linkShort ? "viewer-link-bound" : "machine-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
-   * @returns {boolean} True when a move was asked for.
-   */
-  #checkVisiblePicture(session, consumerId) {
-    if (!session.spec.transcodesVideo || !this.#onScreenHere(session, consumerId)) {
-      return false;
-    }
-    const base = this.#host.outputs.pictureOf(session);
-    const cap = this.#visibleCapOf(base, consumerId);
-    if (cap === null || !this.#host.outputs.publishesVariants(base)) {
-      return false;
-    }
-    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 false;
-      }
-      this.#askQualityHeight(base, target, `the picture they see (${cap}p) is smaller than ${current}p`, [consumerId]);
-      return true;
-    }
-    return false;
-  }
-
-  /**
-   * 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): every finished piece of this output,
-   * its bytes over its own length on the cut table. A published piece is
-   * closed, so none is excluded, and no chosen number of recent pieces stands
-   * in for the stream. Null while nothing is finished.
-   *
-   * @param {HlsSession} session
-   * @returns {Promise<number | null>}
-   */
-  async observedStreamMbps(session) {
-    // Every finished piece, each over its own length on the output's cut
-    // table: a copy is cut at the source's keyframes, so its pieces are not
-    // one length. The store knows their sizes; nothing is read from the disk.
-    const sizes = this.#host.segmentPaths.sizesOf(session.outputKey ?? "");
-    let bytes = 0;
-    let seconds = 0;
-    for (const [index, size] of sizes) {
-      const length = session.timeline
-        ? session.timeline.publishedStartOf(index + 1) - session.timeline.publishedStartOf(index)
-        : this.#host.segmentDurationSec;
-      if (size > 0 && length > 0) {
-        bytes += size;
-        seconds += length;
-      }
-    }
-    return seconds > 0 ? (bytes * 8) / seconds / 1e6 : null;
-  }
-
-  /**
-   * 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 let go by the judgement of their next report that does not ask for it
-   * again (`noteViewerReported`): a request stands for as long as the
-   * conditions it was asked under hold, not for a chosen time. A player that
-   * cannot follow it reads it in every progress answer and does nothing, which
-   * costs nothing; it is written to the log once, when it is made.
-   *
-   * @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;
-    }
-    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 { logger } from "../../../utils/logger.js";
+import { linkCouldCarry, loadOf } from "./link-budget.js";
+import { qualityStateOf } from "./OutputQualityState.js";
+import { drainThreat } from "./drain-threat.js";
+import { visibleHeightCap } from "./visible-rung.js";
+
+// How often the host's load and the torrents' download rates are sampled.
+// A sampling period of the machine, not a quality decision: every decision
+// about a viewer's quality is taken on that viewer's report.
+export const BUDGET_CHECK_INTERVAL_MS = 5_000;
+// Every quality step is judged on a report a viewer makes, for that viewer
+// alone (roadmap item 98). DOWN: their buffer, on its present trend, would run
+// dry before another output could have the piece they need (`drain-threat.js`),
+// and the reason is one a smaller output removes — their link carries less
+// than the stream, or this machine makes the picture slower than realtime
+// over its own working time (`RunClock`). UP: their buffer is not draining,
+// holds the time another output takes to be ready, the machine makes the
+// picture at least at realtime, and their link carries the next height. A
+// chosen threshold of slowness, a chosen window to sustain it, a window four
+// times as long before stepping back up, a safety share of the link and a
+// chosen test for a download-starved input stood here; all are gone. A manual
+// viewer is never sent an automatic quality request.
+
+/** @typedef {{ pathOf: (address: string, index: number) => string | null, sizesOf: (address: string) => Map<number, number> }} SegmentPathLookup */
+
+export class QualityController {
+  /** What this reads and asks of the rest of the proxy, and nothing else. @type {object} */
+  #host;
+
+  /** A sampling 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();
+
+  /**
+   * Viewers whose standing request the judgement of their current report asked
+   * for again. A request stands for as long as the conditions it was asked
+   * under hold, and only a judgement can say they do; one it did not repeat is
+   * let go. @type {Set<string>}
+   */
+  #affirmed = new Set();
+
+  /**
+   * @param {object} host - `isLive`, `liveConsumers`, `liveRunsOf`, `producedNumbers`, `reportHostLoad`, `runStateOf`, `sampleDownloadRates`, `encodeCost`, `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 sampling pass: the host's load and the torrents' download rates.
+   *
+   * Public because it is an operation with a name, not an implementation detail
+   * of a timer. It decides nothing about any viewer: an encoder's price is
+   * learned when it closes a piece (`EncodeCost.learnFrom`), and a quality step
+   * is judged on a viewer's report (`noteViewerReported`).
+   *
+   * @returns {Promise<void>}
+   */
+  async runQualityBudgetOnce() {
+    void this.#host.reportHostLoad();
+    // One tick at a time: the rates await torrent statistics per source, so a
+    // slow answer would otherwise let the next tick in behind it and take the
+    // same reading twice.
+    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();
+    } finally {
+      this.#tickRunning = false;
+    }
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * This output's processing speed now, over its run's own working time, or
+   * null when no run has measured one. Copying and re-encoding alike; a copy
+   * has no encoder a smaller picture would relieve, which is decided where
+   * this is asked.
+   *
+   * @param {HlsSession} session
+   * @returns {number | null}
+   */
+  #processingSpeedOf(session) {
+    return this.#host.encodeCost.latestSpeedReadingOf(session)?.speed ?? null;
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * How long another output of the mode on this viewer's screen takes to be
+   * ready here, in seconds: as observed on this host (roadmap item 97, step
+   * 14), and otherwise this host's time to a first segment. Null when neither
+   * has been measured.
+   *
+   * @param {HlsSession} session
+   * @returns {number | null}
+   */
+  #secondsToReady(session) {
+    const observedMs = this.#host.observedPreparationMs?.(session) ?? null;
+    const expectedMs = Number.isFinite(observedMs) ? observedMs : (this.#host.expectedFirstSegmentMs?.() ?? null);
+    return Number.isFinite(expectedMs) && expectedMs >= 0 ? expectedMs / 1000 : null;
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * 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 affirmed = [];
+    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) {
+        this.#affirmed.add(consumerId);
+        affirmed.push(consumerId);
+        continue;
+      }
+      if (this.#host.askQualityOf(base, consumerId, height, reasonText, now, urgent)) {
+        this.#affirmed.add(consumerId);
+        asked.push(consumerId);
+      }
+    }
+    if (asked.length === 0) {
+      // Asked already and asked again: true, so a caller does not go on to say
+      // that nothing could be prepared; nothing new is written.
+      return affirmed.length > 0;
+    }
+    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, consumerId) {
+    if (!this.#roomToSpare(session, consumerId)) {
+      // 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).
+      this.#dropUpAsk(session, consumerId, "the room it was asked for has gone");
+      return;
+    }
+    const base = this.#host.outputs.pictureOf(session);
+    const current = this.#host.outputs.variantHeightOf(session);
+    const reasonText = `the machine and the link carry ${current}p with room to spare`;
+    const move = await this.#host.prepareSameHeightSwitch(session, consumerId, "up", reasonText);
+    if (move.started) {
+      return;
+    }
+    // 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}`);
+      return;
+    }
+    // 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 rung this host has been measured failing at is not offered
+    // (`QualityOffer`), so the step back up cannot return to it.
+    const higher = this.#host.qualityOffer.nextHeightUp(base, current);
+    if (higher === undefined) {
+      return;
+    }
+    // Only where their OWN link admits the next rung, and the picture on their
+    // 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.
+    const copied = this.#host.qualityOffer.copiedHeightOf(base);
+    const cap = this.#visibleCapOf(base, consumerId);
+    if (this.#linkAdmitsHeight(base, session, consumerId, higher) &&
+      (higher === copied || cap === null || higher <= cap)) {
+      this.#askQualityHeight(base, higher, reasonText, [consumerId]);
+    }
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Whether this viewer has room for more, every term measured: the picture on
+   * their screen is made at least at realtime over its run's own working time
+   * (a copy is not limited by an encoder), their buffer is not draining, it
+   * holds at least the time another output takes to be ready here, and no move
+   * of theirs is already being prepared.
+   *
+   * @param {HlsSession} session
+   * @param {string} consumerId
+   * @returns {boolean}
+   */
+  #roomToSpare(session, consumerId) {
+    if (!this.#onScreenHere(session, consumerId) || this.#host.sameHeightSwitchPending(consumerId)) {
+      return false;
+    }
+    if (session.spec.transcodesVideo) {
+      const speed = this.#processingSpeedOf(session);
+      if (speed === null || speed < 1) {
+        return false;
+      }
+    }
+    const buffer = this.#host.bufferOf(session, consumerId, this.#host.segmentDurationSec);
+    if (!buffer || !Number.isFinite(buffer.slope) || buffer.slope < 0) {
+      return false;
+    }
+    const secondsToReady = this.#secondsToReady(session);
+    return secondsToReady !== null && (buffer.bufferedSec ?? 0) >= secondsToReady;
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * 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 `#checkSupply` from blaming their link.
+   *
+   * @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);
+    this.#affirmed.delete(consumerId);
+    const standingBefore = this.#host.standingAskOf(base, consumerId);
+    try {
+      await this.#judge(session, consumerId);
+      // A request this judgement did not ask for again no longer has the
+      // conditions it was asked under: their buffer stopped draining, the room
+      // for a step up went, or the smaller picture is no longer smaller. It is
+      // let go here, and their page drops the move it was preparing.
+      const standing = this.#host.standingAskOf(base, consumerId);
+      // The same request, not one made meanwhile: compared by what it is, since
+      // it is read as a copy.
+      const unchanged = standing && standingBefore &&
+        standing.height === standingBefore.height && standing.at === standingBefore.at;
+      if (unchanged && !this.#affirmed.has(consumerId)) {
+        this.#host.dropAskOf(base, consumerId);
+        logger.info(
+          `[budget] transcode ${base.id} no longer asks ${consumerId} for ${standing.height}p: ` +
+            `the conditions it was asked under (${standing.reason}) no longer hold`
+        );
+      }
+    } finally {
+      this.#affirmed.delete(consumerId);
+      this.#judging.delete(consumerId);
+    }
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * One judgement of one viewer's report, in order: what they are given against
+   * what keeps up, the picture they see, and the room for more.
+   *
+   * @param {HlsSession} session - The output on their screen.
+   * @param {string} consumerId
+   * @returns {Promise<void>}
+   */
+  async #judge(session, consumerId) {
+    if (this.#host.videoEncoder?.kind === "software" &&
+      (await this.#checkSupply(session, consumerId))) {
+      return;
+    }
+    if (this.#checkVisiblePicture(session, consumerId)) {
+      return;
+    }
+    if (this.#host.videoEncoder?.kind === "software") {
+      await this.#checkStepUp(session, consumerId);
+    }
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Whether this viewer's buffer can keep up with what they are given.
+   *
+   * THE CONDITION, every term measured: their buffer, on its present trend,
+   * would run dry before another output could close the piece they need
+   * (`drain-threat.js`), AND a smaller output removes the reason — their link
+   * carries less than the stream they are given, or this machine makes the
+   * picture slower than realtime over its run's own working time. A buffer
+   * that falls without that threat moves nothing; a threat neither reason
+   * explains (the swarm is short) is not answered with a smaller picture, which
+   * reads the same input.
+   *
+   * THE LEVERS, in order: for the link, another limit of the height on their
+   * screen (roadmap item 97, step 12), then a lower height; for the machine, a
+   * lower height. A lower height is 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 nothing can be prepared they stay where they are,
+   * with no message.
+   *
+   * @param {HlsSession} session - The output on their screen.
+   * @param {string} consumerId
+   * @returns {Promise<boolean>} True when a move was started or asked for.
+   */
+  async #checkSupply(session, consumerId) {
+    if (!this.#onScreenHere(session, consumerId)) {
+      return false;
+    }
+    const buffer = this.#host.bufferOf(session, consumerId, this.#host.segmentDurationSec);
+    const { threat, secondsToEmpty } = drainThreat({
+      bufferedSec: buffer?.bufferedSec ?? 0,
+      slope: buffer?.slope ?? null,
+      reportGapSec: buffer?.reportGapSec ?? 0,
+      secondsToReady: this.#secondsToReady(session)
+    });
+    if (!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");
+    if (this.#host.sameHeightSwitchDirection(consumerId) === "up") {
+      this.#host.cancelSameHeightSwitch(consumerId, "their buffer is draining");
+    }
+    const report = this.#host.linkReportOf(session, consumerId);
+    const observed = report ? await this.observedStreamMbps(session) : null;
+    const linkShort = report !== null && report !== undefined && observed !== null && report.linkMbps < observed;
+    const speed = session.spec.transcodesVideo ? this.#processingSpeedOf(session) : null;
+    const machineShort = speed !== null && speed < 1;
+    if (!linkShort && !machineShort) {
+      return false;
+    }
+    if (this.#host.sameHeightSwitchPending(consumerId)) {
+      return false; // a move down is already being prepared for them
+    }
+    const reasonText =
+      (linkShort ? `link=${report.linkMbps.toFixed(2)}Mbps stream=${observed.toFixed(2)}Mbps ` : "") +
+      (machineShort ? `CPU-bound speed=${speed.toFixed(2)}x ` : "") +
+      `buffer=${(buffer?.bufferedSec ?? 0).toFixed(1)}s empty in ${secondsToEmpty === null ? "?" : secondsToEmpty.toFixed(1)}s ` +
+      `for ${consumerId}`;
+    if (linkShort) {
+      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, `${linkShort ? "viewer-link-bound" : "machine-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
+   * @returns {boolean} True when a move was asked for.
+   */
+  #checkVisiblePicture(session, consumerId) {
+    if (!session.spec.transcodesVideo || !this.#onScreenHere(session, consumerId)) {
+      return false;
+    }
+    const base = this.#host.outputs.pictureOf(session);
+    const cap = this.#visibleCapOf(base, consumerId);
+    if (cap === null || !this.#host.outputs.publishesVariants(base)) {
+      return false;
+    }
+    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 false;
+      }
+      this.#askQualityHeight(base, target, `the picture they see (${cap}p) is smaller than ${current}p`, [consumerId]);
+      return true;
+    }
+    return false;
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * 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): every finished piece of this output,
+   * its bytes over its own length on the cut table. A published piece is
+   * closed, so none is excluded, and no chosen number of recent pieces stands
+   * in for the stream. Null while nothing is finished.
+   *
+   * @param {HlsSession} session
+   * @returns {Promise<number | null>}
+   */
+  async observedStreamMbps(session) {
+    // Every finished piece, each over its own length on the output's cut
+    // table: a copy is cut at the source's keyframes, so its pieces are not
+    // one length. The store knows their sizes; nothing is read from the disk.
+    const sizes = this.#host.segmentPaths.sizesOf(session.outputKey ?? "");
+    let bytes = 0;
+    let seconds = 0;
+    for (const [index, size] of sizes) {
+      const length = session.timeline
+        ? session.timeline.publishedStartOf(index + 1) - session.timeline.publishedStartOf(index)
+        : this.#host.segmentDurationSec;
+      if (size > 0 && length > 0) {
+        bytes += size;
+        seconds += length;
+      }
+    }
+    return seconds > 0 ? (bytes * 8) / seconds / 1e6 : null;
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * 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 let go by the judgement of their next report that does not ask for it
+   * again (`noteViewerReported`): a request stands for as long as the
+   * conditions it was asked under hold, not for a chosen time. A player that
+   * cannot follow it reads it in every progress answer and does nothing, which
+   * costs nothing; it is written to the log once, when it is made.
+   *
+   * @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;
+    }
+    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);
+  }
+}