From 0a236f447b3e13750c64d730027e5418a56552cb Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Andrew Blakeslee Moore <andrew@blakeslee.me>
Date: Mon, 6 Jul 2026 19:44:00 -0700
Subject: [PATCH] Live Activity Launch Consistency

Nucleic-Session: 9D2EE9AB-2E44-485B-A196-54D250F9D89B
Co-authored-by: Nucleic <nucleic@blakeslee.xyz>
---
 .../NucleicRemote/LiveActivityManager.swift   | 51 +++++++++++--------
 1 file changed, 30 insertions(+), 21 deletions(-)

diff --git a/NucleicRemote/NucleicRemote/LiveActivityManager.swift b/NucleicRemote/NucleicRemote/LiveActivityManager.swift
index 73dddd9..61486bb 100644
--- a/NucleicRemote/NucleicRemote/LiveActivityManager.swift
+++ b/NucleicRemote/NucleicRemote/LiveActivityManager.swift
@@ -148,22 +148,15 @@ final class LiveActivityManager {
     /// totals on every transcript edit but no status) doesn't spend ActivityKit's update budget. The
     /// fresh churn still rides along on the next status-driven push.
     private func push(_ state: NucleicSessionAttributes.ContentState, hostName: String) {
-        // Apply immediately when the attention signature shifts (start/finish/approval/input — the
-        // alert-worthy changes). Otherwise the only difference is mid-turn churn (diff totals); let
-        // that refresh on a slow cadence so it stays roughly current without spending ActivityKit's
-        // budget on every delta. Elapsed-time gate, not a sleeping timer — a status change is never
-        // held behind it.
-        let signatureChanged = state.attentionSignature != lastState?.attentionSignature
-        let churnRefreshDue = lastPushAt.map {
-            Date().timeIntervalSince($0) >= Self.churnRefreshInterval
-        } ?? true
-        guard signatureChanged || (state != lastState && churnRefreshDue) else { return }
-        lastState = state
-        lastPushAt = Date()
-
         guard let activity else {
-            // Recover an Activity that survived an app relaunch before starting a new one; the
-            // recovered one still needs the fresh state, so fall through to the update pipeline.
+            // No Activity yet — recover one that survived an app relaunch, or start a fresh one. The
+            // dedup gate below only guards *updates* to a live Activity; creation must never sit
+            // behind it. ActivityKit refuses a start unless the app has a foreground/background-
+            // assertion window, and committing the dedup state *before* the request meant a refused
+            // start left `lastState` matching the aggregate — so the next `sync` deduped the glance
+            // away and it never activated until the session's state changed. Record the pushed state
+            // only once an Activity actually exists; a refused start leaves `lastState` untouched so
+            // the next sync simply retries creation.
             if let existing = Activity<NucleicSessionAttributes>.activities.first {
                 activity = existing
                 observePushToken(existing)
@@ -173,19 +166,35 @@ final class LiveActivityManager {
                 // expanding reveals the fresh one, and `end()` on completion would leave it lingering
                 // on the last "needs attention" glance. Keep exactly one.
                 endStrays(keeping: existing.id)
+                lastState = state
+                lastPushAt = Date()
                 enqueue(state)
-            } else {
+            } else if let started = try? Activity.request(
                 // `pushType: .token` opts the activity into APNs updates — the Macs push new
                 // content-state to the token so the glance stays fresh while the phone is locked.
-                let started = try? Activity.request(
-                    attributes: NucleicSessionAttributes(hostName: hostName),
-                    content: ActivityContent(state: state, staleDate: nil),
-                    pushType: .token)
+                attributes: NucleicSessionAttributes(hostName: hostName),
+                content: ActivityContent(state: state, staleDate: nil),
+                pushType: .token) {
                 activity = started
-                if let started { observePushToken(started) }
+                observePushToken(started)
+                lastState = state
+                lastPushAt = Date()
             }
             return
         }
+
+        // A live Activity exists — spend ActivityKit's update budget only when the glance actually
+        // moved: immediately when the attention signature shifts (start/finish/approval/input — the
+        // alert-worthy changes), otherwise on a slow cadence for mid-turn churn (diff totals ticking
+        // on every transcript delta). Elapsed-time gate, not a sleeping timer — a status change is
+        // never held behind it.
+        let signatureChanged = state.attentionSignature != lastState?.attentionSignature
+        let churnRefreshDue = lastPushAt.map {
+            Date().timeIntervalSince($0) >= Self.churnRefreshInterval
+        } ?? true
+        guard signatureChanged || (state != lastState && churnRefreshDue) else { return }
+        lastState = state
+        lastPushAt = Date()
         enqueue(state)
     }