From 01143beb2c13d14bfe7165e72e415f3bea7a59be Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: digital-garbage <133010426+digital-garbage@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Sat, 29 Aug 2026 22:34:39 +0300
Subject: [PATCH] foundation: checking a pipeline cost more than reading it

The source of every link was looked up in a dict rebuilt from the slot list on
each lookup, so validating a chain of N slots did N rebuilds: 20000 slots took
21 seconds. build() runs on the event loop, so that cost was paid by every
other request the server was holding, not only by the caller. Built once.

Round five, one finding, confirmed.
---
 core/graph.py            |  6 +++++-
 core/tests/test_graph.py | 18 ++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 23 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/core/graph.py b/core/graph.py
index 190d0bda..7f13c2ec 100644
--- a/core/graph.py
+++ b/core/graph.py
@@ -148,6 +148,10 @@ def build(slots: Sequence[dict], schemas: Optional[Schemas] = None) -> Tuple[dic
         return {}, problems
 
     known = seen
+    # Built once. Rebuilding it per link made validating a chain of N slots do N
+    # dict rebuilds, and this runs on the event loop: the cost of checking a
+    # pipeline is paid by every other request the server is holding.
+    by_id = slots_by_id(slots)
 
     for slot in slots:
         slot_id, class_type = slot["id"], slot["node"]
@@ -166,7 +170,7 @@ def build(slots: Sequence[dict], schemas: Optional[Schemas] = None) -> Tuple[dic
                 if source not in known:
                     problems.append(f"{slot_id}.{name} is fed by {source!r}, which is not in the pipeline")
                     continue
-                produced = schemas.outputs(slots_by_id(slots)[source]["node"])
+                produced = schemas.outputs(by_id[source]["node"])
                 if index >= len(produced):
                     problems.append(f"{slot_id}.{name} reads output {index} of {source!r}, "
                                     f"which has {len(produced)}")
diff --git a/core/tests/test_graph.py b/core/tests/test_graph.py
index d1de1872..e62bcd57 100644
--- a/core/tests/test_graph.py
+++ b/core/tests/test_graph.py
@@ -212,6 +212,24 @@ def test_a_long_chain_is_walked_without_running_out_of_stack():
     assert len(problems) == 1
 
 
+def test_checking_a_big_pipeline_does_not_cost_more_than_reading_it():
+    # Slots arrive from a request and nothing caps how many, and build() runs on
+    # the event loop -- so the cost of checking one pipeline is paid by every
+    # other request the server is holding. Looking the source of each link up in
+    # a dict rebuilt per link made this quadratic: 20000 slots took 21 seconds.
+    # The budget is deliberately loose; it is there to catch a return to N^2,
+    # not to measure this machine.
+    import time
+    slots = [{"id": "s0", "node": "LoadModel", "inputs": {"name": "x"}}]
+    slots += [{"id": f"s{i}", "node": "AddLora",
+               "inputs": {"model": [f"s{i - 1}", 0], "strength": 1.0}}
+              for i in range(1, 20000)]
+    started = time.perf_counter()
+    _, problems = graph.build(slots, SCHEMAS)
+    assert problems == []
+    assert time.perf_counter() - started < 2.0
+
+
 def test_a_diamond_is_not_a_cycle():
     # Two paths reaching one source is ordinary wiring; a walk that marks a slot
     # seen without unmarking it would call this a loop.