# BRIEFING — 2026-10-01T01:06:00Z

## Mission
Milestone M3: Deliver enterprise-grade 1,000,000 CCU Stress Benchmark and Performance Hardening Suite for FreeExile Chat Microservice.

## 🔒 My Identity
- Archetype: worker
- Roles: implementer, qa
- Working directory: c:\Projects\FreeExile\.agents\teamwork\worker_chat_m3_1
- Original parent: 7020ed22-d577-4b8a-8fb7-a0bd4b2658d7
- Milestone: M3 (1,000,000 CCU Stress Benchmark & Performance Hardening)

## 🔒 Key Constraints
- File Ownership: EXCLUSIVELY own `tools/stress/chat_load_benchmark.py` and `tests/unit/test_chat_load_benchmark.py`.
- Do NOT touch any files in `server/chat/` or `client/`.
- Strict typing 100%, Python functions <= 50 lines, code file <= 350 lines (hard cap 500).
- Genuine implementation — no hardcoded metrics or fake loops.
- Latency SLA: p99 < 15.0ms under 1M CCU simulation, HMAC query SLA < 2.0ms.
- Memory leak regression: residual growth <= 0.05MB across rounds.

## Current Parent
- Conversation ID: 7020ed22-d577-4b8a-8fb7-a0bd4b2658d7
- Updated: 2026-10-01T01:06:00Z

## Task Summary
- **What to build**:
  1. Upgrade `tools/stress/chat_load_benchmark.py`:
     - Concurrent publisher workers (`asyncio.gather`).
     - Full 8-channel distribution (World, Zone, Guild, Party, Whisper, System, Recruit, Feedback).
     - Cryptographic HMAC item snapshot query stress (< 2.0ms SLA).
     - Multi-round memory leak regression testing (`tracemalloc`, residual growth <= 0.05MB).
     - CLI flags: `--simulated-ccu`, `--active-sample-subscribers`, `--message-count`, `--concurrency`, `--shards`, `--rounds`.
  2. Create comprehensive unit tests in `tests/unit/test_chat_load_benchmark.py`.
  3. Validate execution and SLAs (`p99 < 15.0ms`, `query < 2.0ms`, zero packet loss, `residual <= 0.05MB`).
  4. Ensure line and function length limits conform to FreeExile 2026 standards.
- **Success criteria**:
  - `python tools/stress/chat_load_benchmark.py --active-sample-subscribers 1000 --message-count 200 --concurrency 10` exits 0.
  - `python -m unittest tests/unit/test_chat_load_benchmark.py` passes 100%.
  - Handoff report submitted to `c:\Projects\FreeExile\.agents\teamwork\worker_chat_m3_1\handoff.md`.

## Key Decisions Made
- Architecture: Decouple concurrent message generation and dispatch into async workers.
- Channels: Rotate through all 8 channels with appropriate IDs and credentials to respect channel manager rules.
- HMAC queries: Generate realistic authentic items and benchmark `chat_service.query_item_snapshot` concurrently.
- Memory regression: Run configurable rounds (default 3), tracking delta from round to round after initial warm-up.

## Artifact Index
- `tools/stress/chat_load_benchmark.py` — Benchmark execution suite
- `tests/unit/test_chat_load_benchmark.py` — Unit test suite for benchmark logic
- `handoff.md` — 5-component handoff report

## Change Tracker
- **Files modified**: None yet
- **Build status**: Baseline unit tests passing
- **Pending issues**: None

## Quality Status
- **Build/test result**: PASS (18 tests in test_chat_service & test_chat_and_moderation)
- **Lint status**: Ready for strict lint check on owned files
- **Tests added/modified**: Pending tests/unit/test_chat_load_benchmark.py