core: route critical commands through a reliable unbounded channel (A15)

CoreController::send put every app->core command on a single bounded
depth-100 channel via try_send and discarded the result. iced slider
drags emit ~60-120 commands/sec, so a drag burst could transiently
saturate the queue exactly when the user hit mute / released PTT /
left a room, silently dropping that critical command and leaving the
mic hot -- a privacy/state mismatch.

Split the queue by drop-tolerance:
- A pure delivery_class(&CoreCommand) classifier in messages.rs maps the
  7 continuous audio sliders to BestEffort and every other (discrete,
  human-paced) command to Reliable. The match has no wildcard arm, so a
  new CoreCommand variant fails to compile until it is classified.
- CoreController now holds two senders: an unbounded reliable channel
  and the existing bounded(100) best-effort channel. send() routes by
  class; Reliable uses unbounded send (fails only if the core loop is
  dead), BestEffort keeps today's bounded try_send.
- run_core_loop takes both receivers and drains them with a biased
  select: reliable first, best-effort second, game-change third.

Unbounded is safe because the only machine-rate producer (slider drags)
stays on the bounded channel; Reliable commands are all human-paced.
command_sender() and the awaiting Shutdown path are unchanged.

Implemented by Codex (gpt-5.5), senior-reviewed and verified here:
454 lib tests pass, clippy --all-targets clean, release builds.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>

src/core/messages.rs

@@ -109,6 +109,80 @@ pub enum CoreCommand {
     SetGameProcessMap(std::collections::BTreeMap<String, String>),
 }
 
+#[derive(Debug, Clone, Copy, PartialEq, Eq)]
+pub enum DeliveryClass {
+    Reliable,
+    BestEffort,
+}
+
+/// Route a command by how bad it is to drop it. Discrete, human-paced user
+/// actions are Reliable (must land). The only high-frequency commands are the
+/// continuous audio sliders, where dropping intermediate values is harmless;
+/// those are BestEffort.
+pub fn delivery_class(cmd: &CoreCommand) -> DeliveryClass {
+    match cmd {
+        CoreCommand::SetPeerVolume(_, _)
+        | CoreCommand::SetPeerPan(_, _)
+        | CoreCommand::SetPeerGate(_, _)
+        | CoreCommand::SetPeerEq(_, _)
+        | CoreCommand::SetInputVolume(_)
+        | CoreCommand::SetOutputVolume(_)
+        | CoreCommand::SetNoiseGateThreshold(_) => DeliveryClass::BestEffort,
+
+        CoreCommand::Join {
+            name: _,
+            ticket: _,
+            room_name: _,
+            input_device: _,
+            output_device: _,
+            echo_cancellation: _,
+            avatar: _,
+        }
+        | CoreCommand::Leave
+        | CoreCommand::Shutdown
+        | CoreCommand::ToggleMute
+        | CoreCommand::SetAvatar(_)
+        | CoreCommand::ToggleDeafen
+        | CoreCommand::SetPttMode(_)
+        | CoreCommand::SetPttActive(_)
+        | CoreCommand::SetPeerMuted(_, _)
+        | CoreCommand::SetMicMonitor {
+            enabled: _,
+            input_device: _,
+        }
+        | CoreCommand::SetNetworkMode(_)
+        | CoreCommand::SetRecording(_)
+        | CoreCommand::SetRecordingMode(_)
+        | CoreCommand::SendChat(_)
+        | CoreCommand::SendChatFile {
+            text: _,
+            attachment: _,
+            data: _,
+        }
+        | CoreCommand::FetchAttachment {
+            from: _,
+            attachment: _,
+        }
+        | CoreCommand::SetPixelpassPath(_)
+        | CoreCommand::ListAudioApps
+        | CoreCommand::StartScreenShare { audio_app: _ }
+        | CoreCommand::StopScreenShare
+        | CoreCommand::ViewShare(_)
+        | CoreCommand::RegenerateIdentity
+        | CoreCommand::AddFriend {
+            id: _,
+            name: _,
+            addr: _,
+        }
+        | CoreCommand::RemoveFriend(_)
+        | CoreCommand::RenameFriend(_, _)
+        | CoreCommand::SetPresenceMode(_)
+        | CoreCommand::SetGamePresenceEnabled(_)
+        | CoreCommand::SetGameOverride(_)
+        | CoreCommand::SetGameProcessMap(_) => DeliveryClass::Reliable,
+    }
+}
+
 #[derive(Debug, Clone)]
 pub enum UiEvent {
     RoomJoined { ticket: String, self_id: String },
@@ -199,3 +273,60 @@ pub enum UiEvent {
     ShutdownComplete,
     Error(String),
 }
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod tests {
+    use super::{delivery_class, CoreCommand, DeliveryClass};
+    use crate::audio::eq::EqSettings;
+    use crate::presence::PresenceMode;
+    use iroh::{EndpointId, SecretKey};
+
+    fn endpoint_id() -> EndpointId {
+        SecretKey::generate().public()
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn continuous_audio_controls_are_best_effort() {
+        let peer = endpoint_id();
+        let commands = [
+            CoreCommand::SetPeerVolume(peer, 0.7),
+            CoreCommand::SetPeerPan(peer, -0.2),
+            CoreCommand::SetPeerGate(peer, 0.1),
+            CoreCommand::SetPeerEq(peer, EqSettings::default()),
+            CoreCommand::SetInputVolume(0.8),
+            CoreCommand::SetOutputVolume(0.9),
+            CoreCommand::SetNoiseGateThreshold(0.02),
+        ];
+
+        for cmd in commands {
+            assert_eq!(delivery_class(&cmd), DeliveryClass::BestEffort);
+        }
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn discrete_user_actions_are_reliable() {
+        let peer = endpoint_id();
+        let commands = [
+            CoreCommand::ToggleMute,
+            CoreCommand::SetPttActive(false),
+            CoreCommand::Leave,
+            CoreCommand::RegenerateIdentity,
+            CoreCommand::Join {
+                name: "Peer".to_string(),
+                ticket: "create".to_string(),
+                room_name: "Room".to_string(),
+                input_device: None,
+                output_device: None,
+                echo_cancellation: true,
+                avatar: crate::avatar::Avatar::default(),
+            },
+            CoreCommand::SetPeerMuted(peer, true),
+            CoreCommand::SetPresenceMode(PresenceMode::Normal),
+            CoreCommand::SendChat("hello".to_string()),
+        ];
+
+        for cmd in commands {
+            assert_eq!(delivery_class(&cmd), DeliveryClass::Reliable);
+        }
+    }
+}

src/core/mod.rs

@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ use crate::network::{
     iroh_impl::{IrohTransport, AudioRouter, FileRouter},
     gossip::IrohGossipState,
 };
-use crate::core::messages::{CoreCommand, UiEvent};
+use crate::core::messages::{CoreCommand, DeliveryClass, UiEvent, delivery_class};
 use crate::core::recovery::RecoveryCoordinator;
 
 use crate::config::{NetworkMode, RecordingMode};
@@ -26,38 +26,44 @@ use std::sync::atomic::{AtomicBool, AtomicUsize, Ordering};
 use std::time::Duration;
 
 pub struct CoreController {
-    cmd_tx: mpsc::Sender<CoreCommand>,
+    reliable_tx: mpsc::UnboundedSender<CoreCommand>,
+    besteffort_tx: mpsc::Sender<CoreCommand>,
 }
 
 impl CoreController {
     pub fn new(ui_tx: mpsc::Sender<UiEvent>) -> Self {
-        let (cmd_tx, cmd_rx) = mpsc::channel(100);
+        let (reliable_tx, reliable_rx) = mpsc::unbounded_channel();
+        let (besteffort_tx, besteffort_rx) = mpsc::channel(100);
 
         std::thread::spawn(move || {
             let rt = tokio::runtime::Runtime::new().expect("Failed to create Tokio runtime");
             rt.block_on(async move {
                 crate::log_msg("Starting core network loop in dedicated Tokio runtime");
-                if let Err(e) = run_core_loop(cmd_rx, ui_tx).await {
+                if let Err(e) = run_core_loop(reliable_rx, besteffort_rx, ui_tx).await {
                     crate::log_msg(&format!("App core loop failed: {:?}", e));
                 }
             });
         });
 
-        Self { cmd_tx }
+        Self { reliable_tx, besteffort_tx }
     }
 
-    /// Queue a command for the core loop, best-effort. Returns `true` if it was
+    /// Queue a command for the core loop. Reliable commands only fail when the
-    /// accepted, `false` if the channel is full or closed. (We return a plain
+    /// core loop is dead; best-effort slider commands keep today's bounded
-    /// bool rather than the channel's `Result` so the bulky `CoreCommand` isn't
+    /// try-send behavior. (We return a plain bool rather than the channel's
-    /// carried back by value in every caller's error type.)
+    /// `Result` so the bulky `CoreCommand` isn't carried back by value in every
+    /// caller's error type.)
     pub fn send(&self, cmd: CoreCommand) -> bool {
-        self.cmd_tx.try_send(cmd).is_ok()
+        match delivery_class(&cmd) {
+            DeliveryClass::Reliable => self.reliable_tx.send(cmd).is_ok(),
+            DeliveryClass::BestEffort => self.besteffort_tx.try_send(cmd).is_ok(),
+        }
     }
 
     /// Clone the command sender for asynchronous one-shot sends that should wait
     /// for channel capacity instead of failing immediately on a full queue.
     pub fn command_sender(&self) -> mpsc::Sender<CoreCommand> {
-        self.cmd_tx.clone()
+        self.besteffort_tx.clone()
     }
 }
 
@@ -952,7 +958,8 @@ async fn probe_friends_once(
 }
 
 async fn run_core_loop(
-    mut cmd_rx: mpsc::Receiver<CoreCommand>,
+    mut reliable_rx: mpsc::UnboundedReceiver<CoreCommand>,
+    mut besteffort_rx: mpsc::Receiver<CoreCommand>,
     ui_tx: mpsc::Sender<UiEvent>,
 ) -> Result<(), anyhow::Error> {
     let memory_lookup = iroh::address_lookup::memory::MemoryLookup::new();
@@ -1155,7 +1162,12 @@ async fn run_core_loop(
     ping_interval.set_missed_tick_behavior(tokio::time::MissedTickBehavior::Skip);
     loop {
         let cmd = tokio::select! {
-            maybe_cmd = cmd_rx.recv() => match maybe_cmd {
+            biased;
+            maybe_cmd = reliable_rx.recv() => match maybe_cmd {
+                Some(cmd) => cmd,
+                None => break,
+            },
+            maybe_cmd = besteffort_rx.recv() => match maybe_cmd {
                 Some(cmd) => cmd,
                 None => break,
             },