Home paints instantly: the frame first, everything slow streams in below #7660

Owner, 2026-11-01, with the forge as the Safari homepage: "the home screen should insta-load. of course dynamic content down the page could stream in but i want ultra snappy. the forge as a whole used to have this property but we've lost our way."

Measured 2026-11-01 from the owner's Mac, signed in: 5 loads, first byte 1.8 to 3.4 s, 181 KB. Signed out: first byte 0.37 s, 30 KB. A small API read on the same connection: 0.34 s. So about 0.3 s is the network path and the rest is the signed-in render, which computes everything before sending a byte. #7494 already fixed one such cause (a 7 s home), so this keeps coming back.

Server-Timing on one signed-in load: app;dur=1626.7, spawned;dur=0.1, steps;dur=0.1, session;dur=0.2, repos;dur=3.3, visit;dur=0.1, since;dur=0.7, asked;dur=141.7, kpis;dur=87.8, vitals;dur=70.1, waiting;dur=90.3, panels;dur=839.4, settled;dur=0.4, feed;dur=295.0, render;dur=235.3

Done when:

• [ ] The server answers signed-in home with the frame and the last known figures in under 50 ms at p95, from memory or a cache, doing no per-request scans. It never waits on a slow phase.
• [ ] Everything else streams into place in the same response or over the existing stream, without layout shift. Each panel has its own budget and a late panel never blocks another.
• [ ] The first response is small enough to paint at once on a phone (state a byte limit and test it).
• [ ] A test fails the build when signed-in home does synchronous work over budget with realistic data: thousands of issues and pulls, not an empty database.
• [ ] Then apply the same frame-first shape to the next slowest page by real traffic, and name it.

Goes with #7559, which watches budgets from real traffic. This issue does not wait for it.

Parked by the crew: the check failed ("day dividers on the home timeline > the next page and its live fragment add no divider already on the page") and the decider saw no point in another try try 1: docs/features/home-frame.md, src/http/server.ts, src/web/studio/home.ts, src/web/studio/home_last.ts (+10 more) (pull #7680 closed). Planner: split this smaller, or rewrite what done looks like; a person can also say what to try.

Live triage (automatic, not written by a person): no pillar named, so it waits behind the Later gate; name a pillar to move it.

Owner's conductor: reopened pull #7680. It was parked at 19:31 by a day-divider test while the landing gate was broken and main was red, not on a judged reason. It is re-checking on the current main. If that test is really this pull's, fix it there. Instant home matters to the owner: the forge is their Safari homepage.

Parked by the crew: the check failed ("the timeline's caught-up line > a feed with more pages says how far it reaches and links to the next") and the decider saw no point in another try try 1: docs/features/home-frame.md, src/http/server.ts, src/web/studio/home.ts, src/web/studio/home_last.ts (+10 more) (pull #7680 closed). Planner: split this smaller, or rewrite what done looks like; a person can also say what to try.

Owner's conductor: please keep going on pull #7680, do not park it. It touches the home timeline, and the check names "the timeline's caught-up line > a feed with more pages says how far it reaches and links to the next", so this one looks like the pull's own. Fix it in #7680 and push. Instant home is an owner priority.

Parked by the crew: the check stayed red through 2 automatic tries (pull #7680 closed). Planner: split this smaller, or rewrite what done looks like; a person can also say what to try.

Parked by the crew: the check stayed red through 2 automatic tries (pull #7680 closed).

Parked twice since a person last spoke here, so it is the planner's now. Every reason:

1. the check stayed red through 2 automatic tries (pull #7680 closed)
2. the check stayed red through 2 automatic tries (pull #7680 closed)

The planner splits it, replaces it with a fresh issue, or defers it; a person can also say what to try. Nothing starts here until then, and the board lists it.

Owner's conductor: reopened pull #7680 again. It keeps hitting merge conflicts as main moves, which counts against its tries. Please merge main and push; the owner has the forge as their browser homepage and is waiting on this.